AI is revolutionizing healthcare — not just in clinical decision-making and operational workflows, but in the physical environments where care is delivered.
As hospitals and health systems face growing financial pressures, ongoing workforce constraints and rising patient expectations, every capital investment carries heightened strategic importance. Increasingly, forward-thinking organizations are turning to AI-powered visualization and simulation tools to ensure their facilities are not only functional but future-ready.
To explore how AI is transforming healthcare facility design, from accelerating stakeholder alignment to advancing patient safety, Becker’s Healthcare spoke with Chris Hoal, director of architectural design at Gresham Smith.
Turning capital projects into clear, compelling narratives
Facilities projects are among the most capital-intensive investments that hospitals and health systems make. Ensuring those dollars are deployed wisely requires an inclusive, transparent and highly collaborative design process.
Gresham Smith has found that AI visualization enables architects and designers to communicate more effectively with stakeholders, ranging from executives to facility leaders, board members, clinical staff and others involved in facility design.
Life-like renderings generated through AI convey ideas quickly, especially among stakeholders who may be unfamiliar with the design language used by architects. By communicating the scope and visual impact of a project through AI visualization, design teams can help build the case for key facility decisions.
“Often, a simple visual representation of a capital improvement project is an excellent way to give emotional significance to what otherwise might be a folder or binder full of data related to the business case,” Mr. Hoal said.
Accelerating innovation through rapid idea generation
By using AI visualization tools, designers can create high-fidelity images within minutes of sketching an idea by hand. This also generates more design options for consideration.
“AI adds detail to rough ideas very quickly and expands the number of ideas that can be evaluated,” Mr. Hoal explained. “That increases the odds that teams find something creative and salient for the design challenge at hand.”
While AI-generated concepts aren’t perfect and can’t replace creativity and critical thinking, they can help teams rapidly determine whether ideas have merit.
Building consensus in real time
Sometimes, it can be hard for healthcare clients to translate abstract concepts like “a warm and inviting environment” into design language.
To help teams reach consensus around facility designs, Gresham Smith often combines a simple sketch or a rudimentary building information model with a material palette and then uses AI to generate multiple test renderings within seconds during client meetings.
“Instead of going back to our office and spending two weeks on draft renderings only to learn we missed the mark, we can know whether we’re headed in the right direction before we even leave the room,” Mr. Hoal said. “That saves a ton of time. It’s very powerful, engaging and collaborative.”
This approach helps architects, designers and stakeholders communicate more effectively by eliminating layers of abstraction that can hinder the dialog. The result: faster buy-in for design ideas.
Advancing patient + workplace safety through simulation
Beyond image generation, Gresham Smith is using AI technology to apply complex research to healthcare facility design. The firm has worked with researchers at the University of Florida to evaluate whether design decisions will reduce the likelihood of healthcare-associated infections.
While it’s difficult for humans to simultaneously measure the dozens of variables that impact HAIs, this work is easy for AI.
“We are beginning to use AI to simulate different design options and compare them. This enables our teams to apply research insights to healthcare facility plans that would be challenging for ordinary designers to handle on their own,” Mr. Hoal said.
Embracing a continuous learning curve
In the field of architecture and design, AI technology is evolving incredibly fast. Advances and process-defining improvements arrive every few months. And while fully automated, AI-powered healthcare facility design isn’t here yet, Mr. Hoal believes it’s not far away.
To succeed in this new environment, architects and designers must get comfortable with always being a novice. Gresham Smith is approaching AI visualization with curiosity, and the outcomes thus far have been promising.
At the same time, it’s important to remember that the potential consequences of AI use and development are just beginning to be understood. The environmental and human impacts are still hard to quantify, so staying abreast of new information is critical.
“AI visualization has been delightful and fun to use,” Mr. Hoal said. “By integrating the technology into design processes that are already collaborative, we’re communicating more effectively and creating a better client experience.”
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