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Healthcare executives told MobiHealthNews that AI is poised to transform healthcare by automating administrative tasks, while freeing clinicians to focus on patients, judgment and care.
Here is Part 2 of healthcare leaders’ perspectives on where AI will make an impact in the sector's workforce:
Sean Mehra, cofounder and CEO of HealthTap
While we believe the physician's role is secure, the impact of AI will vary significantly across other healthcare professions. Mid-level clinicians and providers who largely function in administration, coordination, support or triage roles may see their jobs significantly deprecated or replaced. AI agents are increasingly capable of managing logistics, routing and basic protocol-driven triage faster and more accurately than human coordinators.
Professions that require physical labor – such as phlebotomy or vaccination – will withstand replacement for a significant time. The development of regulated robotics and medical devices capable of performing these delicate physical tasks safely lags far behind the development of software intelligence.
The human physician remains the most resilient to replacement, but not merely because AI cannot yet handle complex clinical decision-making (though that gap is closing). The physician is irreplaceable because of the human-to-human relationship. A human physician is far more capable of establishing the trust, authority and influence necessary to ensure a patient actually follows a care plan.
AI cannot replicate the compassionate judgment required to deliver difficult news or navigate the emotional context of care. Furthermore, the human physician remains essential for regulatory and insurance accountability – ultimately, a human must be responsible for the decisions being made.
Neil Patel, head of ventures at Redesign Health
AI is already replacing tasks rather than entire roles: manual data entry, basic documentation, first-pass coding, simple customer service and repetitive back-office work. Over time, this will shrink or redefine jobs that are almost entirely screen-based and rules-driven.
Conversely, most clinical roles will be augmented, not replaced (clinicians will supervise AI, manage more complex panels and work at the top of their license).
We are also seeing new roles emerge around AI operations, workflow design and governance inside our companies and their enterprise partners. Critically, AI provides an alternative path for ROI; organizations that cannot justify the cost of additional human headcount can often justify an AI solution.
This framework lowers the threshold for adoption: A solution only needs to be as good as a skilled human at the task level, rather than being better than a human at an entire job to justify the investment.
Phill Tornroth, VP of technical strategy for Elation Health
I’m optimistic about jobs in healthcare. I understand there are a lot of companies working on things that look like or explicitly are job replacement. I don’t really buy into that. We have a healthcare shortage in this country, particularly in primary care where Elation is focused. If we’re able to make our customers more efficient and they have to choose between whether to shrink their practice or increase the amount of care they deliver – I think there’s good evidence to suggest they’ll choose care.
Vish Srivastava, cofounder and CEO of Century Health
AI will replace tasks, not people. Manual chart abstraction, repetitive documentation and routine data entry are already being automated. The impact is that clinicians and researchers can focus on judgment, interpretation and innovation instead of rote and administrative work.
Monica Cepak, CEO of Wisp
Roles heavy on repetitive administrative tasks will change the fastest. Scheduling, claims processing and basic intake will become more automated, which is a good thing because those functions strain the system today. Clinical roles won’t disappear, they’ll evolve. AI will handle the administrative work so that providers can focus on diagnosis, counseling and relationship-building – the parts of care that actually require a human being.
AI will also empower supportive teams in healthcare to better serve customers and bring more balance to clinicians. Think: EHR innovation AI, action items in health, wellness check-in automations, wellness nudges (for patient action), et cetera.
Laurent Martinot, CEO and cofounder of Sunrise
AI will replace tasks, not roles. The roles most affected will be those built around repetitive, manual analysis or documentation. The core of healthcare, including clinical judgment, empathy and nuanced decision-making, remains irreplaceable.
The future workforce will be shaped by clinicians augmented by highly specialized AI. We’ll see more physician extenders, more virtual care teams and more time spent on intervention rather than documentation.
Richard Vincent, cofounder and CEO of FundamentalXR
"Replacement" is not the right model for healthcare; reallocation is. AI will heavily automate:
- Administrative and operational roles (billing, coding, transcription, scheduling, call centres)
- Data-first assessments (radiology workflows, dermatology imaging, ophthalmology scans)
- High-volume patient queries handled safely by agentic systems
But AI will not replace:
- Hands-on care
- Surgical leadership and procedural decision-making
- Clinical empathy, rapport and human judgment
Instead, AI will free clinicians from administrative drag so they can spend significantly more time on high-value patient care. Early automated environments already show pharmacists increasing patient-facing time by 30% to 45%.
Shannon West, chief strategy officer at Datavant
New technologies are well-positioned to strengthen the foundational elements of healthcare, not replace them. The most noticeable shifts will be in administrative and operational roles, where automation can reduce time spent on tasks like claims processing, scheduling, documentation and manual data entry. AI’s most meaningful impact will be reducing friction in the system so that clinicians, payers and administrators can spend more time on high-value work, caring for patients.
Kara Egan, founder and CEO of Teal Health
Healthcare is a complex human field, and we need more people who want to go into the medical and service fields. I don’t immediately think about what jobs are going to be replaced, but instead, how AI can hopefully reduce the tedious tasks that bog down our system and, in turn, make these important jobs more fulfilling. These tasks don’t go away, but the people responsible for them are given better tools to do their job, reach more people and improve care.
Sanjay Doddamani, founder and CEO of Guidehealth
AI will change the composition of work more than eliminate clinical roles. The technology is well-suited for tasks that are repetitive, administrative or involve reviewing large volumes of data, such as scheduling support, intake processing, documentation summarization, chart abstraction and elements of prior authorization. Some administrative roles may shrink as these tools become standard. Clinical roles will remain essential, but workflows will evolve as AI reduces time spent on documentation and routine follow up.
Emily Greenberg, cofounder and president of Joy Parenting Club
AI will not replace people. It will replace inefficient processes. The tasks that disappear will be repetitive, administrative and low-context, the ones that often pull clinicians away from the work that requires judgment and empathy. New roles will combine clinical expertise with emotional intelligence and an ability to interpret AI insights through a human lens. The future will reward the empathetic technologist and the data-informed caregiver, the professionals who can bridge technical insight with human experience.
Adam de la Zerda, CEO and founder of Visby Medical
I think it is more accurate to talk about tasks than jobs. The tasks that are ripe for automation are the ones patients never see directly, such as documentation, coding and prior authorization, which today eat up huge amounts of clinician time. In sexual and reproductive health, I do not see AI replacing the conversation with a trusted clinician after a positive STI result, but I do see it reducing unnecessary urgent care and ER visits by guiding people toward the right at-home tests and virtual care options earlier and more affordably.
Anu Sharma, founder and CEO of Millie
We are seeing significant provider shortages in healthcare across every specialty. The potential for AI is being used as more of a force multiplier for clinicians by reducing administrative burdens like notetaking, chart prep and inbox prioritization. Jobs that will get displaced are more within the category of clinical operations as AI gets better at managing phone lines, support tickets, referral forms, eligibility verification and so on.
Brijesh Patel, head of innovation and AI at Pyx Health
At Pyx, we prefer to frame this not as replacing jobs so much as offloading tasks that don’t need human effort. Clinicians currently devote much of their day to managing electronic records, with research showing over half their hours on notes and administrative work, leaving just a fraction of their time for patient care. Recent findings highlight how AI note-takers can alleviate this, freeing time and reducing fatigue. Once these prove dependable, few would advocate reverting.
Similar shifts occur in administrative areas. AI is automating segments of approvals, coding, appointments and queries on coverage. This eases the burden for workers tasked with routine transactions, like policy lookups, data transfers, or standard notices. These tasks fit AI perfectly, allowing technology to transform rather than erase positions.
Punit Singh Soni, CEO of Suki
[On whether AI will replace jobs] Unclear. But almost all jobs will be changed by AI.
