While the vision of autonomous robots handling everything from hospital logistics to aspects of patient treatment and care may seem speculative, elements of it are already emerging today. Surgical robotics currently relies on teleoperation and co-manipulation, representing low levels of autonomy, while more autonomous systems are increasingly being deployed for in-hospital transport of supplies and drone-based organ delivery. The trajectory is clear, moving from teleoperation toward increasing levels of autonomy including shared control, task autonomy, and beyond.

Rather than treating autonomy as a binary endpoint, the discussion will focus on graduated levels of autonomy, ranging from supervised and shared autonomy to higher degrees of independent operation, and their implications for clinical practice, safety, and system deployment.

Applying the AI for All strategy's mandate for “Workforce Alliance Networks” to evaluate how Physical AI and robotics transforms frontline care, this session will bring together robotics researchers and engineers, clinicians and hospital innovation leaders, medtech and robotics companies, alongside policymakers, regulators, funders, and ecosystem stakeholders to:

• Examine the evolution from teleoperation and co-manipulation to increasing levels of autonomy
• Explore where humans should remain in the loop and where autonomy can safely take over
• Align perspectives across research, clinical practice, industry, funding, and regulation to identify systemic barriers to scaling adoption of robotic systems in Canadian hospitals and highlight use cases where higher autonomy is already delivering value

• What are the primary barriers preventing robotics deployment at scale in hospitals?
• What changes are needed in procurement, regulation, and funding models to enable adoption under the new federal AI for ALL Healthcare MIssion framework?

• Which healthcare tasks truly require higher levels of autonomy, and which are better suited to human robot collaboration?
• Where can autonomy deliver the greatest clinical and operational impact in the near term?
• What can be learned from domains where autonomy is already deployed, such as transport of tissues, pharmaceuticals, instruments, and drone-based organ delivery, and how can these lessons be extended

• A shared understanding of levels of autonomy and their role in healthcare
• Identification of validated near-term use cases for autonomous systems
• Clarity on human and robot role allocation in clinical environments
• A synthesized set of participant-driven priorities
• Actionable recommendations for scaling robotics in Canadian healthcare
• A registry of partners uniquely qualified to lead and execute robotics-focused healthcare missions under the new AI for ALL strategy.