Insights
Data & AIOctober 3, 2024 · 8 min read
AI in public health: beyond the chatbot
What an AI agent really changes when it tackles vaccination coverage — field notes from Sivax.
When we talk about AI in public health, we think chatbot. That's a trap. The value of an AI agent lies not in conversation, but in what it enables you to decide and accomplish.
From conversation to action
Sivax, our public health platform, embeds an AI agent capable of text and voice dialogue. But that's not the point. The agent can trigger autonomous actions: generate a vaccination coverage report, flag an underperforming district, propose a resource reallocation.
A useful AI agent doesn't say 'here is the information'. It says 'here is what I propose to do, do you approve?'
Data before the model
No model rescues absent data. Our first work on Sivax was to stabilize the DHIS2 integration, clean the pipelines and guarantee data freshness. AI comes after, not before.