The organisations said the model is being initially deployed within Mayo Clinic’s clinical environment, where it can be tested and refined through real-world use.
Microsoft and the nonprofit American academic medical centre Mayo Clinic are developing a new artificial intelligence (AI) model designed specifically for healthcare, in a move aimed at supporting patients, clinicians and consumers, according to an announcement.
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The organisations said the model will combine Mayo Clinic’s medical knowledge, anonymised health data and experience in patient care with Microsoft’s AI, cloud and engineering capabilities.
The model will be used to analyse different types of clinical information and help support tasks such as earlier diagnosis and more personalised treatment planning.
“We have long believed AI can help transform healthcare. Seven years ago, we launched Mayo Clinic Platform to move healthcare from a pipeline to a platform model through a safe, trusted, patient-centric de-identified data foundation designed to accelerate innovation, breakthroughs, and cures,” said Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., the president and CEO of Mayo Clinic.
“Now, by combining our clinical expertise and data foundation with Microsoft’s engineering and AI capabilities, we are once again building something new in healthcare and bringing more of Mayo Clinic to more patients”.
The model will be owned by Mayo Clinic, while Microsoft plans to make the model available through Azure Foundry APIs, software tools that let developers and companies connect the model directly to their own apps and services.
The organisations said the model is being initially deployed within Mayo Clinic’s clinical environment, where it can be tested and refined through real-world use.
They did not give details on how widely it is currently being used, which clinical areas are involved, or when it may become available to other healthcare providers.
‘High-risk’ area
Healthcare has become a major focus for cutting-edge AI development, but the sector presents particular challenges.
Medical AI systems need to handle complex clinical information, account for patients’ health histories and meet the highest standards for safety, privacy and validation.
Microsoft says “frontier medical intelligence” is around the corner.
“This is the best collaboration imaginable to help us accelerate towards that future,” said Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI.
“Mayo has unparalleled clinical expertise, de-identified clinical health data and longitudinal medical insights, and we're thrilled to partner with their world-class physicians to build a state-of-the-art foundation model for healthcare,” he added.
The organisations did not give a detailed timetable for when the model will be available outside Mayo Clinic.
Healthcare is seen as one of the most promising areas for AI because the technology can help analyse large amounts of medical information in short amounts of time, support clinicians with diagnostics and complex decisions and reduce time spent on administrative work.
According to a survey of 2,000 patients in the United Kingdom, conducted by healthcare startup Semble, one in four (24%) were turning to AI and social media such as ChatGPT and Instagram for health guidance in 2025.
In Denmark, visits to the public health website Patienthåndbogen fell by 31% between January and November 2025 after Google's AI Overview launch, according to the country’s news agency Ritzau.
However, the use of AI in medicine also raises concerns around accuracy, bias, privacy and accountability.
Under the EU AI Act, AI-based software intended for medical purposes is treated as high-risk, meaning it must meet safeguards such as risk-mitigation systems, high-quality datasets, clear information for users and human oversight, according to the European Commission.
