AI nayser turned cautious optimist.
Ajit Singh, healthcare industry veteran, has a keen eye for bold health-tech ideas and backs them with big capital as Partner, Artiman Ventures. Thirty years ago, Singh didn’t buy into the AI dream. Even though his own PhD from Columbia University was in artificial intelligence. But in the last five years, that changed.
What flipped Singh on AI? The sheer data available in the public domain. “Can AI beat the healthcare expert? No,” he explains. “But can it gather all the knowledge available and bring it to the non-expert or the community expert? Absolutely.”
Singh has spent 25 years in healthcare. Electrical engineer from Banaras Hindu University, he completed his masters in computer engineering in the US. Then 20 years at Siemens Healthcare, where he was last CEO of Digital Radiology and Medical Informatics. “Radiation therapy is like my firstborn.” He calls his time at Siemens his renaissance period.
Singh’s graph after Siemens is just as formidable. President and CEO of BioImagene, a cancer-focussed digital pathology company. Consulting professor at Stanford University’s School of Medicine. Director on the board of Max Healthcare, India.
A venture capitalist, Singh’s track record is one of identifying exciting emergent ideas to transform the healthcare landscape. But healthcare is not an easy space to disrupt. Funding new ideas takes time, products have long gestation periods, and the market is highly regulated. Your money can go long, but your patience needs to go longer.
But while permanent change may occur at snail’s pace, early adoption of new tech has accelerated rapidly. The global health tech market, less than $400 billion in 2022, is expected to hit almost a trillion by 2027. Singh’s optimism stems from newer geographies of growth – India, Brazil, China.
And, of course, the potential for data-robust AI to be used for solvable problems. Think smoother diagnosis. Better clinical outcomes. New-age medical devices, diagnostic tools, and wearable technologies. Humane cancer care – upright therapy, for accurate targeted radiation. Blood tests for cardiovascular diseases and cancer occurrence – simple, one-time, effective.
In the end, innovation is a game of “connect the dots”, he believes. An untapped market, a brilliant entrepreneur, a pathbreaking idea. “I believe that if we connect architects and algorithms, both shall be exalted. Such is the power of trans-disciplinary innovation.”
At SYNAPSE, Ajit Singh will talk about how and why healthcare is the next white space opportunity, fertile ground for disruptive products and markets. And where to draw the line between overhype and actual hype around AI.
