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Best AI for pathology

Pathology laboratories assess hundreds of thousands of tissue sections and cytology slides every year, while the number of cancer diagnoses keeps rising and there are too few pathologists. More and more Dutch labs are working digitally: slides are scanned and reviewed on a screen rather than under the microscope. Such a digital workflow is the foundation for AI. In this sector, AI is mainly about cancer detection and grading (prostate, breast, stomach, bowel), counting and quantifying biomarkers (HER2, Ki-67, PD-L1), counting mitoses, checking slides for quality and prioritising cases. According to Philips, 35 pathology labs use its digital solution with Ibex AI, with up to 37% higher productivity. The pathologist remains ultimately responsible for the diagnosis.

Professional tool with the strongest GDPR profileProscia ConcentriqGDPR: Strong
  • Provider based outside the EU
  • Data in the EU according to the provider
  • Publishes certification/GDPR safeguards
View the tool
General model: the default choiceClaudeGDPR: Strong
  • Editorial score 9.0 of 10
  • Elo 1506
Claude for pathology
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Watch out in this field

You process special category personal data (health) and sometimes data for genetic research. Software for diagnostic use is an in vitro diagnostic medical device: check whether the algorithm is CE-marked under the IVDR for your exact application and tissue type. Many apps are 'research use only'. Choose providers with ISO 27001 and ISO 13485, a data processing agreement and clear data location (EU hosting or on-premise). Also ask whether your slides are used to train models. Under the EU AI Act, medical AI falling under the IVDR is classed as high-risk. Validate every algorithm locally on your own scanner and stains before using it in routine practice.

All 25 options

Professional tools with the strongest published GDPR safeguards first, then general assistants by suitability.

25options, 13 field-specific
6free to try
10professional tools from NL or EU
7GDPR strong or good
Strong · 1Good · 2Limited · 8Unknown · 2
#SolutionQualityQuality from blind duels on LMArena: users choose between two anonymous answers. A difference of about 20 points is noticeable, a few points is noise. How we measurePriceGDPROur summary of what the provider itself publishes about your data. For a professional tool: whether the data is held in the EU, whether there is a certification or GDPR guarantee, and whether the provider is based in the Netherlands or the EU. For a general model: EU hosting, no training on your data and self-hosting. From Strong to Unknown; Caution only applies to a model with a documented problem. How we measure
1Proscia Concentriq professional toolProscia (Philadelphia, US)American platform for digital pathology, from research to primary diagnosis. In the Netherlands chosen by Pathologie Friesland and LabPON.own modelon requestStrong2Aiforia professional toolAiforia Technologies (Helsinki, FI) · EUA Finnish cloud platform for AI image analysis in pathology, with clinical AI suites for prostate, breast, lung, colon and stomach, and tools to train your own models.own modelon requestGood3Tribun Health CaloPix professional toolTribun Health (Paris, FR) · EUFrench digital pathology platform: image management, telepathology, archive and an AI catalogue of partners in a single workflow.own modelon requestGood4Aiosyn professional toolAiosyn (Nijmegen, Netherlands) · NetherlandsAI for digital pathology: mitosis detection in breast cancer, slide quality control and kidney tissue analysis.own modelon requestLimited5Visiopharm professional toolVisiopharm A/S (Hørsholm, Denmark) · EUDanish software for AI tissue analysis in research and diagnostics, with CE-IVD apps for biomarkers in breast, lung and prostate cancer and more than 130 modular analysis apps.own modelon requestLimited6Mindpeak professional toolMindpeak GmbH (Hamburg, DE) · EUGerman AI for quantifying biomarkers on tissue images, with CE-IVD products for breast cancer, HER2 and PD-L1, among others, for diagnostic labs and pharma.own modelon requestLimited7Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution professional toolPhilips (Amsterdam, NL) · NetherlandsDutch digital pathology solution: slide scanners and an image management system, with built-in AI from partners such as Ibex. Philips cites 35 labs using the solution with Ibex AI.own modelon requestLimited8Sectra Digital Pathology professional toolSectra AB (Linköping, SE) · EUSwedish digital pathology system with a diagnostic workstation and image analysis, used by, among others, Erasmus MC, Radboudumc and Zuyderland. AI from external suppliers runs in the same workflow.own modelon requestLimited9Stratipath Breast professional toolStratipath AB (Stockholm, SE) · EUSwedish AI that estimates the risk of disease progression on standard H&E slides of breast cancer, as a faster and cheaper complement to gene expression tests.own modelon requestLimited10Waiv (RlapsRisk BC, MSIntuit CRC) professional toolWaiv (Paris, FR; spin-off of Owkin) · EUFrench supplier of AI precision tests for pathology. RlapsRisk BC estimates the recurrence risk in breast cancer from a standard H&E slide; MSIntuit CRC screens colorectal cancer for MSI. Labs use the tests via its own Destra platform or via Sectra, Proscia, Roche and Tribun Health.own modelon requestLimited11DiaDeep DiaKwant professional toolDiaDeep (Villeurbanne, FR) · EUFrench AI platform that automatically scores biomarkers on immunostains, without the pathologist first having to annotate areas. It gives TPS and CPS scores for PD-L1 across six cancer types, plus HER2, Ki-67, ER/PR and mitoses, with heatmaps across the whole slide.own modelon requestLimited12Ibex Galen professional toolIbex Medical Analytics (Tel Aviv, IL)Israeli AI platform that detects cancer and more than a hundred other diagnostic features in prostate, breast and gastric biopsies, as a second reader and for quality control. Used via Philips in Dutch pathology labs.own modelon requestUnknown13Paige professional toolPaige (New York, US; part of Tempus AI)American AI for cancer diagnostics on digital slides, with suites for prostate, breast, gastrointestinal and a pan-cancer detection. Paige Prostate is also available via the Sectra Amplifier Marketplace.own modelon requestUnknown14Claude generalAnthropicFamily of language models from Anthropic that excels at long documents, careful reasoning, coding and reliable, safe output.1506Elo$20 / monthStrong15Gemini generalGoogleGoogle DeepMind's natively multimodal model family, deeply integrated into Workspace, with a very large context window.1527Elo€4.99 / monthStrong16Copilot generalMicrosoftMicrosoft's AI layer that combines GPT and Claude models with your own organisational data and the Microsoft 365 apps.1485Elofrom €10 / monthCaution17Le Chat (Mistral) generalMistral AIFrench/European AI lab with open-weight and commercial models and the Le Chat assistant, with EU data residency as its core proposition.1426Elo$14.99 / monthStrong18ChatGPT generalOpenAIOpenAI's versatile, agentic flagship with a very large context window and a broad ecosystem of integrations.1485Elo$8 / monthStrong19Qwen generalAlibaba Cloud · free to tryChinese model family from Alibaba Cloud with a free chat app, a large open-weight catalogue and the proprietary flagship Qwen3.8-Max with 1 million tokens of context.1484Eloon requestCaution20GLM (Z.ai) generalZ.ai (Zhipu AI) · free to tryChinese AI lab (Zhipu, international Z.ai) with the open-weight GLM family under MIT licence, particularly strong at programming and agent tasks at low prices.1483Elo$18 / monthCaution21Kimi generalMoonshot AI · free to tryChinese AI lab (Moonshot AI) with the open-weight Kimi K2 family and an assistant that focuses strongly on agents, deep research and long documents.1487Elo$19 / monthCaution22Grok generalxAIThe model from xAI, integrated into X, distinguished by real-time access to live X posts and web data.1471Elo$10 / monthCaution23DeepSeek generalDeepSeek · free to tryOpen-weight (MIT) Chinese language model with a 1M context window and a built-in reasoning mode, at very low API costs.1475Eloon requestCaution24Perplexity generalPerplexity AI · free to tryUS AI search engine that delivers answers with source citations via its own Sonar models and external frontier models, with separate Enterprise agreements on data use.–Elo$20 / monthUnknown25Llama generalMeta · free to tryMeta's natively multimodal, open-weight Mixture-of-Experts family (Scout and Maverick), free to download and self-host.–Eloon requestCaution
Download as CSV Quality: LMArena · prices: OpenRouter and providers · as of 9 November 2026

Last checked: 6 November 2026 · How we check

How to get started in pathology

  1. Try this weekStart free with Perplexity on non-confidential work. You'll get a feel for what AI can do for pathology within an hour.
  2. Sort the basics (GDPR)Choose the business variant, sign a data processing agreement and turn off training on your data. See the GDPR check per option.
  3. Go deeper with specialist softwareBook a demo with Proscia Concentriq: built for pathology, with the strongest published safeguards.

Where AI does the most in this field

The core tasks we track for this profession. Tools in the list above can be compared on these tasks.

  1. 1Digitising and managing tissue slides in an image management system (scanners, LIMS, archive)
  2. 2Detecting and grading cancer on H&E slides (e.g. Gleason score, mitosis counting, tumour size)
  3. 3Counting and quantifying biomarkers in IHC stains (HER2, ER/PR, Ki-67, PD-L1)
  4. 4Monitoring slide quality, prioritising cases and providing a second read as quality control

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Frequently asked questions

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The full Safety grid

What is the best AI for pathology?

It depends on your requirements. Field-specific solutions such as Proscia Concentriq are built for pathology; general assistants such as Claude are more broadly usable and cheaper to get started with. At the top of this page you'll find our picks.

What is the difference between a 'field-specific tool' and a 'general assistant'?

A general assistant (such as ChatGPT or Claude) is a clever all-rounder you talk to yourself. A field-specific tool is a ready-made product for pathology, often built on top of such an assistant, with its own domain knowledge, integrations and GDPR arrangements. In the 'Quality' column you can see which model a tool runs on.

May I use confidential data?

You process special category personal data (health) and sometimes data for genetic research. Software for diagnostic use is an in vitro diagnostic medical device: check whether the algorithm is CE-marked under the IVDR for your exact application and tissue type. Many apps are 'research use only'. Choose providers with ISO 27001 and ISO 13485, a data processing agreement and clear data location (EU hosting or on-premise). Also ask whether your slides are used to train models. Under the EU AI Act, medical AI falling under the IVDR is classed as high-risk. Validate every algorithm locally on your own scanner and stains before using it in routine practice.

What does the GDPR profile mean?

Our summary of what the provider publishes about data protection: EU hosting, no training on your data, certifications and provenance. 'Strong' = several safeguards published; 'Unknown' = the provider shares little, so ask them. It is a tool, not legal advice.