Speaker: คุณเรืองโรจน์ (กระทิง) พูนพล (Krating Poonpol)
ประธานกลุ่มบริษัท KBTG และ ประธานกองทุน Disrupt Health Impact Fund
Event: Techsauce Healthspan Festival 2026
Personal Healthcare Journey
- Speaker has 20 years in tech (Google, Silicon Valley background) but neglected personal health
- Lost 22kg after doctors warned of imminent diabetes and serious health risks
- Family has significant health challenges - father had leg amputation, mother has cancer
- 9-year-old nephew entered ICU coma from acute diabetes (Type 1), now requires constant insulin monitoring
- This personal experience drove speaker’s passion for healthcare technology and investment in Disrupt Health Impact Fund
- First startup investment: Diamontech - FDA approval expected May 2026 for non-invasive blood sugar monitoring using high-intensity laser
AI in Enterprise 2026
- Every enterprise is adopting AI with no slowdown in investment
- CIOs and CTOs face intense pressure: CEOs/CFOs demanding results within 6 months or job security at risk
- 2026 is the year of delivery, not experimentation - must show ROI
- Shift from AI Agents (last year) to Agentic AI (this year) - moving toward Level 4 semi-autonomous systems
- Big Tech investing $650 billion in AI (more than Thailand’s entire GDP)
- Major challenge: lack of AI experts to help with implementation
Global AI Race
- US goal: Build AI smarter than humans (AGI)
- China’s approach: More practical - AI Society and Industrial Autonomy
- US leads in investment and models (415 vs 15), but China has advantages: more PhD talent, massive data, strong robotics capability
- China’s research output growing rapidly in quality and quantity
- Winner will be determined by: Talent, Proprietary Data, Risk Management, and Energy efficiency
AI in Healthcare - Current State
- 22% of US healthcare organizations now use domain-specific AI (not just generative AI), expected to reach 40-50% this year
- Most common use case: Scribe tools - AI takes notes during doctor-patient conversations (because AI couldn’t read doctors’ handwriting)
- 2026 will see proliferation of diverse healthcare AI use cases
- Healthcare AI dominated by startups, but Big Tech (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude) now launching healthcare-specific products: ChatGPT for Health, Perplexity Health, Claude for Healthcare
- Critical skill needed: Model evaluation - choosing right AI for specific use cases
- Legacy systems challenge: Many hospitals still run Windows NT, requiring careful integration planning
Healthcare AI Adoption & Impact
- 85% of healthcare executives say AI helps increase revenue
- 80% report significant cost reduction
- 47% of US healthcare organizations deploying Agentic AI
- 82% using open source models for fine-tuning
Healthcare Workforce Crisis
- 50% of medical personnel experiencing burnout
- 82% of nurses want AI to reduce their administrative workload
- Major opportunity: Return doctors to patients, reduce admin burden
- Example: Doctor told speaker they finally had time to ask about vacation - highlighting how overworked they are
- Microsoft acquired company for $19.7 billion; UCSF, Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins already adopting clinical AI
- Early results show reduced burnout and improved patient safety (74% improvement)
- 26% resistance due to change management issues - staff fear job loss
Key Healthcare AI Principles
- Safety and security are critical - health data breaches more serious than credit card data
- Innovation battle is not about building largest LLM (now commoditized), but applying AI to healthcare-specific problems
- Winners will have proprietary, high-quality healthcare data
- Mini LLMs now possible - students running 13-20 million parameter models on Mac Mini, even mobile devices
- 2025 theme: “What AI could do” → 2026 theme: “What AI is doing”
Risk Management
- AI is now the highest risk factor when implementing in healthcare systems
- Must maintain human oversight at all times - human in the loop, human over the loop
- Results must be explainable, not black box outputs
- LLMs becoming commodity; real value in Safety Layer and Application Layer
Future Healthcare Technology
- Early cancer detection through blood tests measuring molecular fingerprints before symptoms appear
- Speaker tested for 10 cancers with very low risk results (0.01%)
- Nanotech future: Ingest bio-degradable capsules with micro sensors that measure thousands/millions of real-time data points
- Large Human Model: Complete simulation of human body and being (still emerging)
- Neuroscience data security concerns - could be used to manipulate people
- AI capability growing exponentially (OOMs - Order of Magnitude) - what’s impossible today may be possible in 5 years
- Flagship Cancer Detection: First health system globally doing blood test for early cancer detection
Fitness & Wellness Evolution
- Shift from body building → fitness → wellness → bio strength measurement
- Daily health check-ups integrated into fitness routines with personalized data and AI coaching
- Focus on overall healthiness, not just building muscle
- Behavior change (sleep, diet, exercise) can prevent/manage major chronic diseases
Healthcare Implementation Recommendations
- Focus on task-specific AI applications
- Evaluate agent capabilities for your specific needs
- Integrate carefully with legacy healthcare systems
- Set realistic expectations - AI is not god, has limitations
- Build trust through low-risk, high-value use cases first
- Always maintain human oversight and explainability
- Top use case: Patient experience improvement (34%), followed by productivity
Thailand’s Healthcare Opportunity
- Thailand can become world-leading healthcare hub
- Thai medical professionals are highly skilled and respected globally
- Thailand is neutral zone with strong service culture and Thai hospitality
- Competitive advantage: Combine modern high-tech systems with 6-star service and human touch
- Opportunity as gateway to Southeast Asia for medical tourism and expat healthcare
- Can attract high-quality people to age well, live well, and spend well in Thailand
Closing Message
- 2024-25 is likely last year of relative stability before major global reset
- Ray Dalio: Old world order collapsing, new order not yet formed - transition period 10-20 years
- Only way to survive: Be stronger than the crisis
- Need mental stillness, mental agility, and mental resilience
- If Thailand survives to next inflection point (end of decade), country can win
- Healthcare is Thailand’s competitive advantage and future
- Call to action: Be the light in darkness, create change starting with yourself, and help Thailand’s healthcare sector thrive