Michael Browning, senior executive vice president and CFO of Chicago-based CommonSpirit, said during the system’s fiscal year 2026 investor call Oct. 2 that the system has “captured $200 million in financial value from artificial intelligence.”
Mr. Browning said the system tracks each AI initiative from early pipeline review through post-implementation financial audits. CommonSpirit has kept its AI costs low.
“Direct AI spending remains under 0.75% of our total IT budget, with enterprise monthly token costs restrained to just $25,000 per month,” Mr. Browning said.
Mr. Browning said that while CommonSpirit has substantially expanded its use of AI, the system believes healthcare technology is “roughly 80% people, 15% process and only 5% technology.”
“Artificial intelligence does not alter that ratio,” he said.
Mr. Browning said CommonSpirit’s 36-member enterprise data and AI governance committee has formally reviewed more than 122 enterprise use cases and rejected 20 of them on the grounds of algorithmic bias, safety risks and vendor redundancy.
Clinical ethics also has a say over every AI deployment.
“We’re committed to keeping qualified clinicians at the center of care,” Mr. Browning said. He added that AI may inform clinical decisions, but it does not replace the judgment, compassion and accountability of the system’s physicians and nurses.
“Our clinical ethics team holds an absolute veto on any deployment, regardless of financial return,” he said.
The AI strategy sits on top of a larger infrastructure overhaul. CommonSpirit is consolidating its legacy EHRs onto a single instance of Epic and modernizing its enterprise resource planning system with Workday, which Mr. Browning described as building the secure digital foundation needed for data-supported care and AI-driven efficiencies. About 67% of the system’s facilities are now on Epic, and CommonSpirit has cut its number of EHRs from 19 to nine across 1,337 sites in the past 24 months. The five-state South region is set to convert at the end of October, with the full rollout now expected by the end of fiscal year 2030 — two years earlier than previously planned, a timeline Mr. Browning credited to the system’s revenue cycle transition.
The Workday transition is on track for July 1, 2027, when more than nine legacy platforms will be retired.
CommonSpirit recorded an operating loss of $430 million (-1.0% operating margin) in fiscal 2026 — excluding special charges — compared to an operating loss of $687 million (-1.8% margin) the year prior, according to its Sept. 30 financial report. The system’s fiscal year ended June 30.
