By: Dustin Vaughan, Vice President, R&D, Robotics, Asensus Surgical
Modern surgery is at a pivotal moment. Surgeons face rising complexity, hospitals are under tighter resource pressures, and patients expect the best possible outcomes. Meeting those demands requires not just adaptation, but transformation. At Asensus Surgical, we believe artificial intelligence (AI) is a key driver of that transformation - reshaping how we develop technology and how surgery itself is performed.
As Vice President of Research and Development (R&D) at Asensus Surgical, my focus is twofold: how we can deploy AI to accelerate our current initiatives and how we prepare our team and technology for what’s coming next.
Why AI Matters in R&D
Earlier this year, I joined a panel at DeviceTalks Boston on the transformative power of automated development and testing. The discussion centered on how AI-driven tools help detect requirements, uncover vulnerabilities, safeguard data, and validate performance. But behind those technical terms is a simpler truth: AI helps us move faster and with greater precision — two things every surgeon, patient, and hospital relies on.
AI isn’t just about efficiency. It’s about freeing our engineers to focus on solving the problems that matter most, while algorithms take on the repetitive tasks of testing, iteration, and data analysis. What once took months of manual effort can now be accomplished in weeks, accelerating innovation without compromising quality.
Building Trust, Step by Step
At Asensus, we use what we call a “staircase model” to build trust in AI. We start small, with limited data, and gradually increase complexity. Each “step” is an opportunity to validate outputs, refine accuracy, and ensure ethical safeguards. This approach allows our engineers to break down big challenges into manageable projects and return to earlier checkpoints whenever needed.
The result is a framework that balances speed with rigor, ensuring that every AI-driven advance is tested, reliable, and aligned with our core mission: improving patient outcomes and supporting surgeons.
Applying Generative AI to Workflows
One of the most exciting opportunities has been rethinking our own engineering workflows. By mapping how our team spends time, we identified areas where AI could take on time-consuming but necessary tasks. The effect has been twofold: greater efficiency and more creative freedom for our engineers.
Instead of spending hours combing through data or repeating standard tests, our team can now concentrate on innovation — designing smarter tools, exploring new clinical applications, and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in surgery. With our proprietary datasets, we train in-house AI models tailored to the unique demands of digital surgery, ensuring relevance and accuracy at every stage.
From R&D to the Operating Room
AI’s impact doesn’t stop in development. It’s already shaping the way surgery is performed through what we call Augmented Intelligence — technology that processes data in real time and presents insights back to surgeons in ways that lighten their cognitive load and support decision-making.
We first introduced this approach in the Intelligent Surgical Unit™ (ISU™), the world’s first real-time Augmented Intelligence platform for intraoperative use. The ISU provides surgeons with a digital feed of data and insights during procedures, extending beyond the robot console to support decision-making at the bedside. Now, these capabilities are expanding into our upcoming next-generation robotic system, LUNA™. By embedding AI deeply into its architecture, we’re ensuring that the lessons learned in R&D translate directly to tangible benefits in the operating room: greater precision, reduced variability, and stronger support for the entire surgical team.
Looking Ahead
I recently joined The Robot Report podcast to discuss our vision for performance-guided surgery, the development of our next-generation system LUNA, and the opportunities AI creates for surgeons and patients alike. These conversations are essential because the future of surgery won’t be built in isolation; it requires input from surgeons, engineers, regulators, and healthcare partners.
In the next three to five years, AI will allow us to make seamless, real-time updates to our tools by accelerating innovation and bringing entirely new capabilities into the OR. That means surgeries that are more intelligent, more predictable, and ultimately, safer for patients.
We also know innovation must be balanced with responsibility. Navigating regulatory frameworks, ensuring cybersecurity, and addressing real-world clinical constraints are essential to earning and keeping trust. I’m especially optimistic about the role of AI-driven robotics in pediatric surgery, where precision and safety are paramount. It’s an area where advanced digital tools can make a profound difference for surgeons, patients, and families.
At Asensus Surgical, we see AI not as an add-on, but as a foundation. It accelerates our development cycles, enhances the surgeon experience, and drives better outcomes for patients. That’s the future the Asensus team is building toward every day.