At HLTH this year, AI will take center stage

At the HLTH conference in Las Vegas last fall, plenty of sessions and programs focused on the use of artificial intelligence in the healthcare industry.

The HLTH conference returns to Las Vegas in October, and AI will be spotlighted in a big way, with more content and programs than in the past.

In fact, many said AI was the dominant conversation topic of last year’s event, which drew thousands of healthcare leaders to Sin City.

But this year, AI appears poised to truly take center stage. The HLTH conference returns to Las Vegas Oct. 19, but the planning is already underway.

Rich Scarfo, president of HLTH, tells Chief Healthcare Executive® that last year’s event represented the “first focused effort” on AI, but it will play a much larger role this year.

This year, Scarfo says, “We're coming back with a full AI zone on the floor. It'll be about four times the size of last year's. We will have a broad mix of companies in it.”

This year’s conference will feature an “AI Transformation Zone,” with three immersive theaters.

Scarfo says pharmaceutical companies are keenly interested in AI for drug development. Healthcare organizations are also interested in AI tools to make business functions more efficient, and they’re increasingly looking at AI technology that can support clinical decisions.

There are more AI startup companies attending HLTH, Scarfo says.

“We started to see new companies come in that we hadn't seen at the event before,” he says. “So a lot of new-to-market companies, but also a lot of companies that were just stepping in that hadn't been at HLTH before. What we're seeing this year is AI across different sectors at the event.”

In talking about the greater attention on AI, Scarfo recalls one remark that stuck with him.

“There's one comment that I heard: ‘If you're not using AI, you've already lost,’” he says. “So I think a lot of companies are looking at that, and it's just become something that people are either knowingly or unknowingly using in their everyday lives. So of course, it's going to be in every aspect of health care.”

AI will be seen in all sectors, from pharma to diagnostic to age tech.

“It's sort of the thing that's permeating all of our different categories,” Scarfo says.

At HLTH last year, conversations around AI began to evolve. Healthcare organizations that are looking at AI tools aren’t just getting them for the sake of having them, but they’re looking for solutions that will address problems they’re facing.

“You'll start to see, I think the conversations around AI mature a bit as well,” Scarfo says. “What's going well, what's not going well? Where are areas that we're not using AI, that we should be? What are the impacts on patients? How is it making business more efficient?”

“So I think all of those things are going to go beyond what you saw in the past … Is AI a good thing or a bad thing? Now it's really integral to a lot of the conversations that we're having.”

Scarfo says he sees hospitals and health systems expressing more interest in AI technology. Some health systems are seeing the value in finding partners as opposed to trying to build tools on their own.

“These are very complex problems. I just think AI is offering a different way to address them and solve them,” Scarfo says.

This year’s event will also feature heavy focus on pharma and life sciences innovation, with several major pharmaceutical companies presenting on the floor.

The conference will also feature a bigger area highlighting diagnostics and precision health.

And this year, the event will also introduce the HLTH Startup PItch Tournament for the first time. Startup companies will face interviews and try to connect with investors.

Scarfo says the goal is to “engage startups differently at the event.”“We found a couple of things that are important to them,” he says. “One is getting in front of people. So the pitch competitions are a great way to do that. So we're really focusing very heavily on how we can get to more startups and get them involved in different ways, not just exhibiting.”

There will be several pitch competitions at the event, and one of them will be focused on AI.

The HLTH conference featured some mega-stars, including Halle Berry, Lenny Kravitz and John Legend. Scarfo says it’s too early to disclose celebrity guests this fall, but acknowledged that it won’t be easy to match the star power of the 2024 event.

“It is a hard act to follow, but I think we're on our way to doing that,” Scarfo says.