Artificial Intelligence (AI), including machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP), plays a crucial role in public health by enabling enhanced disease surveillance, early detection, and health promotion. During the COVID-19 pandemic, AI tools were utilized for contact tracing, automated screening, drug repurposing, severity prediction, and disease spread modeling. AI’s use in epidemiology includes predictive modeling for infectious disease outbreaks, surveillance, and genomic analysis, which during the COVID-19 pandemic, aided in identifying variants of SARS-CoV-2. In the area of genomics, AI is used to track mutations in pathogens, and in non-communicable diseases like cancer. AI is also used in environmental health to analyze climate data that impacts disease outbreaks. However, despite all the benefits AI brings to public health, there are challenges such as data privacy and ethical considerations that require thoughtful integration of policies into public health systems to maximize benefits, while mitigating risks.