As we wrap up another year and get ready for 2026 to begin, it is once again time for everyone’s favorite annual tradition of Health IT Predictions! We reached out to our incredible Healthcare IT Today Community to get their insights on what will happen in the coming year, and boy, did they deliver. We, in fact, got so many responses to our prompt this year that we have had to narrow them down to just the best and most interesting. Check out the community’s predictions down below and be sure to follow along as we share more 2026 Health IT Predictions!
Check out our community’s AI and Automation predictions:
Craig Joseph, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Nordic Global Consulting
2026 will be the year health systems move from scattered AI pilots to governed deployment, but only if they treat AI as part of a broader operational ecosystem rather than a standalone fix. More than half of health IT leaders cite infrastructure and data governance as the biggest barriers to AI adoption, not the AI tools themselves. The organizations that see real value next year will be the ones investing in foundational readiness: clean data, clear governance rules, and structured workflows that allow automation to augment rather than interrupt care.
We’ll also see a shift in how AI is viewed within clinical workflows, from technology to ‘teammate.’ Adoption hinges on designing for humans first, creating tools that reflect actual personas, real care environments, and specific pressures on nurses, physicians, and administrative teams. AI won’t replace jobs; it will reinforce them and make their expertise more potent when implemented with clinical nuance, behavioral science, and intentional design. Expect AI copilots for documentation and triage to scale first, followed by more sophisticated sequencing models that combine predictive capabilities (LMMs) with summarization tools (LLMs) to make care faster and safer.
Ultimately, success in 2026 won’t be measured by how much AI is deployed, but by how well it strengthens trust, enhances presence at the bedside, reduces cognitive burden, and supports measurable KPIs, such as safety, throughput, and recovery time. Leaders will stop asking ‘Where can we put AI?’ and start asking ‘Where will AI make humans better?’
Ron Gaboury, CEO at Caregility
In 2026, AI in healthcare shifts from hype to real-world validation. Hospitals will only invest in automation that proves reliability and integrates natively into the EHR and clinical workflows. True edge AI and at-the-bedside automation will displace ‘cloud-triggered’ solutions. Leaders will demand measurable operational outcomes: fewer falls, better care coordination, and stronger patient-family engagement. The winners will be platforms that free clinicians from the keyboard, enabling hybrid care models where AI does the documentation, and the human care team finally feels the burden ease.
Kem Graham, VP of Sales at CliniComp
AI and automation will continue to trend in healthcare in 2026, but they will only bring significant and lasting value to health systems with fully integrated EHRs that can seamlessly access all data with AI embedded into their clinical and revenue cycle workflows. As interoperability continues to mature and more health systems focus on it, we will see frontline care connect with accurate, real-time financial actions to reduce denials, strengthen margins, and free up clinicians from burnout-inducing administrative duties. Health systems that commit to standardized data and full integration are going to see impressive gains in efficiency and workforce relief across every area of care.
Maria Ebro Andreasen, Executive Vice President & Chief Strategy Officer at FUJIFILM Biotechnologies
In 2026, AI and automation will improve productivity across biopharma manufacturing, with operational improvements and increased asset utilization. We expect to see more facilities add local intelligent autonomous process units, which can provide automated trending, anomaly detection, and insights to speed up investigations and reduce deviations. The result is faster, more predictable compliance and safer products. Beyond the manufacturing floor, AI-driven automation will streamline administrative workflows to refocus specialized talent throughout other areas of the organization.
Another advancement is the continued expansion of predictive and preventative maintenance. By fusing sensor data with AI-assisted models, teams can forecast equipment service needs before failures occur, increasing uptime and protecting batch success.
Together, AI and automation will raise speed, quality, and resilience across the entire manufacturing value chain and further close the gap in access to medicines.
Lara Heal, Vice President, Network Services at CorVel
The year 2026 will mark a pivotal transformation in workers’ compensation claims management. Advanced technology will empower claims professionals to focus on the most critical responsibility: helping injured workers recover and return to productive employment. Intelligent automation will streamline routine administrative tasks, from medical record retrieval to data entry, creating valuable time for meaningful human interaction and personalized care.
Predictive analytics will enable the claims team to instantly identify high-priority cases requiring immediate intervention, optimizing caseload management and improving outcomes. Success in this new era won’t come from replacing human expertise with machines, but from equipping claims professionals with sophisticated tools that enhance their capabilities.
Ultimately, technology alone doesn’t heal injured workers’genuine communication, clinical insight, and collaborative care management are what drive recovery.
Andrew M. Ibrahim, MD, MSc, Chief Clinical Officer at Viz.ai
2026 will be the year health systems will employ tools that are both indispensable and seemingly invisible. AI will live inside the pockets, workflows, and exam rooms lifting burdens from busy clinicians: surfacing patient data missed on a radiologic read, tracking down essential details buried in a PDF, drafting the note, pre-populating orders, triggering prior auth, and then closing the loop with patient outreach. The most trusted tools won’t be black boxes; they’ll be transparent, FDA-cleared, and clinician vetted. Expect automation to unlock the equivalent of 15% staffing capacity while getting more clinicians top of their license. After deployment, we will all wonder, ‘Why didn’t we have that sooner?’
Perry Genova, Senior Vice President, Chief Technology Officer at Omnicell
Automation isn’t new in healthcare, but 2026 will be the year this technology combines with AI and advanced analytics to break down silos across the healthcare system. What is considered ‘innovative’ today will become the expected baseline tomorrow, fundamentally reshaping how hospitals and pharmacies operate. For example, solutions like automated dispensing cabinets leverage trusted cloud platforms to deliver visibility and insights across a growing health system footprint, helping leaders to quickly take action, illuminate gaps in operations, and support safer patient care workflows.
Michael Gould, AVP of Interoperability Strategy at ZeOmega
During 2026, AI will continue to be used innovatively in supporting roles for human decision-making. AI will continue as ‘assistants,’ and trust will impose limits based on risk tolerance. ‘Safe’ use cases will increase in scope and adoption. For example, automation of prior authorization auto-approvals that utilize rules engines will leverage AI to extend decision support that ultimately concludes in credentialed human experts.
Raja Shankar, Vice President, Machine Learning at IQVIA
In 2026, document generation in clinical operations will be redefined across multiple document types, ICFs, CSRs, protocols, and others, to be prepared 20-50% faster with fewer errors, higher consistency, and higher quality.
Beyond 2026, as regulators have their own AI systems to assess documents, there will likely be a shift away from a narrative format. Instead, document generation will be structured specifically around information, analytics, and insights. We will also see the first signs of substantive process automation in study startup and conduct, with agents tackling increasingly difficult use cases. This will be enabled by better preparation of and access to the data and information necessary for training. In addition, life sciences-specific foundation models will emerge to better inform decision-making in clinical research and development.
Thiru Thangarathinam, Founder & CEO at KeenStack
The most significant technical change in 2026 will be the deployment of AI Agents, i.e. autonomous software loops that don’t just answer questions but perform multi-step tasks. For example, after a patient visit, the agent won’t just write the note; it will autonomously create the referral orders, draft the insurance prior-authorization letter, and, pending physician approval, submit it to the payer portal. These multi-step AI automations will not only take the administrative burden off of healthcare staff, helping with burnout, but they will also improve the patient experience.
Nicole Rogas, President at RevSpring
In 2026, AI will become the ultimate empathy engine across industries, not just in healthcare. As customers grow more cost-conscious and automation fatigue sets in, the organizations that succeed won’t be those that merely automate but those that sense when a person needs compassion, clarity, or human intervention. In tighter economic conditions, people scrutinize every touchpoint more sharply. The most trusted brands will use intelligent automation to preempt stress, tailor tone and timing based on behavior, and offer seamless escalation to human support when needed. In sectors pressed by budget constraints, this ‘automated empathy’ becomes a differentiator: not just a convenience, but a vital trust-builder. Successful adoption will hinge on balancing efficiency with emotional intelligence, especially in regulated, sensitive domains.
Iwona Rajca, Solution Architect at Protegrity
2026 will be a transformational year for healthcare security. The systems that pair automation with responsible data protection will advance, proving that security and innovation can grow together when trust is built into every process.
AI and automation will move from promise to practical use in healthcare next year. The focus will shift from experimenting with models to governing the data that fuels them. By building mature data governance programs, healthcare systems can successfully automate securely and at scale.
When sensitive information stays protected – through methods such as encryption and anonymization – it can move freely between cloud environments, medical devices, and AI systems without creating new risks. This approach requires that compliance is built into the data pipelines, which is an evolution from its very static nature of today.
Interoperability standards such as TEFCA support this shift by enforcing consistent, controlled data flows between providers, researchers, and networks. Combined with automation and security, they will allow faster and safer decisions in patient care and operations.
Nish Parekh, Chief Product Officer at Omnicell
Specialty pharmacies are increasingly becoming a part of mainstream healthcare, driven by the rise of complex, high-cost therapies like GLP-1s and targeted oncology treatments. In 2026, AI and automation will be the backbone that helps specialty pharmacies operate efficiently at scale, manage complex medication regimens, and deliver personalized patient care. Patients will expect timely, customized service; providers will need real-time insights across patient and medication data; and health systems will measure success not only by clinical outcomes, but by operational efficiency, responsiveness, and patient experience.
Rajesh Patel, Senior Director, Product Management at IQVIA Clinical Trial Financial Suite
In 2026, AI and automation will accelerate clinical trial financial management, easing the burden on both sponsors and sites, and ultimately, improving the patient experience. Intelligent automation across budgeting, contracting, invoicing, and site payments will reduce manual reconciliation and give teams real-time visibility into financial health. The focus will be on tools that simplify workflows and deliver a more seamless user experience. A unified, connected platform will be essential to ensure accuracy, accelerate payments, strengthen site engagement, and ultimately support more efficient, patient-centered trials.
Dr. Nikhil Nadkarni, Chief Medical Officer at Brightline
AI is going to fundamentally change the digital health market next year, both in terms of digital health operations and digital health care quality. In terms of digital health operations, AI will move into the background and become a foundational silent hero under the hood. The real value of AI will be in its invisibility. The goal isn’t just automation; it’s the elimination of entire tasks using AI. This is in contrast to the explicit ‘click here to use this awesome AI feature’ user interaction that we often see today.
As for digital health care quality, leading companies will use AI to unlock the creativity of their clinical teams to make their patient interactions more effective and higher quality than what is possible right now. This can come in many forms, from hyper-personalization of content and treatment plans to new tools and interventions. The standout companies will be those that integrate AI thoughtfully, ethically, and in line with care guidelines to truly elevate care quality. For the overall digital health market, expect to see a proliferation of niche digital health care tools and offerings, followed by rapid consolidation.
Asif Shah Mohammed, Partner and Head of Digital Innovation at ECG Management Consultants
In 2026, AI and automation will force healthcare to confront an uncomfortable truth: that much of the ‘innovation’ delivered has been cosmetic, rather than driving meaningful change. The era of disconnected tools and fragmented systems is behind us. True innovation lies in smarter, integrated platforms that surface inefficiencies while delivering measurable results, improving margins, scaling and enhancing care coordination, and making access to care simpler.
Thank you so much to everyone who took the time out of their day to submit a prediction to us, and thank you to all of you for taking the time to read this article! We could not do this without all of your support. What do you think will happen for AI and Automation in 2026? Let us know on social media. We’d love to hear from all of you!
Be sure to check out all of Healthcare IT Today’s AI and Automation content and our other 2026 Health IT Predictions.
Note: Surprise! Surprise! We had a lot of AI predictions, so this is just the first batch.
