SUNNYVALE, Calif., July 23, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Intuitive (NASDAQ:ISRG), a global technology leader in minimally invasive care and the pioneer of robotic-assisted surgery, will outline its vision for how artificial intelligence (AI) can help shape the future of surgical care and address key healthcare challenges at the Society of Robotic Surgery's (SRS) annual conference in Hollywood, Florida.

Intuitive's AI vision is grounded in a belief that AI can improve surgical care by reducing variability, improving outcomes, shortening learning curves, and ultimately expanding surgeon reach — while maintaining the highest standards of patient safety and surgeon control. At SRS, Intuitive will outline its structured approach to AI development, grounded in real-world surgical experience and outcomes from a global dataset of more than 20 million da Vinci procedures.

"Healthcare systems around the world are faced with the same challenges: delivering better patient outcomes, lowering the total cost of care, and expanding access — all while supporting care teams and improving patient experience," said Intuitive CEO Dave Rosa. "Our focus is on developing AI solutions that can address these challenges by helping care teams learn, collaborate, and deliver care more consistently and efficiently."

The Five Layers: From Data to Supervised Autonomy

Intuitive's framework builds AI capability progressively across the surgical journey:

Good data — capturing rich, standardized surgical information at scale
Meaningful insights — translating data into actionable intelligence
Intraoperative guidance — real-time support during surgical procedures
Augmented dexterity — AI-assisted precision and control
Supervised autonomy — AI that extends surgeon capability while preserving surgeon accountability and control

"We are building AI as a capability stack that spans the surgical journey — before, during, and after procedures," said Iman Jeddi, PhD, Senior Vice President and General Manager of da Vinci Platforms at Intuitive. "Each layer builds on the foundation below it, creating a pathway from data and insights to increasingly advanced forms of assistance. Our longer-term vision of supervised autonomy is not about removing the surgeon. It's about responsibly extending surgeon capability through technology that is grounded in data, rigorously validated, and designed to preserve surgeon control and accountability."

Intuitive's approach to AI is informed by decades of experience and an extensive, growing body of real-world surgical data. More than 20 million procedures have been performed with da Vinci systems globally¹, creating a data foundation that captures meaningful insights with respect to surgical approach, technique, and workflow.

Intuitive researchers have developed a novel surgical AI framework that moves beyond visual recognition to better reflect how surgeons think and make decisions. The work introduces a dataset built from surgical videos that captures not just what is happening in the operating field, but the reasoning behind clinical choices, including risk assessment and next-step planning. Leveraging this dataset, the team developed advanced vision-language and reasoning models capable of answering complex, context-rich questions about surgery. In early testing, these models significantly outperformed general-purpose AI systems on tasks involving surgical understanding, demonstrating the potential to advance more intelligent, context-aware surgical AI.²

Live Telesurgery: A Future Application of Connected Care

While supervised autonomy represents Intuitive’s longer-term vision for how AI may assist surgeons, extending surgical experience beyond a single operating room remains an important challenge today. Intuitive believes telecollaboration technologies can help surgeons learn from one another, provide additional experience to local care teams, and expand access to specialized care. Telesurgery is one example of how those capabilities may evolve in the future.

During SRS, Intuitive will facilitate a live telesurgery demonstration connecting surgeons at two Intuitive facilities — its headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, and its campus in Atlanta, Georgia — in real time.

Dr. Doug Stoddard will be at the remote da Vinci 5 surgeon console in Sunnyvale, CA.
Dr. Andy L. Hawthorne will be present with the da Vinci 5 system in Atlanta, GA.

The procedure will be live streamed to the SRS audience, where surgeons will demonstrate da Vinci 5's remote collaboration and shared-control capabilities on an advanced tissue model designed to replicate live tissue behavior, including Force Feedback that enables both surgeons to feel the forces exerted on the tissue model by the instruments and shared control of advanced instrumentation including stapling, regardless of the distance.

"This demonstration will be a powerful indication of telesurgery's potential to address real health equity challenges globally — helping health systems extend specialized surgical experience across broad geographies and expand patient access to consistently high-quality care closer to home," said Dr. Stoddard

The telesurgery software on the da Vinci 5 system used for the demonstration is for demonstration purposes only. The technology is still in development and the safety and effectiveness of the product has not been established. The technology is not currently for sale and cannot be made available or put into service in the U.S or any other geographies at this time.

Dr. Doug Stoddard is director of surgery and robotics at Christus Health in Texas.

Dr. Andy L Hawthorne is a general and trauma surgeon at St. David’s Round Rock Medical CenterRound Rock, TX

The physicians have received compensation from Intuitive for consulting and/or educational services.

About Intuitive

Intuitive (NASDAQ:ISRG), headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, is a global leader in minimally invasive care and the pioneer of robotic surgery. Our technologies include the da Vinci surgical system and the Ion endoluminal system. By uniting advanced systems, progressive learning, and value-enhancing services, we help physicians and their teams optimize care delivery to support the best outcomes possible. At Intuitive, we envision a future of care that is less invasive and profoundly better, where disease is identified early and treated quickly, so that patients can get back to what matters most.

About da Vinci Surgical Systems

There are several models of the da Vinci surgical system. The da Vinci surgical systems are designed to help surgeons perform minimally invasive surgery and offer surgeons high-definition 3D vision, a magnified view, and robotic and computer assistance. They use specialized instrumentation, including a miniaturized surgical camera and wristed instruments (i.e., scissors, scalpels, and forceps) that are designed to help with precise dissection and reconstruction deep inside the body.

For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.intuitive.com.

Important safety information

For risks, contraindications, cautions, and warnings and full prescribing information, refer to the associated da Vinci 5 Surgical System user manual(s), or visit https://manuals.intuitivesurgical.com/market.

For summary of the risks associated with surgery refer to www.intuitive.com/safety.

Contraindication

Use of the force feedback needle driver is contraindicated in hysterectomy and myomectomy due to the risk of vaginal bleeding requiring hospital readmission and/or the need for additional procedures. The use of non-force feedback needle drivers is recommended for suturing in these procedures.

Precaution for Representative Uses

The demonstration of safety and effectiveness for the representative-specific procedures was based on evaluation of the device as a surgical tool and did not include evaluation of outcomes related to the treatment of cancer (overall survival, disease-free survival, local recurrence) or treatment of the patient’s underlying disease or condition. Device usage in all surgical procedures should be guided by the clinical judgment of an adequately trained surgeon.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements which relate to expectations concerning matters that are not historical facts. Statements using words such as "estimates," "projects," "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "intends," "may," "will," "can," "could," "should," "would," "targeted," "potential," and similar words and expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are necessarily estimates reflecting the judgment of Intuitive’s management and involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or impacts on its operations, financial performance, and business position to differ materially from those suggested by the forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements related to research and development of products and services, manufacturing of products, obtaining of regulatory approvals, technical and other performance of products and services, and making products and services available to more patients and health care professionals. These forward-looking statements should be considered in light of various important factors and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of Intuitive, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements include, among others, economic conditions in the geographic markets in which we operate, changes in governmental regulations, regulatory approval priorities, resources, and timelines, regulatory enforcement priorities, governmental investigations and civil litigation, and other factors discussed in Intuitive’s Annual Reports and other filings with relevant securities regulators.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release and which are based on current expectations and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict, including those risk factors identified under the heading "Risk Factors" in Intuitive’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025, as updated by its other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Intuitive’s actual results may differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statements, and it undertakes no obligation to publicly update or release any revisions to these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

Media Contacts

Media.inquiries@intusurg.com

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1} Intuitive data on file.

² The research is currently available as a pre-print and under peer review. The research is available as a pre-print on arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.06570

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c0e7eade-04a0-4606-8bf0-f9149b9dae22