A Giant Leap
How AI Is Transforming Healthcare and What That Means for Our Future
From the author of the seminal New York Times bestseller The Digital Doctor comes a bold, insightful exploration of how AI is transforming healthcare—our largest industry and one that touches all our lives.
Over the past few decades, healthcare has largely sidestepped the forces of digital disruption that have remade virtually every other industry. Until now. In A Giant Leap, renowned physician and thought leader Robert Wachter reveals how AI is reshaping medicine in ways both profound and unexpected. Blending clinical wisdom with journalistic rigor, Wachter describes the ascent of a revolutionary technology that can now match—even surpass—physicians in areas ranging from diagnosis to empathy. Yet even as AI enters our hospitals and clinics and begins to scribe notes, prescribe treatments, read X-rays, and assist in performing surgery, flaws like hallucinations, biases, and misinformation are troubling. Wachter argues that, given our healthcare system’s struggles with quality, access, burnout, and costs, AI doesn’t have to be perfect to be transformative—it just has to be better. Our continuous push for progress cannot focus on the technology alone, but also on the deep cultural, financial, political, and ethical questions that lie at the heart of medicine itself.
Drawing on original research and candid conversations with more than 100 experts at the cutting edge—from AI pioneers to frontline practitioners—A Giant Leap is a timeless guide to how AI is impacting the lives of clinicians and patients, changing what it means to heal in this age of astonishing technology.
Portfolio (February 3, 2026)
Reviews:
A Giant Leap is authoritative, well-researched, timely, and reads beautifully! It left me with a better understanding of the potential and pitfalls of AI as it transforms medical practice.
— Abraham Verghese, bestselling author of The Covenant of Water
Wachter has a rare combination of deep curiosity, sharp analysis, and a clear-eyed understanding of the humanity that must always be at the heart of healing. This is powerful, essential reading.
— Vivek Murthy, MD, MBA, 19th and 21st Surgeon General of the United States
A Giant Leap tackles the central question in healthcare today: Will AI be another digital disappointment or a genuine transformation? By offering an engaging, hype-free case for informed optimism, Wachter’s book provides the essential guide.
— Eric Topol, MD, author of four bestselling healthcare books, including, most recently, Super Agers
What Carl Sagan was for the wonders of astronomy—a guide—Wachter is for many of the mysteries in the modern healthcare system. If, like me, you have been waiting for a lucid explanation of one of those mysteries… your wait is over.
— Donald M. Berwick, MD, President Emeritus and Senior Fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement
Wachter avoids both Silicon Valley hype and medical pessimism to give a clear-eyed view of where AI is likely to succeed and fail in medical care. Essential reading for anyone seeking to understand where medicine is heading.
— Ethan Mollick, bestselling author of Co-Intelligence and professor of marketing at The University of Pennsylvania
Tech is the easy part. People, incentives, and workflows are where dreams go to die—or flourish. A Giant Leap masterfully captures these dynamics, delivering this era's definitive guide to healthcare AI.
— Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems and founder of Khosla Ventures
Written by a brilliant storyteller who really does his homework, a practicing physician who cares deeply about medicine, and one of the most astute observers of trends in healthcare. I learned a lot, laughed a lot, and somewhat unexpectedly came away with a great deal of hope for our profession and the future of medicine. A must-read.
— Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, PhD, MD, MAS, Editor-in-Chief, JAMA
