Artificial Intelligence and Genomic Data Analysis: New Frontiers in Precision Medicine
TL;DR
A clinically oriented, pipeline-based synthesis of contemporary AI applications in genomic medicine, focusing on factors that determine model robustness and clinical utility, and common sources of failure in real-world genomic AI systems.
Abstract
The rapid expansion of next-generation sequencing technologies has generated unprecedented volumes of genomic data; however, translating these data into reliable and clinically actionable insights remains a major challenge in precision medicine. Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a key enabling technology across the genomic medicine pipeline, supporting variant detection, variant interpretation, polygenic risk prediction, disease subtyping, biomarker discovery and treatment–response modelling. This review provides a clinically oriented, pipeline-based synthesis of contemporary AI applications in genomic medicine. Major computational paradigms, including machine learning, deep learning, ensemble methods, multimodal AI, explainable AI frameworks and emerging foundation models, are discussed in the context of their contribution to genomic analysis and clinical decision support. Particular emphasis is placed on the factors that determine model robustness and clinical utility, including dataset composition, class imbalance, label noise, calibration, ancestry representation, distributional shift and external validation. Evidence from rare genetic disorders, cardiovascular genetics and precision oncology is examined to illustrate both successful translational applications and persistent barriers to implementation. The review further analyses common sources of failure in real-world genomic AI systems, including overfitting, limited transportability across populations and sequencing environments, inadequate interpretability, and insufficient prospective validation. Ethical and regulatory challenges are discussed in relation to clinical accountability, genomic privacy, algorithmic bias and equitable implementation. Ultimately, the successful clinical translation of genomic AI will depend not only on methodological innovation, but also on rigorous validation, transparent reporting, continuous calibration, robust governance and sustained expert oversight.