Generative AI Delivers Business Value in Surprising Ways

Generative AI has dominated conversations across all industries these past few months, and the extent to which it will impact healthcare is likely to be dramatic. The breakneck pace of development and opportunities for practical application has been enough to give any leader cognitive whiplash.

The predominant benefit generative AI offers is its capacity to consume and process massive volumes of complex content in hours – an effort that previously could only be described a Herculean. Initial concerns about the quality of information produced after generative AI ingestion are being allayed as the models are improved and refined. A recent JAMA study,  in fact, found that consumers were more satisfied with responses produced by a generative AI tool than those shared by providers. 

As a result, healthcare leaders are beginning to explore how generative AI fits into their technology strategy. Their confidence in it has grown as companies like OpenAI have moved swiftly to rectify initial concerns about accuracy, reliability and security. Technology vendors have overlaid additional protocols to further build trust, including confidence scores.

By itself, generative AI might offer one-dimensional value: the simple ingestion, aggregation and regurgitation of content. But when paired with additional technologies, such as natural language processing, automation of workflows and conversational dialogs, its value compounds exponentially. Clinical and business use cases abound.

Education for Patients

Patients want to learn, and providers want them to learn too. After all, healthcare is an evidence-based endeavor with a colossal repository of complex content.

But, as healthcare leaders know all too well, providers simply do not have the time to educate patients during face-to-face encounters with the depth and breadth of information available.

Enter generative AI, which enables organizations to quickly ingest content of their choosing. Then, paired with partners that offer conversational virtual assistants that understand words and phrases patients commonly use, it can deliver information to patients contextually. 

For example, it can get to the “why” of their inquiries (e.g., Why do I perform this step in the recovery process? Why do I need to take my medication with food?). Better education equals better understanding which usually leads to better compliance. 

Other applications are just on the horizon. My wife recently underwent some testing and received a typical lab report: lots of information, but very hard for a layperson to understand. Using generative AI, we were able to “translate” the report so she could bring questions and discussion points to the next appointment. The provider agreed that generative AI made the information more accessible so the in-office conversation could be more productive.

Informed Assessment for Business Decisions 

From a solely business perspective, generative AI can help healthcare organizations make significant business decisions. Today’s environment is replete with mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and partnerships. Leaders are expected to wade through voluminous variables – from financials, to operations, to staffing logistics and beyond – to inform the final decision and predict success or failure.

Again, generative AI helps make the unmanageable manageable. Newest versions of the technology ingest all media from text, to PDFs, to spreadsheets, HTML pages, to videos and images, to PowerPoints. 

Then, it can synthesize the information so analysts are able to consider multiple variables and how they interact – and make a decision that supports the best course of action for the organization.  

Optimize the IT Department

IT departments are chronically overwhelmed with projects and leaders are constantly challenged to set priorities. 

Bottom line? Everything that needs to get done cannot get done with existing staff resources.

Surprisingly, the IT department is one of the areas where organizations can use generative AI to great benefit. New tools are able to write and test code, removing these routine tasks from employees. IT leaders can assign staff to the most important projects resulting in greater productivity and resource optimization. 

This, in turn, creates an enviable win/win/win situation: the department as a whole accomplishes more, staff is happier because pressure is alleviated and the organization is more satisfied that needs are met quickly. The IT department that harnesses the power of generative AI to revolutionize its internal business structure becomes a highly effective and efficient team.

Biases, Inaccuracy and A Need for Guardrails

All these benefits do not mean leaders should ignore concerns around generative AI. The speed with which generative AI is advancing has triggered this “slow down” response. Top issues revolve around the potential to spread misinformation, either intentionally or unintentionally. Healthcare leaders have cringed about the impact “Dr. Google” has had on patients – and amplifying consumer access to unverified content through generative AI compounds the concern. 

For these reasons and more, sturdy guardrails must be put into place to address ethical issues and protect patients. Among the most promising are restricting content ingested to only that validated by trusted organizational sources and implementing platforms that offer AI as a service. In addition, industry-leading vendors are enabling their technologies to return “I don’t know” responses when trusted sources do not address a specific query. Many are adding confidence scoring algorithms to further underscore information validity.

There is no doubt generative AI is here to stay and will have a tremendous impact on how organizations operate and deliver care. Savvy executives are educating themselves now and evaluating where and how this transformative technology can accelerate success.