Boston Children’s Hospital has deployed more than 50 automations across the organization, generating more than 30,000 hours in time savings during the first half of 2026 alone, according to John Brownstein, PhD, chief innovation officer and senior vice president.
The gains are part of the hospital’s intelligent automation program, which identifies repetitive tasks department by department and measures the impact of each implementation.
“For every implementation, we track how much time a task previously required, how much time is saved after automation, and how that time can be redirected to higher-value work,” Dr. Brownstein told Becker’s.
Beyond automation, the hospital is also seeing productivity gains from employees’ direct use of GPT-powered tools.
“Employees are saving time through direct use of GPT tools,” Dr. Brownstein said. “We’ve surveyed users and found they’re saving an estimated two to three hours per week through their own use of AI.”
Boston Children’s has worked with OpenAI for several years and maintains an OpenAI instance within the organization, with the goal of making large language models available to clinicians, administrators and researchers.
“We spend a lot of time on AI education,” he said. “We do department roadshows, we have office hours, we build prompt libraries and educational tools, and we have a whole team that is focused on upskilling and education.”
Because of these efforts, approximately one-third of staff members at Boston Children’s now use AI tools daily.
While the hospital has seen strong adoption of AI, Dr. Brownstein said there is still significant work required to help employees understand what tools are available and how they can support their work.
“Different people learn in different ways, so we’re trying to provide multiple paths for engagement, whether that’s self-service resources or more hands-on guidance,” he said.
When Boston Children’s surveyed employees who were not using the AI tools available to them, one of the most common reasons was that they had not taken the time to learn them.
“It’s a bit of a catch-22 because once people learn how to use the tools, they often gain back time through increased efficiency,” Dr. Brownstein said.
Much of Boston Children’s AI strategy to date has focused on what Dr. Brownstein referred to as “lower-risk, high-yield opportunities,” such as administrative and back-office functions. However, he believes there is still an enormous opportunity ahead for the organization when it comes to clinical care, patient safety and research.
That is why the organization is working with several companies, including OpenAI and OpenEvidence. The goal, according to Dr. Brownstein, is to ensure Boston Children’s is using “the right tools for the right job.”
At the same time, when it comes to AI applications that directly affect patient care, Boston Children’s is moving more cautiously.
“That’s an area we’re moving toward, but we’re doing so thoughtfully,” he said.
As for the next phase of AI at Boston Children’s, it will go beyond implementing individual tools and move toward building what Dr. Brownstein described as an intelligence infrastructure that connects AI with the organization’s data systems, including its Epic EHR and other enterprise platforms.
“AI becomes much more powerful when it’s connected to systems of record in ways that allow organizations to generate meaningful insights around patient care, operations, capacity management, safety and outcomes,” he said. “That’s where healthcare organizations will ultimately realize the greatest value from AI.”
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