The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Simulation: Opportunities and Challenges for Health Professions Education

Abstract

Simulation has become a cornerstone of health professions education, offering safe, repeatable practice that improves knowledge, skills, and, to a degree, patient outcomes. Artificial intelligence (AI), and in particular large language models and generative systems, now promises to extend simulation beyond fixed scenarios and manikins toward adaptive, conversational, and individually tailored learning experiences. This brief review summarizes the emerging role of AI in healthcare simulation, including AI-driven virtual and standardized patients, automated feedback and performance assessment, and rapid scenario generation. Evidence indicates that technology-enhanced and virtual patient simulation improve learning outcomes, and early studies of generative AI demonstrate strong performance on clinical reasoning tasks. At the same time, concerns regarding factual accuracy, bias, data privacy, the validity of automated assessment, and the potential erosion of human interaction temper enthusiasm. Realizing the promise of AI in simulation will require rigorous evaluation, transparent and equitable design, and faculty development, so that these tools augment rather than replace the relational core of clinical education.