Nurses say AI can’t replace them | ViVE 2026

Los Angeles – Nurses detest the promotion of AI tools as replacement for nurses.

Bonnie Clipper, founder of the Virtual Nursing Academy, summed up the sentiments during a lively discussion among nursing leaders at the beginning of the ViVE conference, which kicked off Sunday.

“I'll admit I'm pissed,” she said. “I'm pissed at so much of what I read. And if one more of you messages me on LinkedIn to look at your ‘AI nurse,’ I'm going to have to punch you.”

“There's no such thing. Nurse is a protected term. So, learn what you're talking about, learn what you're building, learn what you're selling, learn what you're marketing to,” Clipper said.

Such approaches incorrectly assess the role of nursing, Clipper and other nursing leaders say. Nurses aren’t just performing a host of routine tasks.

Clipper suggested that AI companies need a better understanding of what nurses actually do. She said some meetings with companies indicate that they are not creating tech products with nurses in mind, even as they are marketed to nurses. She says some pitches involved solutions to “imaginary problems.”

She recounted one CEO who said he used ChatGPT to identify the problems in nursing and came up with a plan to tackle them.

“You’ve got to live in our shoes. You got to figure out what the issues are, and you can't do that if you're not talking to nurses,” Clipper said.

• Read more: Hospitals must work with nurses on AI to get it right

Dr. Whitney Staub-Juergens, chief operating officer for digital transformation and innovation at HCA Healthcare, said she’s optimistic about AI and the potential to help nurses improve patient care. But she says it needs to be utilized properly.

Even in her role of charting digital strategy, she said, “I'm not about chasing technology.

“I think that technology is an enabler,” Staub-Juergens said. “It's what I'm there to do and make sure the team has what they need to be successful. But I'm not out chasing technology because that's going to make it worse than it is today. My goal is to leave the healthcare industry better than when I found it, and if we're layering in ideas and we're layering in technologies for the sake of chasing technology, that is making the burden on frontline clinicians worse than it is today, not making it better.”

Nurses need to help healthcare technology companies grasp the nature of the nursing profession, and Clipper said this is an area where nurses can improve.

“A lot of this is on us, right? We've not always done a good job of explaining how we add value, but there are companies even today that reduce us to an AI nurse or a chatbot. That's not nursing. So I think this really is the opportunity for you guys to think about, how do we help you? Help us make sure that we can do a better job providing care to the patients and demonstrating the impact of that as well,” Clipper said.

Dr. Tonychris Nnaka, associate dean for research & associate professor of nursing at UNT

Health in Fort Worth Texas, said nurses aren’t necessarily viewed as partners in developing and implementing new tools.

“Oftentimes, nurses are seen as end users, not as co-designers,” Nnaka said.

And he also suggested nurses shouldn’t wait to be asked.

“What I'm challenging the nurses in the room is not to wait for this industry to come to you,” Nnaka said. “If you find a solution that you feel like you can implement and design, find partners and start designing it, and hopefully the industry will pick up the traction. And I challenge the industries as well to, like my peers up here have said, seek out nurses who can better explain your solution.”

Nnaka also noted that one rarely hears tech companies touting “AI doctors.”

“The thing that we constantly hear of people creating solutions that replaces nurses is an insult to the profession, and I challenge every single one in this room to never use this term again,” he said. “If you want to co-create with nurses, do it. There are academic systems, academic units, that can partner with you.”

Susan Grant, chief clinical officer of symplr, said it’s foolish to think of AI as a viable substitute for nurses.

“I don't think that we can replace nurses with technology,” Grant said. “The thing that technology and AI cannot do is provide the critical thinking, the observations, those subtle changes that only nurses can see when they're with a patient. We can't replace them.”

• Read more: Nurses and AI: Potential and concerns about safety