| 22 September 2026
New recommendations for the future regulation of AI in healthcare highlight workforce capability, AI literacy and training as important components of safe AI adoption. Here’s what healthcare organisations need to know.
Generative AI is already becoming part of working life across healthcare, with staff using tools such as ChatGPT, Copilot and Claude for a growing range of tasks. As adoption accelerates, healthcare organisations face an important question: how can they help their workforce use AI safely, appropriately and with confidence?
New recommendations from the National Commission into the Regulation of AI in Healthcare, published on 10 September 2026, place workforce capability and AI literacy within the wider conversation around safe AI adoption. The recommendations are intended to inform a future regulatory and assurance framework for AI in healthcare; they are not, in themselves, new legislation.
For healthcare organisations, the message is already relevant: safe AI adoption is not just a technology or governance challenge. It is also a workforce capability challenge.
AI in healthcare: why workforce capability matters
The Commission takes a system-wide approach to the safe use of AI in healthcare. Alongside regulation, it identifies organisational readiness, workforce capability, AI literacy and effective governance as important components of safe and effective AI adoption.
This reflects an important reality for organisations introducing or exploring AI.
Policies can set clear boundaries. Approved tools can provide technical safeguards. Governance processes can establish oversight. But staff still need to understand what AI can and cannot do, what risks to consider, and how to apply organisational guidance in real workplace situations.
The Commission highlights the need for healthcare professionals to have clear guidance, training and escalation pathways, as well as an understanding of the appropriate use, limitations and risks of AI-enabled technologies.
What do the new recommendations say about AI training?
Training is addressed directly in the Commission’s recommendations.
Recommendation 32 calls for a coordinated approach to building professional capability in the safe and effective use of AI in healthcare, spanning initial education, postgraduate training and continuing professional development. It also recommends that this should complement training on specific technologies and settings.
Recommendation 33 recommends that healthcare providers ensure professionals and wider staff are appropriately equipped through training, including technology-specific training aligned with the AI technologies used in their practice.
The Commission also says training should be proportionate to an individual’s role and interaction with AI. It notes that baseline AI literacy could be considered as part of mandatory training, alongside additional technology-specific training for those expected to use, interpret or oversee AI-enabled technologies.
The implication is not that every member of the healthcare workforce needs to become an AI specialist. Rather, people need the right level of knowledge, understanding and confidence to use AI appropriately within their role.
From AI literacy to practical GenAI use
For many healthcare organisations, this is particularly relevant to Generative AI.
Unlike some AI technologies introduced through formal procurement and implementation processes, GenAI tools are already widely accessible. Staff may encounter tools such as ChatGPT and Copilot in their everyday working lives, sometimes before an organisation has established clear guidance around how they should be used.
This creates a need for practical GenAI training for healthcare staff that goes beyond simply explaining what AI is.
Staff need to be able to consider questions such as:
- What can this GenAI tool realistically help me with?
- What information is appropriate to enter?
- Could the output be inaccurate, misleading or inappropriate?
- What needs to be checked or verified?
- When should I seek advice from information governance, clinical safety or another appropriate team?
- Where do professional judgement and human oversight remain essential?
These are not simply technical questions. They involve judgement, behaviour, organisational policy and risk awareness – making workforce AI literacy an important part of wider AI readiness and governance.
Supporting safe GenAI adoption in healthcare
This is the thinking behind GenAI in Healthcare: Starting Safely, a 30-minute eLearning course from Skills for Health designed specifically for healthcare environments.
Rather than generic AI awareness training, the course focuses on the practical, responsible use of GenAI in day-to-day healthcare work. It helps healthcare staff move beyond awareness into applied decision-making through realistic scenarios and interactive chatbot simulations, with training focused on tools already being used, such as ChatGPT and Copilot.
The course provides a practical starting point for organisations looking to build a shared foundation of GenAI understanding across their workforce.
Build GenAI literacy
Give staff a shared understanding of how GenAI works, its opportunities and its limitations, including how commonly used tools may be applied in workplace settings.
Reduce risk
Help staff recognise risks around data, inappropriate use and AI-generated outputs, with guidance grounded in NHS policy and regulatory expectations.
Support confident adoption
Give people a simple decision-making framework for making safer decisions when they encounter GenAI in real workplace situations.
Building workforce capability alongside AI adoption
The Commission’s recommendations reinforce an important principle: successful AI adoption is not just about introducing the right technology. It is about creating the conditions for people to use that technology safely, effectively and with confidence.
For healthcare organisations, this means considering workforce capability alongside technology, governance and organisational readiness.
As Generative AI becomes increasingly accessible, building a shared understanding of its opportunities, limitations and risks can help organisations move from informal or uncertain use towards more confident, transparent and responsible adoption.
Start building safe GenAI capability
The new recommendations provide a timely reminder of the role workforce training can play in supporting safe AI adoption in healthcare.
While the future regulatory framework will continue to develop, organisations can already start building the knowledge and confidence their people need to engage with GenAI appropriately.
GenAI in Healthcare: Starting Safely provides a practical starting point for developing workforce GenAI literacy, reducing risk and supporting more confident adoption.
Want to know more about how Skills for Health can support you with AI skills, including workshops and bespoke eLearning courses? Speak to our Business Development team.