Psychiatry in the future will be more digital. Video, artificial intelligence, digital treatment programmes, virtual reality, wearables and new data models will probably become a greater part of everyday practice. But the most important change should not be that we use more technology. It should be that we use it more precisely.

Imagine an ordinary consultation a few years from now. Before the appointment, an approved AI system has summarised relevant parts of the medical record. A digital treatment programme shows which exercises the person has worked on since the last visit. A smartwatch indicates a change in sleep, and a video consultation makes it possible to meet even though patient and psychiatrist are in different towns. All of this may be useful. But none of these technologies can decide on its own what the change means or what should happen next.

This is where human clinical judgement remains decisive. The same change in sleep may indicate emerging mania, stress, physical illness, a child waking during the night or simply a few hectic days. An AI system can detect a pattern, but the clinician must understand the context and decide together with the patient whether the pattern matters at all. The more sophisticated the systems become, the more important it will be to challenge their suggestions and recognise automation bias—the tendency to trust a machine’s answer too much.

The psychiatry of the future will therefore probably be hybrid in several ways. Digital when it makes sense. In person when that is best. A combination when it offers the greatest value. Technology can help with access, continuity and information management, but the therapeutic relationship is not a nostalgic luxury. Trust, empathy, responsibility and the feeling of being understood are part of treatment itself.

We should therefore not ask how to introduce the maximum amount of technology into psychiatry, but which problem we are trying to solve. The person must always matter more than the platform, app, device or algorithm. The psychiatry of the future should not choose between technology and people; it should use technology to give people better treatment. More digital—not less human.