Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Companies
We analyzed the enterprise AI use cases of 9 healthcare companies to understand trends, impact, and insights.
Healthcare companies' adoption of AI
Overview
UnitedHealth Group has aggressively expanded its AI footprint, reaching around 1,000 AI applications in production by mid-2025, spanning claims processing, call routing, chatbots, data summarization, and resource allocation.
McKesson has progressively increased its adoption of AI technologies from 2019 to 2025, focusing on healthcare data management, predictive analytics, and automation to improve operational efficiency and customer engagement.
Since 2019, Cigna has progressively integrated AI across healthcare and insurance operations, shifting from early applications in patient medication adherence and chronic disease management to advanced generative AI tools by 2025, including an AI-powered virtual assistant engaging over two-thirds of users proactively with 80% finding it helpful.
Cardinal Health has steadily advanced its AI capabilities from initial oncology insights in 2019, launching comprehensive AI solution suites such as Navista in 2021, and integrating AI into clinical, supply chain, and operational workflows by 2025.
Elevance Health has progressively integrated AI into healthcare delivery, membership engagement, and operational efficiency from 2023 through 2025, expanding from AI-powered concierge care for 40,000 members in late 2023 to enterprise-wide AI certification programs for employees by mid-2025.
HCA Healthcare has steadily expanded its implementation of generative AI tools since Q3 2023, initially piloting AI solutions for physician-patient conversation note-taking and emergency room documentation, growing to broad deployments across nearly 180 hospitals by mid-2024.
Johnson & Johnson has significantly scaled its AI initiatives from early experimentation in Q1 2024, focusing on surgical AI applications through a strategic partnership with NVIDIA, to broader AI integration across pharma and MedTech by 2025.
Merck has progressively integrated advanced AI technologies, including generative AI and machine learning, into its drug discovery, development, and manufacturing processes from late 2023 through 2025, significantly accelerating target identification and compound optimization.
Pfizer has systematically integrated AI and machine learning across its pharmaceutical R&D, marketing, and production operations, starting with early adoption of AI-driven drug discovery since 2014, notably accelerating COVID-19 vaccine and Paxlovid development.
41 Use Cases in Healthcare
| Company | Use Case |
|---|---|
| HCA Healthcare | Patient Safety HCA deploys AI-driven solutions such as AI-assisted fetal heart rate monitoring and wearable cameras to detect potential medication errors, thereby reducing clinical risks and enhancing patient safety outcomes. traditional |
| HCA Healthcare | Stroke Detection HCA utilizes AI platforms like Viz.ai to automatically detect large vessel occlusions (LVOs) in stroke using CT imaging, enabling faster diagnosis and treatment, ultimately improving clinical outcomes. traditional |
| Elevance Health | AI Training Elevance Health develops internal AI fluency by offering formal certification programs to employees, ensuring workforce readiness for AI adoption and innovation. traditional |
| Cigna | Customer Service Cigna launched an AI-powered generative virtual assistant that provides personalized, conversational responses to member inquiries on benefits, claims, and care, improving access, engagement, and satisfaction. generative |
| Merck & Co. | Search Enhancement Merck Manuals implemented an AI-powered search tool to improve user experience and accessibility of medical information on their platform. traditional |
| Merck & Co. | Clinical Documenting Merck collaborates with McKinsey to deploy generative AI solutions for authoring clinical study documents, significantly shortening production times and improving clinical trial process efficiency. generative |
| Merck & Co. | Target Identification Merck applies AI, including proprietary foundation models like TEDDY, to accelerate target identification for drug development, reducing the process from years to weeks and improving ROI and efficacy of therapies. traditional |
| Johnson & Johnson | AI Investment J&J created the Polyphonic AI Fund to support and accelerate innovative AI solutions targeting challenges in surgery, fostering ecosystem growth and external collaboration. traditional |
| UnitedHealth | Data Summarization UnitedHealth leverages AI to transcribe clinician visits and summarize patient data, facilitating better clinical decisions and faster claims processing. traditional |
| UnitedHealth | Cost Forecasting UnitedHealth explores AI-driven scenario modeling and predictive analytics to better forecast reimbursement costs, risk profiles, and utilization trends for improved pricing strategies. traditional |