Healthcare AI adoption has been growing rapidly, and to date seems to have been producing worthwhile results most of the time. However, a new survey suggests that at least some healthcare leaders are a bit uncomfortable with the speed at which healthcare AI is being put in place, even if they still believe it can accomplish great things under the right circumstances.
According to the survey, which was conducted by KPMG, 67% of healthcare business leaders reported that that AI was at least moderately functional in their organizations. This represents a far lower share than other industries, such as industrial manufacturing (93%), financial services (84%), tech (83%), retail (81%) and life sciences (77%). Only government respondents reported a lower rate of functional AI use (61%).
At least three saw large increases in those seeing AI functioning in their organizations, including financial services (37 percentage point increase), retail (29 percent point increase) and tech (20 percentage point increase).
According to KPMG’s principal of artificial intelligence, Traci Gusher, the pandemic has pushed many industries to speed up such adoption dramatically. This has created a phenomenon Gusher calls “COVID-19 whiplash,” in which business leaders in and outside of healthcare feel that such adoption is moving so quickly that they’re losing control.
They report feeling unsure that they have a good grasp on how their organizations must act to control and govern AI within their organizations. Some of these leaders fear that there are risks to its use, including the ethics, governance, and regulations regarding AI deployment. (When it comes to healthcare, potential medical malpractice liability related to AI use is also an issue.)
Among those industries with the fastest adoption rates, the worries of leaders were the greatest. More than half of the leaders in industrial manufacturing (55%) along with 49% of retail and tech leaders said that AI is moving faster than it should in their sector. These worries were most pronounced in small companies (63%), leaders with extensive AI knowledge (51%) and Gen Z and Millennial business owners (51%).
Meanwhile, 84% of healthcare respondents said that they believe the government will play a role in regulating technology.
That being said, healthcare and life sciences business leaders remain very confident in AI’s capabilities, particularly when it comes to managing COVID. Researchers found that 94% of respondents believe that AI is very well-equipped to monitor the spread of COVID-19 cases, help vaccine development, 90% expect it to help vaccine development and 88% feel that AI will help with the distribution of vaccines during the pandemic.
Plus, the survey offered this look at where organizations are focusing their AI investment now and in the next 2 years:
What’s not as clear is why healthcare is going to see this shift in investment? Is there an assumption that the EHR space will be mature when it comes to AI or will the business priorities of telemedicine and robotic tasks take over? What are you planning for your AI investment? Let us know in the comments or on social media with @hcittoday.
