Healthcare Leaders Trusting AI to Improve Outcomes and Support Day-to-Day Work

A new survey has concluded healthcare leaders are growing more convinced that AI can improve care outcomes, reduce costs and meet health equity goals though generating near-term ROI from AI use still seems to be in question. The study, the Optum Survey on Artificial Intelligence in Health Care, connected with 500 senior healthcare executives from top hospitals, health plans, life sciences companies and employers.

One key finding of the survey was that 85% of respondents said they have an AI strategy in place and that 48% have implemented their strategy. All told, 98% of healthcare organizations that responded either had an AI strategy in place or were planning one. When asked which areas they could use AI to improve patient outcomes, the top three categories included virtual patient care (41%), diagnosis and predicting outcomes (40%) and medical image interpretation (36%).

Despite all of these positive feelings about the future of AI in their organizations, however, health leaders’ belief that AI can save money has fallen back of late. Just 42% of health leaders said they expect to see a return on their AI investment within the next three years, down from 59% just a year ago.