Who’s Minding the Store on AI Governance?

‐

By Eric Wicklund

Healthcare’s top executives love AI, according to a new poll. But many have reservations about whether it’s ready for prime time.

That’s the biggest takeaway from a survey of some 100 healthcare C-Suite execs by Sage Growth Partners. And while it predicts a promising future for AI in addressing healthcare’s biggest pain points, it raises questions about how the industry is approaching governance.

“Today’s healthcare leaders are facing a complex mix of opportunity and risk,” Stephanie Kovalick, chief strategy officer of Sage Growth Partners, says in a press release accompanying the survey. “While the potential of AI is undeniable — especially in areas like clinical decision support and operational efficiency — executives are rightly concerned about data quality, bias, and regulatory uncertainties. The stakes are too high for missteps.”

The question is, are healthcare leaders being too cautious? Or are the rewards greater than the risk?

According to the Sage survey, 83% of executives say AI can boost clinical decision-making and 75% say it can reduce inefficiency and, therefore, operational costs. But only 13% have a clear strategy for using AI in clinical care, and only 10% say they’re aggressively pursuing the technology.

And yet, 67% of those surveyed are investing in AI to enhance patient care, roughly that same percentage are investing in AI to improve administrative operations, and 57% say investing in AI-based clinical solutions is one of their top five technology priorities over the next five years.

So they’re worried about what it can do, yet they’re going full steam ahead with using it. The conflict isn’t new; healthcare leaders have been saying for the past couple of years that AI adoption may be soaring but governance is lagging.

What we at HealthLeaders have been seeing in our Mastermind programs, The Winning Edge webinars and interviews with healthcare executives is an understanding that AI will fundamentally change healthcare delivery, and it’s important to jump on the bandwagon and embrace the technology now. But execs also want to know where governance will come from – should each state be creating their own guardrails, should the government be taking the lead in developing an overall governance plan, or should each health system or coalition plot their own rules?

And if those guardrails aren’t in place yet, are healthcare leaders being responsible enough in using AI?