Artificial intelligence for COVID-19 and future pandemics: A mini-review

The pandemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 has spread very quickly all over the world and has become an unparalleled public health crisis. This unforeseen and exceptional situation has instigated a wave of research to investigate the virus, track its spread, and study the disease it causes. Current methods of diagnosis and monitoring largely rely on polymerase chain reactions and enzyme-linked immunesorbent assay methods. In this hour of crisis, researchers are looking for new technologies to monitor and control such disease outbreaks. Artificial intelligence (AI) is one such technology. Being an evidence-based tool, this technology has the potential to upgrade our disease management strategies and help us to restrict the spread of such diseases. AI can play an effective role in tracking the spread of diseases, screening of the population, identifying patients and developing treatments of diseases. Through this review, we aim to analyze the role of AI in the diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of diseases like coronavirus disease 2019, with most recent updates and assess the prospects of this technology in the management of such diseases