“Every single one of you can and should go build an AI model. It's actually pretty simple these days. But then think about; what actually is the problem here? And where could the system go wrong?” This podcast opens up the first in a four part series here on TopMedTalk about a topic which has defined the last few years; what does the development of artificial intelligence (AI) systems mean for perioperative medicine, what will the benefits be and where do we already see potential challenges? This first part “An Introduction to AI” gets the conversation going. With a short introduction from Mike Grocott this piece is presented by Adriane Chapman, Professor at University of Southampton, Head of Digital Health Research Group, Director for the Centre for Health Technologies. This piece is taken from a four part presentation, three talks and a discussion, first given at Evidence Based Perioperative Medicine (EBPOM) 2023.