How health systems are future-proofing their workforce

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With AI becoming a cornerstone of healthcare strategy, hospitals and health systems are moving quickly to prepare their workforces for a tech-enabled future.

St. Louis-based Mercy began its workforce preparation several years ago. Through “AI Dev Days” — collaborative innovation sessions involving nurses, engineers, clinicians and change managers — cross-functional teams gained hands-on experience with real-world use cases. That initiative has since evolved into a formal AI engineering community of practice with more than 140 members, allowing Mercy to scale knowledge and talent alongside emerging technologies.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based Stanford Health Care launched a systemwide AI 101 course, initially targeting IT staff and later expanding across the organization. The program includes a curated set of tools that allow employees to experiment with AI technologies.

“The goal is not to have a team or person responsible for AI, but to make everyone responsible — everyone needs a baseline understanding,” said Michael Pfeffer, MD, chief information and digital officer at Stanford Health Care and Stanford School of Medicine, during Becker’s 15th Annual Meeting.

Similarly, Chicago-based CommonSpirit introduced the “AI Learning Academy,” an initiative focused on teaching employees how to effectively understand and apply emerging AI tools in their daily work.

While hospitals race to adopt new AI tools, leaders are learning that true transformation begins not with the technology itself, but with educating and preparing the workforce to use it effectively.

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