The 2026 Global Health Care Outlook

The global healthcare sector is undergoing a profound transformation. In our 2025 Global Health Care Outlook, we identified five transformative trends reshaping global healthcare: AI integration, cost management, workforce challenges, social care's expanding role, and climate sustainability. As we look toward 2026, healthcare systems continue to navigate a complex landscape shaped by rising costs, workforce shortages, and geopolitical uncertainty. Nevertheless, Deloitte’s 2026 Global Health Care Outlook survey of 180 C-suite executives from large health systems found that leaders across Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK are generally optimistic about their organisations and the sector, with US leaders more cautious. The Outlook highlights key trends that are reshaping healthcare delivery and offers a roadmap for addressing the challenges ahead.¹ This week’s blog explores the four major themes from this Outlook.

Theme 1 - Investing in the financial health of care systems

After years of navigating economic headwinds, operational disruptions, and rising costs, financial pressure remains a dominant reality for health systems. The 2026 Outlook makes it clear that improving operating revenue and margins is a critical, non-negotiable priority. Over 70 per cent of non-US health system executives expect operating revenue and margins to increase in the coming year, signalling an intense focus on financial performance. Leaders are adopting a holistic approach to margin improvement, viewing it as a multi-lever exercise of investing in core business technologies, expanding the use of digital and AI tools and services, and improving workforce engagement and retention.

Key insights:

• Sixty-four per cent of respondents said AI could reduce costs by standardising and automating workflows; 55 per cent believed it could do so by workforce optimisation using predictive analytics; and 49 per cent identified cost reduction from tech-enabled patient engagement and remote monitoring.
• An increased focus on preventive care was cited as a priority by many non-US executives, with 38 per cent saying that their organisations would focus on preventive care and early detection in the year ahead; this percentage was only seven per cent in the US.
• Leaders are also accelerating the shift of care to lower-cost, higher-efficiency settings by expanding outpatient services, increasing digital and virtual health offerings, and leveraging remote monitoring for at-home care including through the deployment of AI agents.

Theme 2 - Re-architecting the workforce for productivity and resilience

The healthcare workforce challenges discussed in 2025 persist, with the 2026 Outlook showing that workforce is still the number one concern for health system executives. Rather than simply trying to recruit more clinicians into traditional roles, leading organisations are fundamentally redesigning how care is delivered and by whom to make the work more sustainable for the current workforce and to create a more attractive proposition for the next generation of talent.

Key insights:

• More than 90 per cent of global health leaders stated that improving productivity is a priority.
• Flexibility is key to attracting and retaining the healthcare workforce. Leaders can explore alternative, less rigid models that offer a better work-life balance to attract people to the profession and stop the migration to other sectors.
• Leveraging technology can also give time back to clinicians, reducing burnout, with leaders seeing the significant value of using AI to automate administrative tasks, which directly addresses a major source of clinician dissatisfaction: the overwhelming burden of documentation and clerical work. Therefore, proactive health systems are investing in training and upskilling their staff to improve fluency in AI and digital tools.

Theme 3 – Elevating cybersecurity to protect patients and organisations

As health systems become more digital, interconnected, and data-reliant, their vulnerability to cyberattacks is growing exponentially. Cybercriminals are leveraging AI to launch more sophisticated and disruptive attacks, with ransomware incidents causing widespread disruption to patient care and hospital operations. Furthermore, the attack surface for health systems is expanding daily with the proliferation of third-party vendors, connected medical devices, and remote work arrangements. Cyberattacks can lead to cancelled appointments, delayed treatments, and medical errors, directly threatening patient safety. Beyond the immediate operational chaos, such incidents can result in significant financial damage from recovery costs and regulatory fines, and, most critically, can irrevocably erode the trust of patients and the community.

Key insights:

• Cybersecurity and data privacy have ascended from a back-office IT issue to a top-tier strategic concern. Nearly half (48 per cent) of non-US health executives cited it as a top concern for 2026; this proportion was 35 per cent in the US.
• Health leaders expect that 14 per cent of their technology budgets will go toward cyber tools and enhanced cyber processes on par with funds earmarked for GenAI and digital health or consumer engagement platforms.
• Leaders are shifting to a proactive, multi-layered cyber defence , focusing on securing vulnerable areas (especially sensitive patient data), building a cyber-aware workforce to detect social engineering tactics, and elevating cyber to the leadership level with clear executive ownership and sufficient resources.

Theme 4 – AI is increasingly important, but not yet a top priority

Although the transformative potential of GenAI, including agents, is widely recognised among health system leaders, only 22 per cent of non-US respondents said AI was likely to be a major focus at their facilities in 2026, compared with 37 per cent of US executives.

Key insights:

• Fifty-six per cent of executives expect AI will add significant value to operational efficiencies (e.g., predictive patient flow and staffing models); 52 per cent to administrative tasks supporting clinical workflow; 42 per cent to clinician decision support through AI-guided diagnosis and treatment; and 35 per cent to patient experience (e.g., virtual assistance and personalised care journeys).
• Health systems are under increasing pressure to demonstrate a clear return on investment (ROI) for their AI initiatives. Fifty-one per cent of leaders said they either haven’t measured returns or determined that it is too soon to see results; 31 per cent of respondents reported “moderate” financial returns; and three per cent said the ROI has been “significant.”
• To maximise value from AI, organisations need to develop an enterprise-wide AI strategy; avoid the pilot trap by, for example, starting with a phase 1 approach, and developing the infrastructure and technical environments required for scaling from the outset; and train staff and address their concerns around job safety.

Conclusion

The convergence of AI integration, affordability pressures, and workforce transformation requires a fundamental restructuring of how healthcare operates. By prioritising financial health, workforce resilience, and cybersecurity, leaders can address the foundational weaknesses that could otherwise undermine future progress. Strategies being deployed in 2026 aim to close the gap between AI's potential and its current state of adoption; a stable financial footing provides the capital to invest in new technologies at scale; an empowered, digitally fluent, and less-burdened workforce is one that can embrace and champion new ways of working; and a secure digital environment is the only setting in which data-intensive technologies like AI can be safely and effectively deployed. Getting this right can deliver better, more accessible, and more sustainable care for all.