I spent last week in Amsterdam, attending HLTH Europe 2026, arguably Europe’s flagship healthcare innovation event, hosting more than 5,000 attendees. It is my second HLTH experience, and two additions to this year’s program stood out: last year’s Pharma & Life Sciences Spotlight grew into a full two-day Global Pharma Summit aimed at C-suite from 30-plus pharma and biotech organizations across 20-plus countries, and the floor gained a dedicated AI @ HLTH zone with its own stage dedicated completely to the progress of artificial intelligence in healthcare and clinical research.
The organizers framed the agenda around whether healthcare AI has broken the Gartner hype cycle, skipping the trough of disillusionment and landing straight into clinical workflows, patient portals, and everyday tools, or not…? The reality is, as always, nuanced and ambiguous, but whatever it is, I have gathered several observations from various interviews and discussions, the HLTH Europe show floor, and the announcements timed to the event, that might be shaping this area in the second half of 2026 and beyond.