Update on artificial intelligence against COVID-19: what we can learn for the next pandemic-a narrative review

Background and Objective: The coronavirus disease or coronavirus diseases-19 (COVID-19) is an ongoing pandemic that has created a tremendous public health concern. Apart from the reverse transcription polymerize chain reaction (RT-PCR), imaging findings play a crucial role in confirming its diagnosis and also constraining virus transmission. Artificial intelligence (AI) and its subsets have come to the rescue during these challenging periods and have been largely applied in managing the current COVID-19 pandemic. Role of AI in combating COVID-19 at different levels witnessed an enormous growth as documented in scientific literature. The present narrative review aims to illuminate the current state of evidence by providing an update on the use of AI during the COVID-19 pandemic in the year 2023 by assimilating the literature in identifying roles essayed by AI at different strata of COVID-19 expedition. Methods: English scientific articles were retrieved using Mesh terms-COVID-19, artificial intelligence with AND as Boolean operator in PubMed Database from January 2023 to December 2023 wherein AI essayed a role either in predicting, diagnosing, screening COVID-19 infection or any role essayed related to the condition. Abstracts, narrative or scoping reviews, systematic review, meta-analysis, comments, editorials were excluded. Data regarding the authors, the methodology with observations and inference as stated by the authors were retrieved and ponder upon to address the objectives of the study Key Content and Findings: Out of 1,661 articles obtained on initial search, 17 relevant articles were selected on application of the selection criteria. Scientific literature reveals that AI has contributed significantly by exhibiting precise, safe, and efficient imaging potential. Studies have also proposed various deep learning algorithms for the detection and treatment of COVID-19, for follow-ups, to evaluate patient response to treatment and so on. Conclusions: Thus, AI is swiftly evolving in the arena of healthcare. Further development of AI along with its subgroups can revolutionize public health care by reducing the work pressure on the front-line workers and be the backbone to improved management of a potential pandemic in the future.