The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published on Friday an artificial intelligence strategy aimed at accelerating disease detection and response and enhancing public health operations.
CDC’s AI Strategy aligns with the Department of Health and Human Services’ plan issued in December to improve healthcare delivery, public health and human services, biomedical research, and agency operations through responsible AI adoption.
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How Will CDC Use AI to Advance Public Health?
Covering fiscal years 2026 through 2030, the strategy identifies four pillars to guide AI deployment to advance public health. The pillars are: accelerating AI adoption to support public health, strengthening governance and public trust, advancing enterprise data platforms, and empowering an AI-ready workforce.
Under its first pillar, CDC plans to integrate AI into public health workflows to enhance prevention, detection and response to infectious diseases and emerging threats. The agency said it will also explore agentic AI systems to support adaptive automation, improve data-sharing and integration, and accelerate access to critical information.
To strengthen governance and public trust, CDC will implement risk-based oversight and ensure compliance with federal privacy and security requirements, including the Federal Information Security Modernization Act and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
To integrate AI into enterprise data platforms, CDC said it will invest in scalable, secure and interoperable infrastructure to accelerate scientific discovery.
CDC also aims to build an AI-ready workforce by expanding training, upskilling and recruitment efforts. The agency will work with partners to promote AI fluency across its workforce and establish best practices for training, governance and use of emerging technologies.
What Is CDC’s Guidance on Agentic AI Research in Public Health?
The AI Strategy follows CDC’s release of a new resource that identifies considerations for using agentic AI tools to support early-stage research and public health decision-making. The agency said agentic research tools can autonomously conduct multi-step research, analyze information from multiple sources and generate citation-based reports.
However, the agency emphasized that human oversight remains essential, noting that AI outputs should be reviewed by subject matter experts to ensure accuracy, scientific integrity and compliance with privacy and security requirements.
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