Andrea Bodnari, PhD, a vice president of product at Optum who used to work at Google, told the news outlet it felt more consequential to be able to apply artificial intelligence to healthcare. She called UnitedHealth Group the “holy grail of healthcare know-how and prowess,” according to the March 13 story.
Chris Jones, PhD, who joined Optum in November from Meta Platforms, told the news outlet he had looked forward to the opportunity to use responsible AI in healthcare. The industry seemed more purposeful “than the slightly ephemeral stuff I was working on at Microsoft,” where he spent a decade earlier in his career, the senior principal applied scientist said.
Francois Charette, enterprise chief technology officer at Optum, told CIO he has been struck by all the tech workers “really looking to make an impact on people’s lives.” He noted that the Big Tech companies used to have access to all the latest technology — that’s changed.
“Now, it’s basically used everywhere, so they’ve sort of lost their edge there,” he said. “They’ll have to compete for talent like everyone else.”
