Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Human Services put out a request for information seeking stakeholder ideas about how artificial intelligence and machine learning can find useful applications across health systems and be more deeply integrated into day-to-day care delivery.
"Our efforts to accelerate AI adoption must be guided by the real needs and experiences of those developing these tools and delivering care," said HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill.
But AI has already been proliferating at a remarkable pace for years now, of course. In 2025, adoption has arguably spread faster across healthcare, with AI finding more practical use cases (and, often, substantial ROI) than in any other industry.
From billing automation to clinical documentation, radiology to cardiology, AI and ML are seeing significant uptake at hospitals and practices nationwide: improving provider experience, boosting patient engagement, streamlining workflows, shoring up cybersecurity, powering drug discovery and helping tailor personalized treatments.
And as shown at successful HIMSS AI events in Brooklyn and Chicago this past year, healthcare and IT leaders – from the C-suite to the front lines – are developing a much deeper understanding of the imperatives of making automation work, from data governance to change management and beyond.
As the technology continues to transform nearly every facet of healthcare, 2026 looks to be another busy year. In the meantime, here's a look back at the most-read AI stories of 2025.
Kaiser Permanente's new head of AI on 'two fundamental shifts' the technology will enable (January)
We kicked off the New Year with a look ahead toward a fast-evolving AI landscape where the technology was fundamentally reshaping the role of clinicians. But Kaiser's Dr. Daniel Yang, VP of artificial intelligence and emerging technologies at the sprawling integrated health system, said humans must be the guiding force. "AI should never replace the judgment or expertise of our doctors and clinicians," he said. "To succeed in this, we must assess any AI tool before deploying it to ensure we understand how to safely and effectively use it."
Epic unveils AI agents, showcases new foundational models (August)
At the EHR giant's annual Users Group Meeting, a suite of new agentic AI tools – a clinical assistant, a patient-facing chatbot, a revenue management assistant – was unveiled. New generative medical event models to help doctors use real-world evidence to improve patient treatment and care decisions were also showcased. "We brought you a shipload of cool stuff," Dr. Jackie Gerhart, Epic's chief medical officer, told the company's customers.
2025: The 'great tech reckoning' and the 'real' AI revolution (December 2024)
The third-most read AI story of the past year was actually written toward the tail end of '24, as a crystal-ball look ahead to the next 12 months. "Despite the buzz, 2025 will mark another year where AI's true transformative power operates quietly in the background, reshaping the operational backbone of health systems," said one CEO. "This 'real' AI revolution is not flashy but foundational, addressing the complex operational challenges that underpin patient care and system efficiency."
Hackensack Meridian scores big gains with AI med management tools (August)
By integrating with Epic, the New Jersey health system was able to automate medication instruction mapping and better understand unstructured Rx instructions, while eliminating manual entry in a majority of cases. "The inherent downstream effects will be improved patient medication safety and outcomes," said Hackensack Meridian's chief pharmacy officer. "As the program continues to scale up, we expect these benefits to grow."
FDA offers new draft guidance to developers of AI-enabled medical devices (January)
"As we continue to see exciting developments in this field, it's important to recognize that there are specific considerations unique to AI-enabled devices," said Troy Tazbaz, director of the Digital Health Center of Excellence at the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health, in January, just weeks before he returned to his private sector job at Oracle.
UCSF creates a powerhouse AI system that boosts oncology care (April)
The goal wasn't to replace human judgment but to enhance it, HITN Managing Editor Bill Siwicki reported, enabling oncologists and cancer researchers to focus on personalized treatment rather than spending valuable time retrieving and verifying information. With AI, the University of California at San Francisco sought to "create a decision support system that could seamlessly integrate national guidelines and patient data with local institutional best practices, ensuring every patient received the most up-to-date, evidence-based care possible," said Dr. Travis Zack, assistant professor of medicine at UCSF.
Google Cloud unveils new genAI and visual search tech at HIMSS25 (March)
Ahead of the 2025 HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition in Las Vegas, the company's global healthcare director offered sneak peeks at some of its new genAI capabilities – representing a "significant step forward in how healthcare organizations can access, view and use critical patient information."
Mount Sinai launches new center aimed at AI-enabled pediatrics (March)
In the spring, the New York City health system launched a new center for artificial intelligence to enhance diagnostics, personalize treatments and optimize healthcare delivery for adolescents – and announced plans to implement clinical trials at the Kravis Children’s Hospital.
How the CAIO at Children's National approaches clinical and admin automation (January)
"By using AI, the aim of the organization is to enhance our ability to get to decisions faster when we're talking about patients and diagnosis," said Alda Mizaku, chief data and artificial intelligence officer at the Washington, D.C.-based health system. "Looking at treatment plans and the steps that are part of those treatment processes to ensure they're personalized and that we have an effective way to track and document the notes generated as part of those office visits and hospital visits."
AI helps reduce billing errors, but integration challenges loom (April)
Nearly one in five healthcare workers polled this past spring said they spend more than 20 hours per month correcting billing errors. AI offers a chance to help, but adding automation to billing systems is more challenging than many realize. "Healthcare IT leaders should focus on systems that provide itemized estimates, automated patient communications, and clear billing breakdowns to close the gap between clinical care and financial clarity," said Kyle Ryan, chief product and technology officer at Tebra.
Mike Miliard is executive editor of Healthcare IT News
Email the writer: mmiliard@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS publication.
