If there was a single theme to what health system CIOs told Becker’s this quarter, it was this: The hard part of AI isn’t the technology.
From CommonSpirit to Stanford to Rush, the leaders running big health systems’ digital strategies spent April through June making the case that data quality, governance, identity and, above all, people will decide whether AI delivers. Here are the most interesting things CIOs shared in the past three months:
1. CommonSpirit’s Daniel Barchi: Don’t lose the “people side” of AI. The Chicago-based hospital giant’s CIO cautioned that “healthcare technology is really 80% people, 15% process, and only about 5% technology — and that’s true even with AI,” while pushing back on AI-risk panic.
2. Stanford’s Michael Pfeffer, MD, makes the case that AI is job-protective. Palo Alto, Calif.-based Stanford Health Care’s chief information and digital officer argued that demand for digital solutions is “effectively insatiable” and that resisting AI is a bigger threat to jobs than adopting it.
3. Aultman Health System’s Raza Fayyaz on redeploying staff in the AI era. The CIO at the Canton, Ohio-based organization framed AI as moving workers from “doers” to “auditors and strategists” — “AI is there to take the ‘robot’ out of the human, not the human out of the job.”
4. Atlantic Health’s Sunil Dadlani on the CIO mindset for the next era. The chief information and digital transformation officer at the Morristown, N.J.-based system warned against AI “pilot paralysis”: “Momentum without governance is chaos and fragmentation, whereas governance without momentum is stagnation.”
5. Children’s Nebraska’s Ryan Cameron, EdD, names the most underrated threat in digital health. The chief information and innovation officer of the pediatric system in Omaha flagged identity management — not adoption or interoperability — as the looming risk as agentic AI exposes weak points.
6. Northwell’s Kristin Myers on the system’s biggest Epic go-live yet. The chief digital officer of the New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based hospital network told Becker’s how Wave 2 brought about 42,000 users across nine hospitals online, adding transplant and dialysis capabilities.
7. Rush University System for Health’s Jeff Gautney on managing a “digital workforce.” The CIO of the Chicago-based organization warned that AI agents don’t fail cleanly — “they go slowly crazy, usually” — and that “agentic AI immediately exposes all of the bad data in your organization.”
8. HSS’ Ashis Barad, MD, on giving AI agents “earned” autonomy. New York City-based Hospital for Special Surgery’s chief transformation and digital information officer explained its “staged autonomy model — nothing goes fully autonomous on Day 1,” pointing to a patient board that autonomously orchestrates clinical data, consult needs and insurance status into one view while clinicians still own every decision.
At the Becker's 11th Annual IT + Revenue Cycle Conference: The Future of AI & Digital Health, taking place September 14–17 in Chicago, healthcare executives and digital leaders from across the country will come together to explore how AI, interoperability, cybersecurity, and revenue cycle innovation are transforming care delivery, strengthening financial performance, and driving the next era of digital health. Apply for complimentary registration now.