He will also lead a transformative initiative aimed at 'revolutionising' the role of the patient in the reform of the NHS.

Samuel said: ‘Placing the person at the heart of the service and in control of their care is essential. The potential for health and care sector to harness AI and behavioural science to creating proactive, personalised, and scalable robot conversations is enormous and a step we must take to elevate patient care and people's experience to new standards of excellence.'

He added: ‘I am raring to go with this initiative: to build a portfolio of autonomous "patient healthcare navigators". A critical success factor will be the support coming from within industry.

‘We want to work with existing clinical suppliers in defining objectives and identifying behavioural barriers to piloting, evaluating, and refining conversational AI interventions.'

EBO's chief executive, Gege Gatt, said: ‘Richard Samuel brings a unique blend of NHS experience and AI expertise, making him ideally suited to spearhead this ambitious program.

‘His vision is to incorporate behavioural insights within AI-powered systems to transform NHS care delivery. We look forward to seeing Richard's leadership and the meaningful outcomes that will emerge from this groundbreaking program.'