MedServe CEO cautions against replacing doctors with Google or AI apps.

Dr. Tolulope Adewole, CEO of MedServe, cautioned Nigerians against depending on artificial‑intelligence tools for medical diagnosis, emphasizing that although AI is reshaping healthcare, it must not supplant face‑to‑face consultations with qualified doctors.

During his address at the Africa Technology Expo in Lagos on Friday, Adewole urged patients to view AI as a supportive tool while still seeking care from physicians, especially those skilled in leveraging emerging technologies.

When discussing the appropriate boundaries for AI, Adewole maintained that the technology should serve as an enabler for healthcare workers instead of a threat to their employment.

He compared worries about AI supplanting doctors to the apprehensions that surfaced when computers entered office environments decades earlier.

“If you threaten a man’s job, if you tell him this will make your life easier, when computers came, secretaries job were threatened, but they didn’t take secretary jobs eventually. The doctors that is threatened is one not willing to move with the times. Doctors need to see it as an enabler.”

He added that doctors who adopt AI will work more efficiently, reduce paperwork, and ultimately see more patients.

“The doctor who is afraid is the one who will miss out. The one who is bold, and ready to move on with AI, and does not have to go through lots of papers, save time, which do you think will be able to attend to more patients?” he said.

He stressed that human doctors are still indispensable, noting that AI platforms explicitly state they are not accountable for medical outcomes.

“Go to the doctor who is adept at the tools. Go see your doctor and diagnose. If you go to these AI apps, there is caveat where they say they are not responsible for what happens to you. So we still need a physical doctor.”

Outside of AI, Adewole cited inadequate infrastructure as the primary barrier to healthcare delivery in Africa, labeling unreliable electricity the sector’s most significant challenge.

“The biggest challenge in Africa healthcare sector is power,” he said.

He explained that a functional healthcare system requires three pillars—infrastructure, technology, and