While healthcare systems have primarily focused on using artificial intelligence to automate tasks, such as AI scribes and revenue cycle management tools, a larger AI transformation is underway that will reshape the design of the workforce.
Eric Langsher, founder of Chicago-based Abundant Venture Partners, says the biggest disruption from AI in healthcare will be the reinvention of hospital operations and human-machine collaboration.
“AI is a dramatic technology change that will change everything about the way we work and live, for everyone to see,” Langschule said in an interview with Fierce Healthcare.
The massive surge in AI capital spending by tech giants represents an unusual concentration of private capital and dwarfs the most famous public megaproject in U.S. history.
From 2025 to 2026, the four largest U.S. technology companies plan to spend about $1.12 trillion in capital spending, the vast majority of which will go toward AI infrastructure, according to data compiled by economic editorial publication eco3min. In 2025 dollars, this 24-month figure exceeds the combined inflation-adjusted cost of the Apollo program that landed a man on the moon ($189 billion), the Marshall Plan to rebuild the economy after World War II ($137 billion), and the Manhattan Project that developed the first nuclear weapon ($36 billion).
With these large investments, AI will drive significant changes in the labor market and have a significant impact on healthcare, as workforce accounts for 56% of hospital costs, according to data from the American Hospital Association.
Health systems need to find the right approach to deploy AI in a way that safely improves staff efficiency without compromising trust or quality of care.
Abundant Alliance health systems are grappling with these transformative issues in real time, and these are not just theoretical questions, Langsueur noted. At a high level, Langschul said, health systems need to strategically focus on how to redesign their organizations around human-machine collaboration and reflect on how to reallocate judgment, accountability, trust, and human purpose within increasingly AI-enabled organizations.
First launched in 2020, the Abundant Alliance is a collaborative network that has grown to 22 health systems to co-develop, evaluate, and securely deploy digital health and AI solutions. Health systems collaborate with a rich set of venture partners to collaboratively address operational, workforce, and innovation challenges. Alliance members include ChristianaCare, Kettering Health, MedStar Health, Medical University of South Carolina, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital, Sharp HealthCare, OSF Healthcare, Rush Health, Henry Ford Health, Northwestern Medicine, and more.
Although health systems are regional in nature, these organizations face similar challenges and often have parallel strategic priorities. According to Abundant Venture Partners, the collaboration will allow these health systems to reach national scale and pool more than $80 billion in purchasing power among health care providers.
The Alliance has several initiatives underway to help health system members responsibly deploy AI to operate more efficiently while also addressing workforce constraints.
The coalition is working with the American Hospital Association on upskilling efforts that focus on the entire workforce, “from the board of directors to the CEO, to the C-suite and middle managers, to the front-line doctors and nurses, to finance and supply chain executives,” Langshuhl said, “because we all need to develop a new set of skills to apply these tools.”
One year ago, Abundant Venture Partners launched a venture growth platform to grow high-value, sustainable companies that benefit healthcare provider organizations. The Abundant Platform accelerates commercialization through the Abundant Venture Studio and ensures rapid adoption through the Abundant Alliance of healthcare providers. Health system members play key roles as co-developers, early adopters, and partner owners, taking an equity stake in the companies they help build.
Healthcare systems have traditionally operated in silos, with limited collaboration and information sharing between organizations. Langscheur noted that the opportunities and challenges posed by the rapid adoption of AI are pushing health systems towards greater engagement and cross-sector partnerships.
Health system collaboration is a growing trend as organizations can leverage best practices and learnings from other members to shape the governance of AI in health care.
Aegis Ventures began the digital collaboration in April 2024 with the support of nine founding health systems and has now grown to 14 regional health systems. This collaboration focuses on developing and scaling AI-powered health technology solutions.
With the growth of AI-based medical coding, CodaMetrix established a national council of health system leaders to drive industry standards for coding quality and accuracy.
Langsueur noted that Abundant Alliance is on track to double its membership in the near future due to growing interest in AI.
The Alliance is working with the Joint Commission to create an AI governance system to help health systems manage the increased risks and complexities of AI deployments, including operational, security and compliance challenges, Langshuhl said.
Another alliance initiative aims to leverage AI to address physician credentialing and privileging. It is usually a manual and time-consuming process, as technology makes the process more efficient and accurate. Several Alliance members were also co-development partners with SpendRule, a startup that uses AI to prevent health systems from overpaying for purchased services like meals and laundry services. The startup uses AI to read complex contracts and validate invoices directly against contract terms before payment. “By leveraging technology instead of humans, we can perform a more rigorous and thorough process of tracking changes and checking invoices before they are paid,” Langshuhl said.
According to many healthcare leaders, healthcare is poised for the clearest real-world test of what AI can do for modern healthcare organizations, and Alliance members’ work goes beyond just using AI to improve efficiency. There are ongoing efforts focused on AI for the benefit of humanity. The goal is to shift clinicians and staff to higher-value work centered on patient care, decision-making, and relationship-building.
“At the heart of all of this is the idea of trust, and trust runs through everything,” Langschule said. “Work is changing, and we’re not going to outcompute machines. Machines are very good at remembering everything, and they’re very good at running simulations and logic. We need to understand what we delegate to machines and what’s uniquely human, and we need to preserve what’s uniquely human and build on it even more.”
He added: “I think that running through the core of what the Alliance is focused on is understanding that for health systems to get this right, trust is not just a naivety; trust is a strategy.”
“Trust comes before technology,” Langshear explained. He noted that interests need to be aligned so that staff and clinicians can trust the process and see how AI can directly benefit them. Ambient AI tools are one example of reducing documentation burden for clinicians.
Trust drives the adoption of AI tools, driving greater efficiency and positive culture change, leading to increased production capacity and ultimately higher profit margins.
“Things are turning upside down. Instead of starting with the margin, which is the stake, trust is the entry point,” he said.
He noted that health systems are undergoing “rapid change” and there is a risk that health systems will treat AI as a technology project when it comes to broader organizational change.
AI is not just an IT initiative, it’s a fundamental business change that will require health systems to rethink budgeting, workforce design and operations to meet growing demand without proportionally increasing headcount, Langshuhl said.
In addition to investing in AI, Abundant Alliance is focused on “collaboration and scale” and efforts to drive revenue for its member health systems, he noted. The coalition is working to create a national employer-direct model for member health systems to provide care to the nation’s large employers, Langshuhl said.
