‘Real time, real change’: the role of artificial intelligence in providing real‐time language translation services in regional medicine

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly evolving worldwide, enabling greater flexibility and applicability to the field of language translation within healthcare. Australia is currently one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse countries in the world, creating a growing pressure on translators to ensure there is equitable and culturally safe access to healthcare services. Emerging research supports the use of AI as an adjunct to the current translator framework in being able to support low-risk communication tasks, such as appointment coordination or simple instructions, but it should be avoided in high-stakes contexts including informed consent or complex management discussions. Importantly, human oversight is needed to ensure clinical accuracy and patient safety during all translations.