AI Won't Transform Healthcare. An AI-Enabled Workforce Will.
Building the informatics leaders healthcare needs to guide transformation and put patients first.
The Future of Healthcare Depends on the Workforce We Build Today
Healthcare is experiencing one of the most significant periods of transformation in its history.
Artificial intelligence, ambient documentation, predictive analytics, virtual care, automation, and digital platforms are rapidly changing how healthcare organizations operate. Every week seems to bring another breakthrough, another product announcement, or another promise of how technology will revolutionize care.
These innovations represent tremendous opportunity. They can reduce administrative burdens, improve access to care, streamline workflows, support clinical decision-making, and allow clinicians to spend more time with patients and families.
As someone who works at the intersection of clinical care, operations, and technology, I find this incredibly exciting.
But I also believe we are asking the wrong question.
The conversation today often centers on Which AI tools should we implement? A more important question is Who will lead healthcare through this transformation?
Technology Alone Will Not Transform Healthcare
People will.
One of the greatest risks organizations face is focusing so heavily on implementing new technologies that they overlook the workforce needed to successfully adopt, govern, optimize, and continuously improve them.
Successful digital transformation has never been about technology alone. It requires thoughtful change management, strong governance, interdisciplinary collaboration, and an unwavering focus on clinicians, patients, and families.
The organizations that will lead the next decade will not necessarily be those that purchase the most AI solutions. They will be the ones that intentionally develop a workforce capable of integrating technology into care safely, ethically, and effectively.
Workforce Transformation Has Become One of Healthcare’s Most Strategic Priorities
For many years, informatics professionals have served as the bridge between clinical practice and technology. That role is now expanding.
Tomorrow’s informatics leaders must understand data literacy, human factors, AI governance, workflow redesign, implementation science, and enterprise strategy. They must be able to evaluate new technologies, understand unintended consequences, manage organizational change, and ensure that innovation consistently improves patient care.
These capabilities are not optional. They are becoming foundational.
Developing this workforce requires more than offering AI training or introducing new software. It requires intentionally redefining professional expectations, creating structured development pathways, establishing new standards of practice, and cultivating leaders who are curious, adaptable, and comfortable working across clinical, operational, and technical disciplines.
This belief has shaped much of my recent work developing an Informatics Excellence Framework and exploring what comes next: an AI-enabled informatics workforce.
The goal is not simply to help professionals learn AI. It is to prepare leaders who can thoughtfully guide organizations through continuous technological change while never losing sight of the people they serve.
Our Greatest Opportunity
Ultimately, I do not believe AI is healthcare’s greatest opportunity.
Our greatest opportunity is helping people leverage technology so they can spend more time doing what only humans can do—building trust, exercising clinical judgment, solving complex problems, and caring for one another.
Technology will continue to evolve.
The workforce we build today will determine whether that technology truly transforms healthcare tomorrow.
