Using AI in healthcare education: a rapid review and commentary

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming healthcare and rehabilitation education, offering new pathways for personalized learning, adaptive assessment, and simulation-based training. This paper provides a rapid review and commentary on current research exploring AI’s integration into healthcare curricula, highlighting its potential to enhance competency development, critical thinking, and learner engagement. Evidence shows that AI can enrich educational experiences by tailoring instruction to individual needs, facilitating clinical reasoning, and reducing the cognitive and logistical burdens faced by graduate students who balance academics with professional and personal responsibilities. Yet, the increasing reliance on AI also introduces ethical, cultural, and pedagogical challenges, including algorithmic bias, data privacy concerns, inequitable access to technology, and the risk of diminishing independent judgment. Within rehabilitation education, additional issues arise related to patient confidentiality, assessment authenticity, and the unauthorized use of educators’ intellectual property. The findings emphasize that successful integration of AI in healthcare education depends on proactive strategies that uphold ethical practice, equity, and reflective learning. By embedding AI literacy, cultural humility, and clear ethical guardrails into curricula, educators can ensure that technology complements—rather than compromises—the humanistic and critical dimensions of healthcare practice.