AI helps hospitals, but only when properly used | HIMSS 2026

Las Vegas - Artificial intelligence can help hospitals improve their operations, but only if it’s used correctly.

That’s not the take of an AI skeptic. That’s the assessment of Hal Wolf, the president and CEO of HIMSS, an organization that is certainly touting the capability of AI to transform health systems.

In a media briefing at the HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition, Wolf pointed to the need to deploy AI intentionally to tackle the needs of health systems. Wolf says when hospitals take those steps, they can position themselves for success.

Wolf points to hospitals and healthcare organizations using AI technology to help utilize their staff better, including tools that reduce their administrative work. Health systems are also using AI to manage their supply chain more efficiently, he says.

“You have to integrate it to make a determined decision to use the analytics in moving forward,” Wolf says. “And if you do that, it actually raises efficiency within the hospitals.”

“We recognize you're not going to solve all the problems with AI tools,” he says.

But Wolf says systems can ask themselves if they can use AI to “redirect my resources for higher acuity and higher delivery.”

“I think we're absolutely at an inflection point where we have to do that,” Wolf says.

Wolf says he understands that some hospitals see AI solutions that aren’t necessarily targeted at their most pressing problems.

“So I appreciate the frustration, but there is no silver bullet,” he says. “You still have to adapt the use of technology with people and process in order to take advantage of it. And in this case, you have an entire health model that's being developed on the outside, which a lot of people are gravitating to, from a patient and from a consumer engagement standpoint.”

Wolf also says it’s necessary to place the utilization of AI - and some of its shortcomings - in perspective.

“Four years ago, we started talking about AI, and we didn't have anyone doing it, except experimenting with it,” Wolf says. “Two years ago, we were talking about the fact that only less than 5% of the institutions in the world were actually deploying AI at any level. A year and a half ago, you saw a lot of AI being built into EHR platforms.

“So we're just at the front end of utilizing these tools where they can be most effective within that operational scope, and frankly, figuring out how to use them and trust them, because trust is a big deal as it comes into clinical decision support,” he says.

When it comes to using AI, Wolf also pointed to a formula that he has espoused for years: NT + OO = COO.

The translation: “New technology, plus old organization, equals costly old organization.”

In an interview with Chief Healthcare Executive® before the HIMSS conference, Wolf talked extensively about the use of AI in the healthcare industry and how leaders can improve their chances of getting good results.

“It's not a silver bullet itself,” he said of AI. “But there are the components of a silver bullet in there.”

Wolf has stressed the adoption of AI and other digital tools shouldn’t be seen as an aspirational goal, but an imperative. He points to the ongoing shortage globally of doctors and nurses, which is expected to worsen in the coming years. And he points to America’s aging population which will need more healthcare services, even as there are fewer clinicians.

During the media briefing, Wolf said cuts in federal health programs that could make it harder for individuals to get care “keeps me awake at night.”

He pointed to cuts in Medicaid that are slated to take effect in the coming years, and the expiration of tax credits supporting the Affordable Care Act.

“We run a horrible risk of disenfranchising millions of people from gaining access to health care services,” Wolf says.

Pointing to his Appalachia roots in North Carolina, Wolf also voiced serious concerns for the plight of rural hospitals. Four hospitals once operated in the four counties around his family home, and now only one remains.

“The problem we have in our rural communities, it's really hard to get people in,” he says. “It's a workforce issue. So how do we make up for that? We make up for that largely by using digital health connectivity. We try to get the individuals connected.”

Wolf says he understands policymakers have differing points of view when it comes to spending federal money in health care, and he says HIMSS is going to continue to press for investments to ensure access.

“We're going to do what we can,” he says.

Get more: See our wide-ranging conversation with HIMSS CEO Hal Wolf in our latest episode of Changes, a new video series from Chief Healthcare Executive®.