Bridging the Gap: From AI Success in Clinical Trials to Real-World Healthcare Implementation—A Narrative Review

Artificial intelligence (AI) has demonstrated remarkable diagnostic accuracy in controlled clinical trials, sometimes rivaling or even surpassing experienced clinicians. However, AI's real-world effectiveness is frequently diminished when applied to diverse clinical settings, owing to methodological shortcomings, limited multicenter studies, and insufficient real-world validations.

This narrative review critically examines the discrepancy between AI's robust performance in clinical trials and its inconsistent real-world implementation. Our goal is to synthesize methodological, ethical, and operational challenges impeding AI integration and propose a comprehensive framework to bridge this gap.