Who Should Lead the GenAI Charge? Health Care C-Suites Disagree

Health system executive teams tend to agree that generative AI will prove valuable for their organizations, but few are aligned on the logistics of implementation, according to a new survey.

Accenture—a global company specializing in IT and consulting—surveyed 300 health care executives for its new report, "Gen AI amplified: Scaling productivity for healthcare providers." Respondents were CEOs, CFOs, COOs, chief information officers, chief technology officers and chief strategy officers from U.S.-based provider organizations with at least $1 billion in revenue.

Dr. Tejash Shah, managing director of health at Accenture and an author of the report, told Newsweek the research was inspired by conversations with provider clients who were hoping to use AI to mitigate workforce challenges. Accenture wanted to understand how C-suite leaders are thinking about AI investments, from setting a foundation to scaling the technology.

The report identified multiple disconnects within C-suites. For one, 28 percent of CEOs see themselves as responsible for redefining roles impacted by generative AI—but only 5 percent of their colleagues in other roles agree. The majority, 80 percent, identified the chief digital officer or chief digital and artificial intelligence officer as the best person for the task.

Only a small fraction of leaders—less than 4 percent—attributed any generative AI responsibility to chief nursing officers or chief medical officers.

Generative AI touches so many parts of the organization that responsibilities have become blurred, Shah said. Leadership teams are still figuring out who should guide their focus, who should think through operations and who should reimagine existing care models.

Is there a right answer? Technically, none of these officials should be leading the charge alone, according to Brian Kalis, managing director of digital health and innovation at Accenture. He told Newsweek that generative AI decisions should include all members of the leadership team, and clinicians should have a seat at the table.

"Because [generative AI] is new and it's technology, there's a default to assuming that it should be led by a chief digital officer, chief information officer or equivalent," Kalis said. "However, it really needs to be a multidisciplinary team."

He added that someone should take the helm to guide alignment: "It does need to be the CEO leading from the top to drive change within that whole leadership team, because it impacts every part of the organization."

Some health systems are making nurses "key opinion leaders" and establishing clinician advisory panels to gather input directly from the front lines, Shah said. In nursing, up to 20 percent of "repetitive, lower-complexity" tasks can be automated by AI, saving $50 billion per year, according to Accenture's report. Nurses' experiences are crucial to unlocking that value.

Nonclinical roles could also use more focus, the report suggests. Just 3 percent of executives pointed to call centers and customer service as key areas for generative AI transformation. However, other sectors have prioritized these departments, and Accenture estimates that generative AI could increase call centers' capacity by up to 30 percent.

In addition, the survey identified a gap between tech leaders and other members of the C-suite. Half of IT executives reported that there was strong alignment between technology initiatives and overall business strategy at their organization. According to the report, this could inhibit generative AI initiatives from scaling past the pilot phase.

Execs also disagree on how to scale. CEOs were more likely to prioritize support from external partnerships and in-house teams, but others, especially CFOs and chief information officers, preferred to hire additional experts.

Health care teams need to get on the same page in order to make generative AI work for their organizations, according to Kalis.

"It's an enterprise challenge impacting all enterprise leaders that need to work together as a team," he said. "It truly will take a village to drive that change."