Abstract

Anesthesia and critical care have historically evolved alongside technology, and artificial intelligence (AI) now represents the next major step in this trajectory. By enabling prediction of perioperative and ICU complications, supporting closedloop anesthetic delivery, and synthesizing complex physiological data, AI offers powerful tools for enhancing safety, precision, and efficiency. At the same time, challenges related to local data quality, infrastructural constraints, algorithmic bias, and medico-legal accountability are particularly salient in the Indian context. This editorial outlines key current and emerging applications of AI in anesthesia and critical care, highlights ethical and implementation concerns, and emphasises the need for “clinician-in-the-loop” models, data literacy, and interdisciplinary collaboration to ensure that AI augments rather than replaces the anesthesiologist and intensivist.

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Funding