Artificial Intelligence in Ethiopian Healthcare: Opportunities, Challenges, and Strategic Pathways.

Artificial Intelligence holds transformative potential for addressing systemic challenges within Ethiopia's healthcare system, including workforce shortages, limited access, and a high disease burden. This narrative review synthesizes current evidence to explore the opportunities, challenges, and strategic pathways for artificial intelligence integration in Ethiopia. It finds significant potential for AI to enhance diagnostics, power telemedicine, optimize public health surveillance, and improve administrative efficiency. However, formidable barriers persist, including critical deficits in digital infrastructure, poor data quality, a lack of artificial intelligence-specific regulations, and limited digital literacy among health workers. The analysis concludes that realizing artificial intelligence's benefits requires a systematic, ethically grounded approach centered on developing a national strategy, investing in foundational digital health systems, building local capacity, and fostering context-specific innovations. Strategic implementation is essential to ensure artificial intelligence augments the health system equitably and sustainably.