A couple weeks ago, Dr. Mosbrucker, Dr. Newville, and I attended the AAGL conference in Vancouver, themed “Precision, Progress, and the Power of AI: Shaping the Future of Women’s Health.” One of the biggest takeaways was how close many AI-driven tools are to becoming part of everyday GYN practice. While robots won’t be doing surgery on their own anytime soon, what we are steadily moving toward is a future where artificial intelligence supports and enhances a surgeon’s skill, safety, and decision-making—and that shift is coming sooner than many people realize.

In the operating room, AI tools are being developed to function much like the advanced safety features in modern cars. Instead of automatic braking for a deer on the road, surgeons may soon receive alerts when their instruments approach important structures like the ureter or major blood vessels. Imaging overlays are advancing quickly as well. In the near future, surgeons could view live pelvic anatomy with digital layers showing a patient’s fibroids or potentially even deeply infiltrating endometriosis, based on preoperative imaging. These tools won’t replace experienced hands, but they may improve precision—especially during complex surgeries where anatomy can be distorted.

Some of the most promising uses of AI may happen long before anyone reaches the operating room. Many patients spend years searching for answers before receiving a correct diagnosis of endometriosis. AI integrated into electronic health records could help change that. If a primary care provider enters a familiar pattern of symptoms—pelvic pain, painful periods, bowel or bladder changes, pain with intimacy—the system could gently flag endometriosis as a possibility and prompt a referral to a specialist. For many patients, this could help shorten the long, frustrating path to diagnosis.

AI is already beginning to make day-to-day clinical work more efficient. Tools like voice-recognition dictation, automated chart summarization, and AI medical scribes can help reduce the hours clinicians spend typing notes after a full day in the clinic. Lightening this administrative load allows providers to spend more time on the part of the job that matters most—talking with and caring for patients. And in the spirit of embracing these efficiencies… yes, even this blog received a little help from ChatGPT for smoothing out flow and grammar. The future really is everywhere. 😊

New technology can sometimes feel overwhelming, but the message from this year’s conference was uplifting: the goal of AI in women’s health is not to replace clinicians—it’s to support them in caring for patients with greater safety and accuracy. At Pacific Endometriosis and Pelvic Surgery, we’re committed to staying at the forefront of these innovations, and we will thoughtfully and judiciously select the technologies that genuinely improve patient care. Every step forward in precision and progress is meaningful, but our guiding priority will always remain the same: achieving the best possible outcomes for the patients we serve.