Professional Assessment of Artificial Intelligence Adoption Readiness in the Nigerian Healthcare Sector: Evidence from Teaching Hospitals in the South South Zone

Artificial intelligence applications in healthcare, including diagnostic imaging support, clinical decision aid systems, and predictive analytics, are transforming global medical practice, and assessing the readiness of Nigerian teaching hospitals for AI adoption provides essential planning evidence for health system modernisation. This study professionally assesses AI adoption readiness in teaching hospitals in South South Nigeria, focusing on University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, and Delta State University Teaching Hospital. A readiness assessment framework drawing on the NIH AI Readiness Assessment Tool and the WHO Ethics and Governance of AI for Health guidelines was applied through structured questionnaire surveys of 150 clinical and ICT staff per hospital and key informant interviews with 15 hospital chief medical officers and ICT directors. Readiness was assessed across five dimensions: digital infrastructure adequacy, clinical data quality, ICT workforce competency, leadership AI literacy, and ethics and governance preparedness. Descriptive statistics and cross-institution comparative analysis were applied. Literature on AI healthcare adoption in Nigerian contexts identifies electronic health record incompleteness, limited data science skills, and absence of formal AI ethics policies as the most critical readiness gaps. The Technology Readiness Framework and the AI Readiness Model provide the professional reference. Findings indicate that infrastructure and data quality readiness are the lowest-scoring dimensions across all three hospitals. Recommendations address EHR data quality improvement programmes, AI governance policy development, and clinical informatics training investment. Keywords: AI adoption readiness, teaching hospitals, South South Nigeria, healthcare AI, University of Port Harcourt.