As part of conversations between AI healthcare leaders on the podcast AI Amplified this year, a clear picture emerged of where artificial intelligence is genuinely transforming healthcare — and where challenges remain. Designed to cut through the noise, AI Amplified showcased leaders making real impact in 2025 in the domains of pathology, remote patient monitoring, business strategy, voice AI, and clinical data management — a diverse group that shared remarkably consistent insights about responsible implementation.
Host Dr. Heather Bassett, Chief Medical Officer at Xsolis, found the guests’ insights resonated deeply with her own experience. Rare among CMOs at healthcare technology companies, she leads both clinical services and data science teams at Xsolis, where she architected the Care Level Score™, integrating clinical expertise with data science to unite payers and providers during concurrent authorization. Through her involvement in AI work groups with the Coalition for Health AI and the National Committee for Quality Assurance, she confirms that leaders across the industry are grappling with similar questions about governance, transparency, and trust, and explored these themes further with podcast guests.
Where AI Is Proving Its Value
Reducing Administrative Burden
A consistent theme emerged: AI’s immediate value lies in eliminating workflow friction. Dr. Stephanie Lahr, former health system CIO and CEO of Vital Thread Advisory, emphasized starting small. “Focus on efficiency gains before clinical decision support,” she advised. “ROI isn’t linear but follows exponential potential.”
Carta Healthcare’s Greg Miller illustrated this with concrete numbers. Healthcare spends $10-15 billion annually on manual clinical data abstraction. Carta’s AI platform combines AI with clinical expertise — what Miller calls “hybrid intelligence” — to improve accuracy and save clients time and money with these processes.
Clinical Decision Support Done Right
Dr. Peter McCaffrey, Chief AI Officer at University of Texas Medical Branch, demonstrated how AI assists pathologists with heat maps for prostate biopsies, reducing mental fatigue while maintaining “human in the loop” validation.
“AI should augment, not replace, clinicians,” reiterated Cadence Chief Medical Officer Dr. Eve Cunningham. Cadence serves 57,000 patients with chronic conditions across 18 health systems, using AI to manage data overload while keeping clinicians central.
Dr. Erin Palm at Infinitus Systems discussed how voice AI delivers consistent empathy across thousands of patient calls — a challenge for even dedicated clinicians during long days. Her team evaluates professionalism and empathy attributes to ensure technology enhances human connection.
Implementing AI Responsibly
Building Trust Through Transparency
Both Miller and Dr. Bassett shared stories of nurses who were initial detractors becoming post-implementation champions. “It’s possible to build trust incrementally through transparency and clinical expertise,” Dr. Bassett noted, drawing on her experience with Xsolis’ Dragonfly platform.
Companies leading responsible AI development have demonstrated that skepticism transforms into advocacy when organizations maintain transparency and guide implementation with clinical expertise.
Shared Recommendations Across Specialties
Despite working in different domains, leaders offered consistent guidance: start small with low-risk use cases; prioritize trusted, validated data; ensure clinical validation at scale; and balance innovation with safety-by-design technology.
Dr. Cunningham captured the consensus: “As AI becomes democratized, the currency of solutions is workflows, pathways, integration, and clinical validation. These require clinical and operational expertise to do at scale.” Justin Barnes, CEO of Growth Performance, emphasized the regulatory environment is taking a pragmatic approach, “allowing organizations to propose ideas without rushing implementation,” creating the space (and reiterating the need) for responsible innovation.
The Future of AI in Healthcare
Looking to 2026
Dr. McCaffrey predicted tool convergence, with general AI platforms replacing specialized tools, requiring strategic focus on unified workflows. Dr. Cunningham observed a generational divide: tech-savvy younger physicians lack clinical experience, while seasoned physicians bring irreplaceable clinical expertise but may be less familiar with AI. “The physician of the future must use AI,” she predicted, “but clinicians will continue validating technologies.”
The consensus? AI must wrap around — not replace — the art of medicine. “You can only learn the practice of medicine by doing it,” Dr. Cunningham noted.
The Path Forward
AI’s healthcare value isn’t measured by sophistication but by its ability to support clinicians, improve outcomes, and reduce waste while maintaining human judgment and empathy. Organizations embracing AI with clear governance, clinical validation, and commitment to augmenting expertise will be positioned to deliver on its promise in 2026.
AI Amplified releases new episodes every fourth Wednesday on HealthcareNOW Radio and major podcast platforms.
