Making healthcare AI work through better workflow redesign

As healthcare organizations pivot from piloting artificial intelligence (AI) to scaling it across the enterprise, leaders must be deliberate about redesigning workflow and rethinking their IT governance models.

Laura Wilt, chief digital officer at Sutter Health in California, says the real opportunity is to connect new AI-enabled information to the right person, at the right moment, with a clear next action.

That principle shapes Sutter’s broader approach to AI. In this episode of the Oliver Wyman Health podcast hosted by Eric Lu, Wilt describes a strategy spanning patient and consumer experience, clinical applications, and administrative functions, supported by education, adoption, cultural readiness, and governance. The goal is to ensure initiatives map to system priorities and have measurable outcomes.

Workflow redesign is central to that effort. Rather than simply automating individual tasks, Wilt argues that health systems need to understand the full journey, question why work is done the way it is, and redesign processes around what patients and care teams actually need.

Wilt also explores how AI can personalize patient engagement, support more continuous connections outside traditional care settings, and make information easier to access and act on. She highlights responsible governance, frontline education, and “change activation” as critical capabilities for turning rapid technological change into better care.

Key talking points include:

• Why AI initiatives should be grounded in business value, system strategy, and measurable outcomes.
• How workflow redesign can turn AI-generated insights into action instead of simply adding new information or automating isolated tasks.
• Where personalization can help health systems meet patients through the channels and experiences they prefer.
• How AI may support more continuous, accessible care beyond hospitals and clinics by helping people use and understand information more effectively.
• Why governance, education, cultural readiness, and frontline participation are essential to responsible AI adoption and lasting change. 

About the series

The Oliver Wyman Health Podcast features conversations with leaders who are pioneering the transformation of the health market. Oliver Wyman’s Health and Life Sciences Practice is a leader in value-based, consumer-centric healthcare and serves clients in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical devices, provider, and payer sectors. Topics covered in this series include the business challenges of transforming healthcare from volume to value, consumer engagement, consumer experience, digital health, care delivery models, strategy, leadership, and organization.

Laura Wilt: The really big unlock, I think, is: How do you bring that information, those alerts, or whatever new piece of information that you're bringing in, to the right person? And how do you really do that workflow design and help them understand what to do with that information and what you might do next?

And I think that's the real key. Yes, AI can enable that new information, but how do you bring it into what people are really doing and the processes that they're doing? That's the thing that will make the difference.

Matthew Weinstock: That was Laura Wilt talking about the importance of rethinking the way work gets done as healthcare systems roll out artificial intelligence across the enterprise.

Wilt is Chief Digital Officer at Sutter Health. She joined the California-based health system in 2023, just as generative AI and large language models were beginning to reshape the technology landscape.

Her career at the intersection of healthcare and technology began at Epic and has included roles focused on using technology to transform how healthcare organizations operate and deliver care.

At Sutter, that means looking beyond AI for AI's sake. She focuses on how technology can create meaningful value for patients, clinicians, and employees. The health system is applying AI across a range of areas, including predictive modeling and clinical workflows, as well as administrative functions and the patient experience.

In this episode of the Oliver Wyman Health Podcast, Wilt and Oliver Wyman's Eric Lu discuss what it takes to move AI from experimentation to impact. They examine a range of issues, including governance, AI literacy, and what Wilt refers to as change activation — that's creating a culture where frontline employees help shape how the new technology is used.

The Oliver Wyman Health Podcast is brought to you by the global management consulting firm Oliver Wyman. For more insights on the business of transforming healthcare, visit our online publication, health.oliverwyman.com.

And now, let's pick things up with Wilt discussing her background and the journey that led her to become a leader in digital health and AI.

Laura: I grew up, and my whole family worked in the same family business, in an HVAC business, actually. And so I worked in the office of that business.

So I think there's a ton of value in really believing in what you're doing and working together with teams that you do that with. When it's your family, there are pros and cons to that. But I had a wonderful experience growing up.

I went to college and wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to do, but had the opportunity to go work in healthcare software at Epic after I graduated. And it was a turning point and a really great opportunity for me. I really enjoyed the sort of intersection between technology and health and what we could do there. It's been where I've spent my time ever since.

Eric Lu: And how about at Ochsner? Because I know Ochsner is known for innovation and tech innovation, being pretty tech-forward. How was it there, and how have you brought some of that to Sutter?

Laura: Yeah, it was an awesome opportunity there as well, really. I had the ability to work and learn kind of as a team. It was primarily one hospital location with a really strong group of physicians. The physician group practiced there pre-Hurricane Katrina, and after that, is when some of that growth really started to come together and become sort of this regional system.

That was around the same time that I joined, and one of the first sort of system projects that they did was actually implementing Epic. This was a long time ago, but I had the opportunity to do that as the consultant at the time, and it was the best opportunity to get to know an organization because I got to actually go around, visit every location, meet the people, see how they did their work, and see what we could really do together.

And so then, when I had the opportunity to join full-time, I knew that's something I wanted to do. The innovation and the physicians and how they work together as really that group practice, I think, is really special. Plus the team that's there. It was just a great place to learn and grow and continue to try to innovate and do new things. So I bring, hopefully, that same mindset anywhere that I go.

Eric: Let's maybe then shift to your time here at Sutter. Would love to hear a bit about your time there over the past several years, how you've shaped the AI journey. I know AI is such a broad and moving topic. How have you thought about organizing the work and the strategy around AI at Sutter?

Laura: We think about AI as part of the digital overall strategy in terms of wanting to make sure that we are using AI to really connect with people, make work easier for our employees, our physicians, and connect with our patients in different ways, too. That's sort of the overall digital approach and lens.

But within AI, we've thought about it with a sort of framework that has three primary domains along those same lines: patient experience or consumer experience; clinical — and that clinical has several different areas, including predictive modeling, diagnostics, and efficiency and well-being tools that we can use there; and the third pillar is really around administrative experience.

All of that sits along a really important part of that framework, which is education, adoption, cultural readiness — one of the things we talk about with AI — and governance.

And so, how do all those things really fit together into this framework? And that's how we try to make sure that any initiatives that we're doing, or an AI-specific project that we want to do, have a real business value that ties to one of our system strategies and sort of lives within that AI framework too.

So it's a bit of a matrix, but I think it helps keep it grounded by making sure that we're really focused on outcomes.

Eric: Yeah, from our vantage point in the market, I know the industry is moving from, "What is AI and what are the use cases?" to, "Are we really getting the value we need, and are we scaling it in a way that creates impact across the board?"

And so I'm curious if you could share your experiences. What's worked well? What are some challenges you've run into as you look to implement AI within that fabric of the culture and the operations and the details of how people work? And any lessons learned from some of your recent efforts?

Laura: One of the things that the team's been working really hard on is a predictive model for predicting patients who might be septic. You can run that model — a lot of health systems, I think many health systems, have this — and we've had that for a while.

We have just been working to update the model and make sure — this is part of what our governance process really does — there's evaluation, monitoring, and then improvement. So that's an area that, in partnership with our quality team, we wanted to really work on. So they've been doing model improvements, which are great and super important.

The really big unlock, I think, is: How do you bring that information, those alerts, or whatever new piece of information that you're bringing in, to the right person? And how do you really do that workflow design and help them understand what to do with that information and what you might do next?

And I think that's the real key. Yes, AI can enable that new information, but how do you bring it into what people are really doing and the processes that they're doing? That's the thing that will make the difference.

Eric: Yeah, that's a really good point. And workflow design, I know, is quickly becoming the topic of the day now on transforming the people and process around the technology.

I'm curious if there are any best practices or tips you'd share around how you unlock the kind of creativity to step back from the way things currently work and truly redesign something, especially as agentic AI is allowing AI to take more steps on its own.

So, how are you creating the right bandwidth and mix of expertise of people who know the innovation, but also people who know the day-to-day operations, and get to a redesign that works well but is also a step change from what you might currently have?

Laura: A lot of times — and this is something that I find too on my teams and then throughout the organization — you've gotten into a routine where people are kind of, I don't know if I'd call it silos, but they have clear beginnings and ends to their part of the job or their part of the journey, right?

Like, I do this, and then I do this, and then the next person does something, which I think is efficient. It doesn't necessarily lead you to really understanding the big picture of why everyone's doing each of those steps, which I think you have to know in order to really redesign something and really have the opportunity to transform.

It's very easy to say, like, "Okay, if I automate this part, it'll make this person more efficient," which is awesome, and we should do that. But then there's the need to also just look and question and say, "Well, why do we even do that in the first place? Like, what's the point of us doing that? Is it really getting something that we still need?"

That's a harder task, I think.

Eric: I'm curious how you're thinking about where AI can really differentiate Sutter as you think about Sutter's broader competitive position and overall position in the community as an integrated delivery system.

So could you speak more to how you see AI fitting strategically into how you might differentiate going forward?

Laura: Yeah, we don't want to just be doing AI for AI's sake. It's really trying to find: What are the valuable things that AI can help us do?

We have some, I think, already. Ambient documentation has been a huge value-add for physicians and clinicians who are able to do that and not spend as much time sort of writing that note summary at the end.

I think summarization is another really good example. How do you take the vast amount of data that's in a record or in a system that you have and summarize it? How do you recognize patterns? I think that's another really clear opportunity, recognizing patterns and identifying those.

So I think we have to be really thoughtful about how we can use AI now to do things that we'd want to do that we hadn't been able to do, like personalized experiences.

And then the second area is really: How do we stay connected, even when you're not necessarily able to do that sort of face-to-face visit or call? So there are virtual health options. But I think the other thing is: How do we stay connected with people when they're well? Or how do we stay connected and be there for you when you really need us?

We've been doing a lot of things. We launched something called Ask Emmy inside of our My Health Online. It's just a chat, and you can ask any questions that you would ask another LLM, maybe, especially about your health.

And it has the added benefit of, one, it's private and secure. It's inside that environment already. But then, two, it has the benefit of having your history. It has the medications you're taking. It knows a little bit about your health. And so it can answer those questions with that in mind.

Eric: I think what you were just mentioning now, improving personalization and engagement, really opens up a broader question that the industry is grappling with on who controls the AI-enabled experience when it comes to understanding your healthcare options and navigating healthcare.

Certainly, there's a big role to play for someone like Sutter. We also see moves by OpenAI and Anthropic into owning the front door of just going to ChatGPT, for instance, and asking it questions or asking it to summarize your health information.

So I'm curious about your thoughts on how Sutter, or health systems more broadly, are engaging in the digital front door with some of the technology companies that consumers and members are also turning to.

Laura: That's a big question that I think we'll all have to really work through over the next couple of years. We're doing it now, so it's already happening.

We kind of want to engage with everyone so that we understand and see how, whether that's consumer behavior changes or seeing where we could really add specific value. That's what we're trying to do.

Our mission is "patients first, people always." I bring that up every time I think about technology. I know that you wouldn't necessarily think of that, but I do. And I think about: How do we bring technology where it helps put our patients first and helps our people?

That might be working with OpenAI or Anthropic for different types of tools than we have today. And we want to be really open to that, and we want to be a great partner so that we can work with everybody.

I believe really strongly that it's going to be about how we work together. I don't think anyone wants more fragmentation. You don't want your data here and there and having to go, "Oh, I go here to ask this question, but I go here to do something else."

I think everyone's trying to tackle that. The way that we get there, though, I don't think there's going to be one answer because preferences and behaviors are going to be unique to individuals, and how they want to interact with that will be different.

Eric: If we look ahead five years and you had a bit of a crystal ball or a magic wand, what's exciting you the most about AI's potential? And what about AI at Sutter do you think will fundamentally change and transform for the better?

Laura: This ability for us to aggregate and better understand all of the information that we have access to today — and that's from a provider perspective, being able to aggregate the amount of information and the research that's being done and the studies that are published all the time — that's really difficult.

How do we bring that to people more in real time? So it's information that's out there, but it's making it easier to access, making it easier to understand, and really bringing it to life and doing something with it.

I think that is going to be a huge difference-maker over the next several years because people will have access to stuff that they didn't have today. And then you'll be able to do different things with it.

And so one of those different things that I'm really excited about is: How do we care for people and just reimagine care delivery? How do we care for people when they're not necessarily with us in our physical buildings, but really doing that?

And yes, I know people have remote monitoring programs and other types of programs, and I think those are great. I think it's building on those. It's building on virtual care to really be able to put them together in a way that's holistic and caring for someone all the time, even when they're not sick, and staying connected with them.

It can be more accessible because then you can do that. You don't have to make sure that you have a ride to a physical location, or you don't have to take off work to go do a visit or something like that.

So I do think it will help us increase accessibility for our patients.

Eric: Yeah, it is very interesting how, at the end of the day, a lot of what to solve for can boil down to the basics, like getting the right data, right? Garbage in, garbage out.

And if AI can now synthesize and recommend and act on much more information, you do need the information all in one place to be able to then have AI built on top of it.

I think that's a great point, and that'll unlock a lot more than what it's pointed at today.

Laura: Things are changing really rapidly, not just in technology but in general, in society right now. And so that ability to absorb or shape the change, I think, is so important.

So how do we build that resilience, those skill sets, into not just our teams and our employees, but for everybody? And that includes: How do we engage with patients so they can make sure that they understand changes and what options they have now?

That's something that we all should spend a lot of time on: How do we make sure that we're having the right conversations about how change happens and being ready for that, but then also shaping that change too?

Eric: That's a great point. And we need to make sure, ultimately, we're using AI responsibly, and the trust is built with how it's being deployed.

And I'm curious, are there any strategies or approaches that you've deployed to help — we say change management, but I'm hearing you say much more than that — activate the change to create a different culture and relationship with technology than we have today? Any tips or lessons learned from that?

Laura: I love that idea, like change activation, because it's not just managing it, it's like activating for it.

We have a team that's really cross-functional with our chief ethics and compliance officer and our regulatory leaders and our chief AI officer that's really looking at: How do we put the right things in place to do the right reviews for any AI that we're using? That's our AI governance.

They've really helped us refine, like, how do we ask ourselves these questions, and what do we want to look for? And that's been really great.

An equally important part of that is we have a team that's really trying to do education. They're doing workshops on how to use Copilot. What can you use? How do you use this? And what could that look like for you?

And we're launching right now — we do an annual innovation challenge, a system-wide innovation challenge. This year, we've added something that's going to be our first AI hackathon, where we're trying to gather ideas from our frontline staff and then bring some resources around them to help them bring those to life really quickly.

So I'm excited about that. I think those kinds of activities — it just can't be like a theoretical thing that someone else is doing. It's got to be brought to our frontline employees.

Eric: Yeah, the hackathon sounds like a lot of fun, and it resonates with a topic that we see a lot around increasing AI literacy and the uniqueness of generative AI, such that the more you use it in a different way, the more it unlocks ideas for how to do more with it because it's so different in the way you interact and converse with it.

And so, to your point, if you get folks excited about using it, you'll unlock a lot more ideas and comfort with AI.

Laura: Yeah, and not just AI. Our nursing informatics team has been doing an amazing project to streamline nursing documentation and really bring in frontline teams to make documentation easier for our nurses. And they've had amazing success.

I'm super excited about that work. They were just telling me they've really used the term "digital influencers." Like, how do you go about being a digital influencer among your teams?

And that's just a little concept that we've had for a while, but how do you bring it forward and to where we are today? So I'm excited for the work that they're doing.

Eric: Yeah, that's great. How do you go viral in your own?

Laura: Yeah, in a good way.

Matthew: Thank you for listening to the Oliver Wyman Health Podcast. This podcast is brought to you by the global management consulting firm Oliver Wyman. For more insights on the business of transforming healthcare, visit our online publication, health.oliverwyman.com.

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

As healthcare organizations pivot from piloting artificial intelligence (AI) to scaling it across the enterprise, leaders must be deliberate about redesigning workflow and rethinking their IT governance models.

Laura Wilt, chief digital officer at Sutter Health in California, says the real opportunity is to connect new AI-enabled information to the right person, at the right moment, with a clear next action.

That principle shapes Sutter’s broader approach to AI. In this episode of the Oliver Wyman Health podcast hosted by Eric Lu, Wilt describes a strategy spanning patient and consumer experience, clinical applications, and administrative functions, supported by education, adoption, cultural readiness, and governance. The goal is to ensure initiatives map to system priorities and have measurable outcomes.

Workflow redesign is central to that effort. Rather than simply automating individual tasks, Wilt argues that health systems need to understand the full journey, question why work is done the way it is, and redesign processes around what patients and care teams actually need.

Wilt also explores how AI can personalize patient engagement, support more continuous connections outside traditional care settings, and make information easier to access and act on. She highlights responsible governance, frontline education, and “change activation” as critical capabilities for turning rapid technological change into better care.

Key talking points include:

• Why AI initiatives should be grounded in business value, system strategy, and measurable outcomes.
• How workflow redesign can turn AI-generated insights into action instead of simply adding new information or automating isolated tasks.
• Where personalization can help health systems meet patients through the channels and experiences they prefer.
• How AI may support more continuous, accessible care beyond hospitals and clinics by helping people use and understand information more effectively.
• Why governance, education, cultural readiness, and frontline participation are essential to responsible AI adoption and lasting change. 

About the series

The Oliver Wyman Health Podcast features conversations with leaders who are pioneering the transformation of the health market. Oliver Wyman’s Health and Life Sciences Practice is a leader in value-based, consumer-centric healthcare and serves clients in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical devices, provider, and payer sectors. Topics covered in this series include the business challenges of transforming healthcare from volume to value, consumer engagement, consumer experience, digital health, care delivery models, strategy, leadership, and organization.

Laura Wilt: The really big unlock, I think, is: How do you bring that information, those alerts, or whatever new piece of information that you're bringing in, to the right person? And how do you really do that workflow design and help them understand what to do with that information and what you might do next?

And I think that's the real key. Yes, AI can enable that new information, but how do you bring it into what people are really doing and the processes that they're doing? That's the thing that will make the difference.

Matthew Weinstock: That was Laura Wilt talking about the importance of rethinking the way work gets done as healthcare systems roll out artificial intelligence across the enterprise.

Wilt is Chief Digital Officer at Sutter Health. She joined the California-based health system in 2023, just as generative AI and large language models were beginning to reshape the technology landscape.

Her career at the intersection of healthcare and technology began at Epic and has included roles focused on using technology to transform how healthcare organizations operate and deliver care.

At Sutter, that means looking beyond AI for AI's sake. She focuses on how technology can create meaningful value for patients, clinicians, and employees. The health system is applying AI across a range of areas, including predictive modeling and clinical workflows, as well as administrative functions and the patient experience.

In this episode of the Oliver Wyman Health Podcast, Wilt and Oliver Wyman's Eric Lu discuss what it takes to move AI from experimentation to impact. They examine a range of issues, including governance, AI literacy, and what Wilt refers to as change activation — that's creating a culture where frontline employees help shape how the new technology is used.

The Oliver Wyman Health Podcast is brought to you by the global management consulting firm Oliver Wyman. For more insights on the business of transforming healthcare, visit our online publication, health.oliverwyman.com.

And now, let's pick things up with Wilt discussing her background and the journey that led her to become a leader in digital health and AI.

Laura: I grew up, and my whole family worked in the same family business, in an HVAC business, actually. And so I worked in the office of that business.

So I think there's a ton of value in really believing in what you're doing and working together with teams that you do that with. When it's your family, there are pros and cons to that. But I had a wonderful experience growing up.

I went to college and wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to do, but had the opportunity to go work in healthcare software at Epic after I graduated. And it was a turning point and a really great opportunity for me. I really enjoyed the sort of intersection between technology and health and what we could do there. It's been where I've spent my time ever since.

Eric Lu: And how about at Ochsner? Because I know Ochsner is known for innovation and tech innovation, being pretty tech-forward. How was it there, and how have you brought some of that to Sutter?

Laura: Yeah, it was an awesome opportunity there as well, really. I had the ability to work and learn kind of as a team. It was primarily one hospital location with a really strong group of physicians. The physician group practiced there pre-Hurricane Katrina, and after that, is when some of that growth really started to come together and become sort of this regional system.

That was around the same time that I joined, and one of the first sort of system projects that they did was actually implementing Epic. This was a long time ago, but I had the opportunity to do that as the consultant at the time, and it was the best opportunity to get to know an organization because I got to actually go around, visit every location, meet the people, see how they did their work, and see what we could really do together.

And so then, when I had the opportunity to join full-time, I knew that's something I wanted to do. The innovation and the physicians and how they work together as really that group practice, I think, is really special. Plus the team that's there. It was just a great place to learn and grow and continue to try to innovate and do new things. So I bring, hopefully, that same mindset anywhere that I go.

Eric: Let's maybe then shift to your time here at Sutter. Would love to hear a bit about your time there over the past several years, how you've shaped the AI journey. I know AI is such a broad and moving topic. How have you thought about organizing the work and the strategy around AI at Sutter?

Laura: We think about AI as part of the digital overall strategy in terms of wanting to make sure that we are using AI to really connect with people, make work easier for our employees, our physicians, and connect with our patients in different ways, too. That's sort of the overall digital approach and lens.

But within AI, we've thought about it with a sort of framework that has three primary domains along those same lines: patient experience or consumer experience; clinical — and that clinical has several different areas, including predictive modeling, diagnostics, and efficiency and well-being tools that we can use there; and the third pillar is really around administrative experience.

All of that sits along a really important part of that framework, which is education, adoption, cultural readiness — one of the things we talk about with AI — and governance.

And so, how do all those things really fit together into this framework? And that's how we try to make sure that any initiatives that we're doing, or an AI-specific project that we want to do, have a real business value that ties to one of our system strategies and sort of lives within that AI framework too.

So it's a bit of a matrix, but I think it helps keep it grounded by making sure that we're really focused on outcomes.

Eric: Yeah, from our vantage point in the market, I know the industry is moving from, "What is AI and what are the use cases?" to, "Are we really getting the value we need, and are we scaling it in a way that creates impact across the board?"

And so I'm curious if you could share your experiences. What's worked well? What are some challenges you've run into as you look to implement AI within that fabric of the culture and the operations and the details of how people work? And any lessons learned from some of your recent efforts?

Laura: One of the things that the team's been working really hard on is a predictive model for predicting patients who might be septic. You can run that model — a lot of health systems, I think many health systems, have this — and we've had that for a while.

We have just been working to update the model and make sure — this is part of what our governance process really does — there's evaluation, monitoring, and then improvement. So that's an area that, in partnership with our quality team, we wanted to really work on. So they've been doing model improvements, which are great and super important.

The really big unlock, I think, is: How do you bring that information, those alerts, or whatever new piece of information that you're bringing in, to the right person? And how do you really do that workflow design and help them understand what to do with that information and what you might do next?

And I think that's the real key. Yes, AI can enable that new information, but how do you bring it into what people are really doing and the processes that they're doing? That's the thing that will make the difference.

Eric: Yeah, that's a really good point. And workflow design, I know, is quickly becoming the topic of the day now on transforming the people and process around the technology.

I'm curious if there are any best practices or tips you'd share around how you unlock the kind of creativity to step back from the way things currently work and truly redesign something, especially as agentic AI is allowing AI to take more steps on its own.

So, how are you creating the right bandwidth and mix of expertise of people who know the innovation, but also people who know the day-to-day operations, and get to a redesign that works well but is also a step change from what you might currently have?

Laura: A lot of times — and this is something that I find too on my teams and then throughout the organization — you've gotten into a routine where people are kind of, I don't know if I'd call it silos, but they have clear beginnings and ends to their part of the job or their part of the journey, right?

Like, I do this, and then I do this, and then the next person does something, which I think is efficient. It doesn't necessarily lead you to really understanding the big picture of why everyone's doing each of those steps, which I think you have to know in order to really redesign something and really have the opportunity to transform.

It's very easy to say, like, "Okay, if I automate this part, it'll make this person more efficient," which is awesome, and we should do that. But then there's the need to also just look and question and say, "Well, why do we even do that in the first place? Like, what's the point of us doing that? Is it really getting something that we still need?"

That's a harder task, I think.

Eric: I'm curious how you're thinking about where AI can really differentiate Sutter as you think about Sutter's broader competitive position and overall position in the community as an integrated delivery system.

So could you speak more to how you see AI fitting strategically into how you might differentiate going forward?

Laura: Yeah, we don't want to just be doing AI for AI's sake. It's really trying to find: What are the valuable things that AI can help us do?

We have some, I think, already. Ambient documentation has been a huge value-add for physicians and clinicians who are able to do that and not spend as much time sort of writing that note summary at the end.

I think summarization is another really good example. How do you take the vast amount of data that's in a record or in a system that you have and summarize it? How do you recognize patterns? I think that's another really clear opportunity, recognizing patterns and identifying those.

So I think we have to be really thoughtful about how we can use AI now to do things that we'd want to do that we hadn't been able to do, like personalized experiences.

And then the second area is really: How do we stay connected, even when you're not necessarily able to do that sort of face-to-face visit or call? So there are virtual health options. But I think the other thing is: How do we stay connected with people when they're well? Or how do we stay connected and be there for you when you really need us?

We've been doing a lot of things. We launched something called Ask Emmy inside of our My Health Online. It's just a chat, and you can ask any questions that you would ask another LLM, maybe, especially about your health.

And it has the added benefit of, one, it's private and secure. It's inside that environment already. But then, two, it has the benefit of having your history. It has the medications you're taking. It knows a little bit about your health. And so it can answer those questions with that in mind.

Eric: I think what you were just mentioning now, improving personalization and engagement, really opens up a broader question that the industry is grappling with on who controls the AI-enabled experience when it comes to understanding your healthcare options and navigating healthcare.

Certainly, there's a big role to play for someone like Sutter. We also see moves by OpenAI and Anthropic into owning the front door of just going to ChatGPT, for instance, and asking it questions or asking it to summarize your health information.

So I'm curious about your thoughts on how Sutter, or health systems more broadly, are engaging in the digital front door with some of the technology companies that consumers and members are also turning to.

Laura: That's a big question that I think we'll all have to really work through over the next couple of years. We're doing it now, so it's already happening.

We kind of want to engage with everyone so that we understand and see how, whether that's consumer behavior changes or seeing where we could really add specific value. That's what we're trying to do.

Our mission is "patients first, people always." I bring that up every time I think about technology. I know that you wouldn't necessarily think of that, but I do. And I think about: How do we bring technology where it helps put our patients first and helps our people?

That might be working with OpenAI or Anthropic for different types of tools than we have today. And we want to be really open to that, and we want to be a great partner so that we can work with everybody.

I believe really strongly that it's going to be about how we work together. I don't think anyone wants more fragmentation. You don't want your data here and there and having to go, "Oh, I go here to ask this question, but I go here to do something else."

I think everyone's trying to tackle that. The way that we get there, though, I don't think there's going to be one answer because preferences and behaviors are going to be unique to individuals, and how they want to interact with that will be different.

Eric: If we look ahead five years and you had a bit of a crystal ball or a magic wand, what's exciting you the most about AI's potential? And what about AI at Sutter do you think will fundamentally change and transform for the better?

Laura: This ability for us to aggregate and better understand all of the information that we have access to today — and that's from a provider perspective, being able to aggregate the amount of information and the research that's being done and the studies that are published all the time — that's really difficult.

How do we bring that to people more in real time? So it's information that's out there, but it's making it easier to access, making it easier to understand, and really bringing it to life and doing something with it.

I think that is going to be a huge difference-maker over the next several years because people will have access to stuff that they didn't have today. And then you'll be able to do different things with it.

And so one of those different things that I'm really excited about is: How do we care for people and just reimagine care delivery? How do we care for people when they're not necessarily with us in our physical buildings, but really doing that?

And yes, I know people have remote monitoring programs and other types of programs, and I think those are great. I think it's building on those. It's building on virtual care to really be able to put them together in a way that's holistic and caring for someone all the time, even when they're not sick, and staying connected with them.

It can be more accessible because then you can do that. You don't have to make sure that you have a ride to a physical location, or you don't have to take off work to go do a visit or something like that.

So I do think it will help us increase accessibility for our patients.

Eric: Yeah, it is very interesting how, at the end of the day, a lot of what to solve for can boil down to the basics, like getting the right data, right? Garbage in, garbage out.

And if AI can now synthesize and recommend and act on much more information, you do need the information all in one place to be able to then have AI built on top of it.

I think that's a great point, and that'll unlock a lot more than what it's pointed at today.

Laura: Things are changing really rapidly, not just in technology but in general, in society right now. And so that ability to absorb or shape the change, I think, is so important.

So how do we build that resilience, those skill sets, into not just our teams and our employees, but for everybody? And that includes: How do we engage with patients so they can make sure that they understand changes and what options they have now?

That's something that we all should spend a lot of time on: How do we make sure that we're having the right conversations about how change happens and being ready for that, but then also shaping that change too?

Eric: That's a great point. And we need to make sure, ultimately, we're using AI responsibly, and the trust is built with how it's being deployed.

And I'm curious, are there any strategies or approaches that you've deployed to help — we say change management, but I'm hearing you say much more than that — activate the change to create a different culture and relationship with technology than we have today? Any tips or lessons learned from that?

Laura: I love that idea, like change activation, because it's not just managing it, it's like activating for it.

We have a team that's really cross-functional with our chief ethics and compliance officer and our regulatory leaders and our chief AI officer that's really looking at: How do we put the right things in place to do the right reviews for any AI that we're using? That's our AI governance.

They've really helped us refine, like, how do we ask ourselves these questions, and what do we want to look for? And that's been really great.

An equally important part of that is we have a team that's really trying to do education. They're doing workshops on how to use Copilot. What can you use? How do you use this? And what could that look like for you?

And we're launching right now — we do an annual innovation challenge, a system-wide innovation challenge. This year, we've added something that's going to be our first AI hackathon, where we're trying to gather ideas from our frontline staff and then bring some resources around them to help them bring those to life really quickly.

So I'm excited about that. I think those kinds of activities — it just can't be like a theoretical thing that someone else is doing. It's got to be brought to our frontline employees.

Eric: Yeah, the hackathon sounds like a lot of fun, and it resonates with a topic that we see a lot around increasing AI literacy and the uniqueness of generative AI, such that the more you use it in a different way, the more it unlocks ideas for how to do more with it because it's so different in the way you interact and converse with it.

And so, to your point, if you get folks excited about using it, you'll unlock a lot more ideas and comfort with AI.

Laura: Yeah, and not just AI. Our nursing informatics team has been doing an amazing project to streamline nursing documentation and really bring in frontline teams to make documentation easier for our nurses. And they've had amazing success.

I'm super excited about that work. They were just telling me they've really used the term "digital influencers." Like, how do you go about being a digital influencer among your teams?

And that's just a little concept that we've had for a while, but how do you bring it forward and to where we are today? So I'm excited for the work that they're doing.

Eric: Yeah, that's great. How do you go viral in your own?

Laura: Yeah, in a good way.

Matthew: Thank you for listening to the Oliver Wyman Health Podcast. This podcast is brought to you by the global management consulting firm Oliver Wyman. For more insights on the business of transforming healthcare, visit our online publication, health.oliverwyman.com.

This transcript has been edited for clarity.