Digital health companies are moving quickly to launch a new type of artificial intelligence tool that can complete tasks faster than humans.
A growing number of established vendors and startups are seeking to sell hospitals, health systems and payers on AI agents, which are specialized tools developed to help organizations complete time intensive functions more efficiently. Companies are developing AI agents to verify insurance benefits, share information to patients before a procedure and assist with prescription refills.
Related: How health systems are picking their generative AI products
The number of AI agents entering the market has grown largely because they’re easier than ever to create and implement, said Dr. Bill Fera, a principal at professional services firm Deloitte. Companies can create AI agents using the data infrastructures already in place, which means they're not as costly to adopt, he said.
“They’re realizing this is iPhone on steroids,” Fera said. “Now that there is a realization that the technology is real and it is something that can change things for the better, there's just a flurry of activity.”
Here are five companies that have recently launched these AI tools.
Epic
Epic announced it is deploying AI agents at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society conference in Las Vegas earlier this month. The electronic health record company is adopting AI in the EHR that can chat with patients about their care goals, schedule labs ahead of a primary care appointment or help providers refill prescriptions based on patient messages.
The company also launched MyChart microsite builder, which allows its health system and other customers to prompt AI to build smaller webpages on their website. For example, the tool could be helpful for hospitals that want to quickly create a website for a new clinic, said Sean McGunigal, Epic’s product lead of cognitive computing. A user can type prompts describing what they want the site to look like and the agent can put together the site in a few couple minutes, he said.
“Something that would take days, [can be] obviously condensed into a really, really short period of time,” McGunigal said.
The company is working on around a dozen AI agents to complete other tasks, according to a spokesperson. Epic’s goal is to release the tools sometime this year but McGunigal declined to share a specific date. The tools will be available to customers that pay for Epic’s cloud platform.
Salesforce
Salesforce, the consumer-focused tech company, launched Agentforce for Health last month. The announcement builds on previous AI features from the company and will focus on tasks related to patient access, public health and clinical research.
Specifically, Salesforce is developing AI agents to help providers schedule appointments, match patients to preferred clinicians and verify a patient’s insurance benefits. The company said its product will likely be available to customers starting in June. Salesforce has also developed AI that can summarize patient visits and check prioritization status, said Amit Khanna, Salesforce’s senior vice president and general manager of health.
Innovaccer
Innovaccer, a healthcare technology and data company, launched a series of AI agents in February focused on patient scheduling, referrals and care management. The company’s agents will be pre-built and can be deployed quickly to health systems that already use its data tools, said Innovaccer’s co-founder and CEO Abhinav Shashank. Innovaccer is testing the AI product with around six customers. It plans to begin selling the agents to provider customers by the end of the second quarter, Shashank said.
Microsoft
Instead of using agents, Microsoft defines its newest AI tools as assistants or copilots. The company first added generative AI capabilities its EHR documentation products two years ago. Earlier this month, the company took it a step further when it announced it was developing technology to conduct more complex tasks, said Kenneth Harper, a general manager of Dragon products at Microsoft. Through Microsoft's copilot, Harper said clinicians will be able to use AI to draft letters for referrals and extract clinical orders such as imaging tests during the conversation.
Google, which has invested heavily in AI for clinical settings, said its agents can help reduce clinician burnout, while serving as a bridge to other more advanced use cases. Earlier this month, the technology giant announced multiple customers were using generative AI to build agents and search tools. Basalt, a company that has developed an AI assistant for healthcare providers, said it would use Google's AI to support medical assistants by preparing patient charts and performing administrative tasks. Such tasks may include flagging a patient’s chart for potential mammogram or colonoscopy screenings. Google also partnered with Meditech on an AI-powered search and summarization tool.
