We recently heard from our Founder and Global CEO Sachin Gupta on his 2026 predictions. In Part 2 of this series, we’ll hear from three other IKS Health leaders in the trenches, sharing what to expect in 2026, including their views on AI and automation, accountability, workflow integration, and revenue cycle management.
AI and automation
Continued synergy between technology and human expertise will be pivotal for the successful integration of AI in healthcare in 2026 and beyond. This collaborative approach not only builds trust among clinicians and patients but also unlocks significant value for health systems and is essential for scaling AI adoption responsibly. Trust is the bedrock of healthcare, and the introduction of any new technology, especially one as powerful as AI, must be handled with care. Combining AI’s analytical prowess with human oversight creates a system that is both powerful and trustworthy. The combination of human expertise and AI unlocks substantial value for healthcare organizations by enhancing efficiency, improving patient outcomes, and empowering medical professionals.
To unlock the full value of AI and digital transformation in 2026 and beyond, leaders should prioritize several key shifts and trends that move beyond foundational adoption to sophisticated, value-driven implementation. While early AI efforts focused on automating discrete, repetitive tasks, the future lies in creating connected autonomous systems that can manage complex, end-to-end processes. In order to do this, healthcare leaders first need to ensure that their data is well governed, complete, has full context, and is easily accessible to agentic systems. I believe the reliance on off-the-shelf, generic AI models will diminish. The next wave of value will come from developing or fine-tuning AI that is highly customized and context-aware. This means using AI that understands the specific nuances of a healthcare company’s operational structure, culture, and competitive landscape.
When it comes to the future of AI and agentic AI, safety needs to be built into healthcare workflows. The challenging thing about AI is that as much as we think we are training the AI, the AI is also training users. And as it gets better and that trust pipe increases, the rate of errors is going to go down. But the more we trust it, the feasibility of a catastrophic error is going to go up. And so how do we manage against the catastrophic error when we trust the self-driving car so much? Systems with responsible checks built in are going to become increasingly important. However, this has to happen without being a dampener on the tech’s economic net benefit. Healthcare dramatically needs an economic net benefit from AI, which it hasn’t gotten from so many other technologies. AI can provide that, when used correctly.
Accountable AI and accountable partners
2026 will be the year where the “Gartner Hype Cycle” in health information AI technology moves forward from inflated expectations to client demands for real return on investment. Prioritization should be around understanding the real problems in administrative and clinical workflows technology should be designed to solve. The focus should be on human-centered design applied to real problems, not futuristic promotions. Technology that eliminates the data entry, clerical work that burdens clinicians and their staff may have an oversized impact on resolving the cost, complexity, and burnout associated with today’s status quo clinical operations.
Healthcare organizations need to demand financial accountability from their vendor partners to ensure actual substantive value versus empty promises, particularly when it comes to technology like AI, where every day there is a new company offering an AI-based solution. Accountability is a differentiator and a market opportunity. I have a moral obligation in serving the healthcare industry to be accountable, and I encourage leaders at healthcare organizations to demand accountability from their vendors with no excuses when technology doesn’t deliver. Create structures that demand participation and accountability. If we focus on responsible safety and accountability, the results will tie to meaning and money.
Leaders should prioritize investments in in-house data science and data governance talent to manage and organize data, and build these bespoke models or work with an accountable partner who is vested in outcomes, who can provide that talent. This will allow for more AI use cases, more accurate predictions, personalized customer experiences, and solutions that are uniquely tailored to the healthcare systems’ strategic goals and patient well being. In 2026 and beyond, responsible and accountable AI will no longer be a checkbox item but a fundamental aspect of strategy and operations.
Workflow integration
Most applications heretofore have been point solutions bolted onto legacy health information technology platforms such as electronic health systems and practice management systems. Health care organizations need to be thinking about more systematically integrated technology infrastructure. A platform as a service rather than multiple point solutions with multiple SaaS-based ongoing costs can reduce both workflow complexity and unnecessary expenses.
Integration from a technology standpoint is part of the solution. Another component that is critically important is integration of whole-person care into clinical workflows. Traditional health care services have been divided into organ-focused specialties (cardiology, gastroenterology, etc), places of service (hospitals, ambulatory clinics, home care, etc.), or various procedures and treatments (surgery, pharmacologic therapeutics, etc.) But the health of human beings is determined by their genome, their physical environment (the exposome), and their social and cultural environment, in addition to their overall physical condition. A step in the right direction for whole-person care is integration of behavioral health into clinical models. The main risk factor for hospitalization for someone with for example, congestive heart failure, is depression, not cardiac ejection fraction. Using human-centered design to develop care models that integrate behavioral health is better, smarter medicine.
Revenue cycle management
Healthcare is entering its execution era
In our two-part series on 2026 predictions (read part 1 here), IKS Health leaders have explored the many themes expected to shape the year. Despite their different roles, these voices land in the same place. 2026 will not be about more ideas, but about Integration over fragmentation, accountability over aspiration, platforms over point solutions, and real operational value over hype.
Contact us to see how IKS Health’s care enablement platform can help sustain your organization in 2026 and beyond.
