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The Gates Foundation and OpenAI have announced a $50 million pilot initiative aimed at advancing the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare delivery across Africa. The initiative, known as Horizon 1000, will provide funding, technology, and technical support to deploy AI-enabled solutions in 1,000 primary healthcare clinics by 2028.

The announcement was made on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, where leaders highlighted the potential of AI to improve healthcare quality and efficiency in resource-constrained settings.

“AI is going to be a scientific marvel no matter what,” said Sam Altman, Chief Executive Officer of OpenAI. “But for it to be a societal marvel, we’ve got to figure out ways that we use this incredible technology to improve people’s lives.”

Focus on efficiency and frontline care

Speaking at a WEF session, Bill Gates said the goal of the pilot is to significantly raise the quality of healthcare while reducing inefficiencies caused by administrative burdens.

“The goal is to make healthcare much higher quality, and if possible, twice as efficient as it is today, taking away the paperwork, organizing resources, and ensuring patients know what is available and when to come for appointments,” Gates said.

Rwanda as the starting point

The pilot will begin in Rwanda, before expanding to Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria, according to Gates. Rwanda has emerged as a regional leader in digital health and has been exploring AI applications to support diagnosis, disease modelling, and health system planning.

Rwanda has already deployed a combination of drones and AI to combat malaria, using drones to identify and spray mosquito breeding sites while AI tools assist with disease prediction and modelling. The country has also set an ambitious target to quadruple its health workforce in four years, a goal it has nearly achieved.

However, as Paula Ingabire, Rwanda’s Minister of Information, Communication and Technology and Innovation, noted, digital tools will be critical to sustaining this progress.

“They’re going to need these tools to support better care delivery,” Ingabire said. “Some of the administrative tasks can be handled by AI so health workers can focus on delivering better and more targeted care.”

Data, forecasting, and decision support

Rwanda is also looking to use AI to strengthen demand forecasting for health commodities, reducing the risk of medicine stockouts. Ingabire said the country’s long term investment in digital systems spanning more than 15 years, has generated large volumes of data that are not yet fully utilized.

“Building national data intelligence platforms is critical,” she said. “These models must be trained on our own data, be context specific, and address real problems.”

The government is in discussions with Anthropic, the developer of the large language model Claude, to explore the creation of an instant health intelligence platform that could feed directly into national health planning systems.

A key objective is to develop AI-powered decision-support tools for Rwanda’s more than 60,000 community health workers, who deliver primary care across the country. With malaria accounting for roughly 70% of cases handled by community health workers annually, AI tools could help improve diagnosis and anticipate outbreaks.

Broader momentum and persistent constraints

The use of AI in health is already gaining traction in parts of Africa. Peter Sands, Chief Executive Officer of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said the Fund has invested $170 million over the past four years in AI-based tuberculosis screening.

One major application has been in refugee settings, including camps hosting Sudanese refugees in Chad, where mobile clinics rely on AI-assisted imaging due to the absence of radiologists.

“In those circumstances, if you want screening to be interpreted, there is no alternative but AI,” Sands said.

However, he cautioned that basic infrastructure challenges such as unreliable electricity and limited internet connectivity in many primary healthcare facilities must be addressed for AI solutions to scale effectively. He also warned against technology driven approaches that are not grounded in real system needs.

“AI should be framed around problems needing solutions, not a collection of tools looking for a problem to fix,” Sands said.

Faster adoption in low- and middle-income countries?

Both Gates and Sands suggested that low and middle income countries may adopt AI in healthcare faster than high income nations, where regulation and concerns about job displacement can slow uptake.

“The need is so great, and governments are embracing this,” Gates said. “This $50 million commitment is just the beginning. People in Africa should have access to a basic AI ‘health advisor’ without having to pay for it.”

If successful, Horizon 1000 could mark a significant step toward embedding AI as a routine component of primary healthcare delivery across parts of the continent provided foundational infrastructure and workforce readiness keep pace.

Source: World Economic Forum (Davos) sessions and media statements; remarks by the Gates Foundation, OpenAI, and participating health leaders.

Inside Health Desk | East Africa 21. January 2026/ Urge- DevWire

Gates Foundation and Open AI Launch $50m AI Health Pilot in Africa, Starting with Rwanda

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