Executives highlighted AI's transformative potential in healthcare when asked by MobiHealthNews how they see AI's place in the sector changing in 2025. 

Some expect multimodal AI and advanced diagnostic imaging to make significant strides next year, while others showcased AI's promise in improving diagnostics, addressing provider burnout, automating tasks, streamlining drug development and enhancing patient outcomes. Still, skepticism persists in clinical adoption due to barriers like misaligned incentives and data discomfort.

Dr. Michael Howell, chief clinical officer at Google

We should be prepared for continued rapid progress in AI's capabilities to transform healthcare. True multimodality is here, meaning AI that can understand not just text but also pictures, audio and video. It's a deeply important change, and it will really begin to enter healthcare in a serious way in 2025. 

We're also seeing a sharp rise in demand from enterprises that want to use AI agents to help complete complex tasks, not just answer questions or summarize documents. I think that move toward agents is very likely to continue into 2025. 

Finally, I'm hopeful that we'll see evidence from studies of AI in real-world healthcare settings begin to accumulate. Healthcare is enormously complex, and understanding where AI is most helpful requires evidence from thoughtful trialists, implementation scientists and healthcare delivery scientists.

Roland Rott, president and CEO of imaging at GE HealthCare

AI is driving meaningful advances in diagnostic imaging, allowing radiologists to detect subtle abnormalities that might be impossible to discern with the human eye. 

Next year, I think we will see even more impact from AI in improving diagnostic accuracy. Diagnostic imaging powered by AI has the potential to help resolve current image quality challenges related to noise and patient movement during scans. AI is able to layer multiple images together to fill in gaps that are less defined due to patient movement, breathing or coughing. Clearer images help clinicians find information more quickly, helping them get to the right diagnosis – and ultimately, helping the patient get on the best treatment plan – earlier.

Matt Cybulsky, practice leader of healthcare AI, data and product innovation at LBMC

2025 and AI in healthcare is a wave not even near cresting. AI is not a standalone tool and ought not to be anthropomorphized: it's a growing tech, full of fallibility and promise.

It is best as it retains some human quality, and there is no better place for that in healthcare, where humanity wrestles with the loggerheads of healing, value and markets. We must start to remind ourselves regularly that it will not replace human interaction; it is only a hybridized tool, and 2025 will reveal this.

For 2025, real interactions, outcomes, and use cases across all sections of our industry will inspire us, humble us and wow us. I'm here for the ride, for sure.

Lisa Suennen, managing partner at American Heart Association Ventures

I don’t [see AI's place in healthcare changing]. I think it will remain a world of largely administrative services adoption. The clinical world has not quite figured out how to integrate AI for a variety of reasons – fear, misaligned incentives, discomfort with data, you name it. The entrepreneurs keep coming, the investors keep investing, but the buyers are taking their time to figure out how this brave new world fits into their usual world. It will take a while.

Aaron Neiderhiser, cofounder and CEO of Tuva Health 

AI is an exciting trend, and I expect more in 2025.  Use cases will be proven out, and we will migrate from an exciting but unproven technology to a technology with real ROI-generating use cases.  

This progress will lead to the adoption of AI by more organizations. One concern is whether scaling laws for large language models will continue to hold. Evidence shows that more recent models are not advancing as rapidly as previous versions. If scaling laws diminish substantially in 2025, the probability of entering another "AI winter" is substantial.  

Hal Andrews, president and CEO of Trilliant Health

It is unclear what place AI currently has in healthcare. For AI to make a meaningful impact, health economy stakeholders need to realize that AI is very useful for boring, repetitive and rule-driven tasks, which are legion in healthcare.

Ellen Rudolph, cofounder and CEO of WellTheory

Given the incoming administration, we are likely to see a more favorable regulatory environment that will enable AI to become even more at the forefront of healthcare. We’re seeing emerging evidence that ChatGPT actually outperforms doctors when it comes to diagnosis and even has a better bedside manner. 

Will 2025 be the year we get an FDA-approved AI physician? Maybe not, although I think at this rate we are not far out, especially given strong consumer adoption and preference from younger generations.

Dan Nardi, CEO of Reimagine Care

AI will continue to gain traction in healthcare in 2025 and every year after. In 2024, it seemed like many organizations were doing small initial phases to test the efficacy of various AI tools. Going forward, AI will become more widely used in all facets of healthcare, including day-to-day patient engagement and management, further automating processes that historically have been done manually. This adoption is partially tied to that growing supply and demand gap.

Mudit Garg, CEO and cofounder of Qventus 

There’s a crucial role for AI in helping health systems navigate provider burnout, diminishing margins and care delays. Leaders and staff have already squeezed every last drop from their existing EHR, and one-size-fits-all AI solutions aren’t capable of building a sustainable, scalable healthcare system that works for both patients and providers. Rather than just recording data, healthcare systems need their AI solutions to be able to take thoughtful action on behalf of care teams across clinical settings to have any meaningful impact. 

Brooke Boyarsky Pratt, CEO and cofounder of knownwell 

AI – in particular generative AI – will help clinical teams evaluate patient medical histories to determine the most effective treatment strategies for sustainable health within the obesity space and across the healthcare landscape. In 2025, I predict we’ll have even more capabilities for boosting evidence-based care models, strengthening patient experiences, bolstering value-based care frameworks and optimizing costs and outcomes.

Liz Beatty, cofounder and chief strategy officer at Inato

I see drug development as the next big frontier for AI. We’ve heard a ton about AI’s ability to transform drug discovery, but I don’t think we’re talking enough about its potential in drug development. There are a number of ways pharmaceutical companies can use AI to streamline this notoriously inefficient process to bring effective new drugs to market faster, both internally and in their collaborations with research sites. 

Internally, this may include leveraging AI to identify new trial sites with relevant expertise or to reduce the necessary number of trial participants. Meanwhile, research sites can use AI to analyze patient records and efficiently prescreen patients rather than manually sifting through patient records.

Mimi Winsberg, chief medical officer and cofounder of Brightside Health

In 2025, we will continue to see an AI revolution in healthcare. AI will be widely adopted as a time-saving assistant for clinicians. Most clinicians welcome AI tools and assistants to help with automated tasks and case note generation, and user satisfaction thus far has been high. These tools can help them spend their time with patients rather than in repetitive administrative tasks. 

In addition, AI will improve diagnostic accuracy and predict treatment response. AI will also drive care insights directly to patients. As models become more refined, there will be greater trust in technology that actively supports both patients and clinicians, making mental health care more proactive and personalized.

Dave Wessinger, cofounder and CEO of PointClickCare

AI and value-based care are two of the top buzzwords in healthcare right now. Interestingly, the intersection of AI and value-based care is where the real power lies for healthcare practitioners. Achieving new efficiencies by automating processes and reducing administrative burdens to enhance productivity seems straightforward, but trust is a significant barrier to automation of day-to-day processes. 

In 2025, despite the skepticism that still surrounds AI, industry leaders will increase awareness about AI to help show the real value of automation, especially through insights pushed proactively at the point of care. Integrating these tools into regular workflows as part of a consistent operating model can mitigate perceived risks, such as data security or compliance concerns, ensuring automation is an asset rather than a threat. Looking ahead, the reward of reinforcing the industry’s commitment to validating AI solutions and aligning them with real-world clinical needs will outweigh the risks.