Forget Tech Stocks: The Medical Device Maker That's Essential to AI Healthcare

For the most part, artificial intelligence (AI) is just a complex computer program that uses data to inform its decision-making process. Essentially, it needs to be trained. If you are looking for data about the highly complex process of performing surgery, Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG) would be a good place to start. But the story isn't just the company's data.

What does Intuitive Surgical do?

Intuitive Surgical makes the da Vinci surgical robot. It has been making da Vinci systems for a very long time, ending 2025 with over 11,106 of these high-tech medical devices installed globally. That's 12% more da Vinci systems than were operating at the end of 2024. However, the number of surgeries performed using a da Vinci robot rose 18% year over year.

Image source: Getty Images.

Very clearly, there is strong demand in the healthcare industry for both the robots and for robotic-assisted surgery. Notably, at the end of 2025, the FDA approved Intuitive Surgical's AI-based enhancement to its Ion endoluminal system. It's obviously complex, but the addition of AI helps surgeons make real-time decisions in situations where a patient's lung has moved. Lungs are always moving because humans have to breathe to live, which makes this an attractive feature.

What's the future look like?

This type of advance is likely just the start of the AI revolution in robotic surgery. Since artificial intelligence learns by examining data, Intuitive Surgical's database of performed surgeries is a veritable gold mine. And it continues to grow as more surgeries are performed with da Vinci systems.

The logical endpoint is AI actually performing surgery on its own. That wouldn't be a huge leap from where Intuitive Surgical is today. With a database of surgeries to work from, an AI system could have pertinent information about a particular patient uploaded to its system. Then the AI could get to work, performing the appropriate surgery and adjusting as needed, using variations in the database to guide it through real-time events specific to each patient. That would mean world-class care could be provided anywhere in the world at any time of the day or night.

What could Intuitive Surgical do with its data?

There are different ways this essential surgery data could be used. Intuitive Surgical could retain the data and use it exclusively. The company could sell the data, helping to advance AI surgery more broadly. Or Intuitive Surgical could be swallowed up by a technology company that wants the data.

All of that said, Intuitive Surgical stock is expensive today, with a 66 price-to-earnings ratio. But for more aggressive growth investors, the AI opportunity might be worth the lofty price tag.

Reuben Gregg Brewer has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Intuitive Surgical. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.