The Evolving Role of AI in Simulation-Based Medical Education: A Narrative Review

A growing body of literature has emerged on the topic of Artificial Intelligence (AI) use in Simulation-Based Medical Education (SBME) in recent years, but most studies have focused on isolated applications of AI to components of simulation, making it difficult for educators and decision makers to make informed decisions on the use of AI. Therefore, this narrative review aims to condense the current literature on the use of AI in the SBME, its influence on experiential learning, explore challenges, and future directions in this rapidly evolving field.

A targeted literature search was conducted for this review on PubMed and Google Scholar, with combinations of keywords. Articles were selected from 2019 to 2025, based on their relevance to the use of AI in SBME, in areas of teaching, learning, and assessment. Studies without educational outcomes were excluded.

The search produced 2019 papers, out of which 45 were analyzed after applying the exclusion criteria. These showed that AI has been applied across multiple dimensions of the SBME, including scenario development, enhancing realism, personalized and collaborative learning, developing communication and psychomotor skills, and automated and AI augmented feedback. Several challenges have been raised, like ethical and privacy concerns, lack of AI literacy among users, lack of transparency, undesired outcomes, infrastructure cost, and environmental effects.

Benefits of AI in SBME stem from AI-augmented human teaching rather than unsupervised usage of AI tools. Additionally, the potential for personalized and accessible learning warrants further research.