The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners is partnering with New Zealand technology company Gestalt to trial AI-supported simulated consultations for doctors training to become specialist GPs.
Registrars will practise consultations with simulated patients and receive individualised feedback, giving them additional opportunities to develop clinical reasoning between supervised teaching sessions. The College says the pilot is intended to test where AI genuinely improves training while keeping educators, clinical judgement and human connection at the centre.
Key facts
- The pilot will involve a targeted group of GP registrars, including a cohort of International Medical Graduates.
- Registrars will conduct simulated patient consultations using Gestalt’s platform.
- The system supports differential diagnosis and provides structured, individualised feedback grounded in clinical sources.
- The technology is designed to supplement, rather than replace, medical educators and supervised clinical training.
- The College will assess registrar engagement, user experience and feedback from educators.
- Results will help determine whether AI-supported learning should have a wider role in New Zealand GP training.
Our take
This is a particularly practical New Zealand use of AI. Rather than putting AI directly between a doctor and patient, the technology is being used in a controlled training environment where clinicians can practise repeatedly, receive feedback and build confidence without affecting real patients.
The pilot also provides a sensible model for professional AI adoption more broadly: start with a defined use case, retain human expertise and oversight, gather evidence about whether the technology actually improves outcomes, and only then consider wider deployment.
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