BEIJING, Oct 23 (China Economic Net) - A Pakistani university is seeking to establish what it hopes will be the country's first artificial intelligence (AI) hospital through a partnership with a Chinese healthcare technology company, China Economic Net (CEN) learned at a launch event in Beijing on Oct 21.

Li Zheng, chief marketing officer of Tairex, said the company was developing a strategic partnership with Riphah International University, which hopes to introduce Tairex's Agent Hospital system to Pakistan.

The proposed cooperation would cover medical education, clinical diagnosis and research, including the use of virtual consultation rooms to train medical students and doctors, AI-assisted clinical decision-making, and patient follow-up studies.

In a video message at the event, Riphah Chancellor Hassan Muhammad Khan expressed strong interest in the partnership, praising the Chinese company's technical capabilities and its focus on practical healthcare challenges.

"Together, we shall explore how AI can serve primary care, medical education and research, and build a new model of healthcare," Khan said.

Tairex, an AI healthcare company incubated by Tsinghua University's Institute for AI Industry Research (AIR), has developed Agent Hospital, a system that uses virtual patients to train medical professionals and AI doctor agents to assist physicians in real-world clinical settings. The system is designed to support, rather than replace, human doctors, who retain responsibility for medical decisions.

The potential partnership comes as Pakistan faces persistent challenges in healthcare delivery. According to the Pakistan Economic Survey 2025–26, the country's health sector continues to face limited financial resources and unequal access to healthcare facilities. Public health expenditure accounted for just 0.8 percent of GDP in fiscal 2024–25.

Pakistan has also identified healthcare as a priority for AI adoption under its National AI Policy 2025, with medical record digitisation and telemedicine among the targeted applications.

Riphah has already begun incorporating AI into medical education. In August, the university conducted a three-day training programme in Islamabad for health sciences faculty, covering AI applications in clinical practice, research and teaching.