Artificial intelligence has evolved from pilot experimentation to real-world application across health systems worldwide. Over the last five years, AI has taken hold in areas such as clinical documentation, diagnostics, disease surveillance, and clinical decision-making. Yet a common pattern persists across regions: innovation continues to move quickly at the periphery while institutional adoption lags at the center. Many efforts remain siloed, project-based, and dependent on external funding, with little evidence of sustained use or country-led ownership.

PATH and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) jointly convened AI and Public Health: Expert Dialogues on Strategy, Governance, and Ecosystem Transformation under the PhixAI Initiative, a six-month virtual series held from June 2025 to November 2025. The series aimed to strengthen collective action and leadership around the ethical, equitable deployment of AI within health systems. Across a set of 90-minute sessions, participants explored critical structural themes, including building AI for low-connectivity settings, expanding use cases within public health infrastructure, securing sustainable financing, preparing the health workforce, and shaping regulatory and governance frameworks.

Drawing on these conversations, this compendium brings together perspectives from leading experts and organizations advancing durable, system-integrated AI adoption in public health, offering actionable guidance for embedding AI into national health systems in ways that are both sustainable and equitable.