In an industry where AI hype often overshadows substance, healthcare operations teams must understand the spectrum of applications and uses of AI – and even more importantly, understand how to get started.

That was Infinitus Product Lead Brendan Foley’s core message in the first webinar of our HAI25 webinar series, Unlocking healthcare at scale: AI for the back office (now on demand). Below, we’re recapping the webinar’s other major takeaways, for those who weren’t able to attend and those who’d like a refresher. 

The first step to harnessing AI: Developing a strategy

Simply put: AI is freeing up human resources and streamlining operations in the healthcare back office and beyond. Industry leader Infinitus has partnered with have all taken a similar approach, and it all starts with defining a healthcare AI strategy, which involves identifying the right initiative; determining whether to build in-house or partner with a technology provider; considering data security and compliance; starting small and scaling up; and defining and measuring success.

Once you have identified use cases, next up is determining what kind of AI solution is best suited to solve your patient or provider challenges. Today, there are a number of different types of AI solutions on the market, including AI chatbots, AI agents, and AI co-pilots. AI chatbots are suitable for basic tasks like answering queries about a product or scheduling an appointment. However, for more complex tasks like engaging insurance companies or patients, AI agents are more suitable. AI copilots, on the other hand, assist employees in executing tasks effectively, thus saving time.

AI solutions in healthcare must adhere to strict operational guardrails and compliance standards 

Regardless of the modality of your AI solution (e.g. chatbot, agent, or copilot), Foley emphasized the importance of data security and compliance when deploying AI solutions in a healthcare context. He explained that Infinitus’s AI models are trained on data from which PHI (protected health information) has been removed to ensure data security and eliminate bias. Moreover, he detailed the use of strict operational guardrails to ensure that AI models comply with standard operating procedures and industry regulations. 

When considering working with an AI vendor, Foley emphasized healthcare organizations of all kinds must understand how the vendor is treating PHI, how they are keeping data secure, and how compliance is being handled.  

AI can bring real ROI to the back-office, and holds great potential for patient-facing scenarios as well

During the webinar, Foley discussed several examples of how AI has been put into action in the back office of healthcare organizations, resulting in significant improvements in productivity and efficiency. One pharmaceutical manufacturer, for example, recently used the Infinitus AI copilot and found that their case managers were able to make 25% more calls per day. A national pharmaceutical hub used Infinitus AI agents and was able to offset the work of over 100 full-time team members. A specialty pharmacy was able to handle more than 300% more benefit verifications without having to add staff using Infinitus AI agents.

Foley also highlighted the future potential of AI in patient-facing scenarios, envisioning a future where the patient, through AI, has a personalized experience throughout their care journey. Such solutions will be able to empower patient access and support programs to focus on the next best actions needed to help build their businesses.

Human-in-the-loop is no longer enough

Our HAI25 – or, Healthcare AI in 25 – webinar series continues on December 3, when our expert team will explore why human-in-the-loop is critical in any use of AI in healthcare, but still isn’t enough to mitigate risk. They’ll dive into what is. Save your spot now.