The Healthcare Workforce in the Age of AI

Healthcare is at an intersection of complexity and urgency. Technology, hybrid care models, global instability, rising costs, and workforce shortages are forces that are rapidly shaping our tomorrow. Systems that were designed for stability are being tested by technology and innovation. Clinicians are confronted with outdated infrastructure and evolving patient expectations. And the pressure to do more and care more is driving burnout at exponential rates. How do we address these challenges?

Healthcare leadership today means being brave enough to redesign and rethink what we once fought hard to build.

The current system is not only no longer sustainable; it doesn’t work for anybody-not the patients, not the clinicians, not the educators, not the payors, not public health, and not the health systems.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here, and it is changing how we do everything. It has become the catalyst for changes in our workflows, diagnostics, and our clinical decisions. The emergence and adoption of AI demands that we reimagine roles, rethink leadership, and redesign education for a workforce that must adapt faster than ever before.

This article aims to explore the future of the healthcare workforce through the lens of education, technology, emerging interdisciplinary teams, talent and leadership development, and the evolving roles of the next generation of healthcare professionals.  Healthcare has evolved to recognise the experiences and expertise of team members as essential to delivering safe, equitable, and patient-centered care. This progress is continuing as current and future generations of clinicians not only have to be collaborative and agile, but they will have to increasingly thrive in a world where humanity and AI must not compete but complement care delivery.  We need leaders bold enough to ask, What must we unlearn to learn again?

Rising costs of healthcare increase pressure on the workforce to be more efficient and productive. The most pressing issues in healthcare fall into several areas, as noted by Sandeep Reddy in a HIMSS article,
“Shortage of healthcare professionals: Many countries face a shortage of doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers, leading to increased workload and burnout.

Uneven distribution of healthcare resources: Rural and underserved areas often struggle to attract and retain healthcare professionals.

Rising healthcare costs: The increasing cost of healthcare puts pressure on the workforce to become more efficient and productive.

Administrative burden: Healthcare professionals spend a significant amount of time on paperwork and administrative tasks, thereby reducing the time available for patient care.”

According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the healthcare workforce is slated to have a shortage of up to 124,000 physicians by 2034. The American Nurses Association estimates that it needs more than 1.1 million new nurses by 2030. These shortages are particularly acute in rural communities where the need is the greatest. The COVID-19 pandemic not only revealed these fractures in access to care but also increased burnout among clinicians.

A McKinsey article noted that 20% of a nurse’s shift could potentially be freed up through the use of technology.

Administrative burden is one of the most significant contributors to healthcare workforce attrition. Healthcare professionals feel overworked and overwhelmed by administrative tasks. They spend a significant amount of time documenting, making phone calls for authorisations, or coordinating care, which takes away from direct patient care. These administrative tasks diminish job satisfaction and increase turnover.

To address some of these issues, we have to embrace technology as a tool to inform us on how to leverage human skills while mitigating risk. In short, we must look at new ways of building the entire talent pipeline. This requires a fundamental shift in how we recruit, educate, and mentor.  Organisations need to consider alternative pathways like apprenticeships, stackable credentials, and community-based programs to “meet the learners where they are.” Furthermore, leaders need to identify skills gaps and upskill based on the needs of the organisation, but also for the various health professions. The integration of AI demands new skills, the need for tailored training and development opportunities based on profession, skill set, and preferences. Employees are ready to utilise AI. According to AI in the workplace: A report for 2025 by McKinsey, almost half of the survey respondents want more formal training, yet more than a fifth reported receiving minimal to no support. In addition to identifying skill gaps, AI can aid in providing customised professional development, such as coaching for teams and individuals, AI-powered simulations for procedural training, and providing feedback for various medical tasks.

Medical education should incorporate AI into the curriculum so that students are well prepared and the workforce is ready to use AI tools and technologies in a strategic and educated manner. While clinicians are not engineers, we will need to collaborate with each other as part of our healthcare teams. Therefore, a mutual understanding of language, goals, and functions of each team member will be crucial to successful patient outcomes. Just as we have expanded our definition of healthcare teams in practice, we will once again need to redefine the healthcare teams of the future to include computer scientists, data scientists, and data engineers. 

Digital platforms and AI are vital to scaling training initiatives. This is particularly important as the World Health Organisation (WHO) predicts that there will be a global shortage of 4.3 million physicians, nurses, and health professionals by 2030. The urgency of this workforce gap should be an alarm bell to think of how technology can support education. While some organisations currently lack the infrastructure and expertise for AI implementation, the use of AI in education is evolving, and attention should be paid to addressing and advancing this shifting ecosystem. The digital healthcare ecosystem will bring about new workforce roles such as AI navigators, digital scribes, and virtual care coordinators. The streamlining of traditional roles like administrative assistants, appointment schedulers, and data entry will be replaced by AI-powered tools. This will open up new opportunities for innovation that will complement human expertise, rather than replace it. Human expertise and human touch will be more important in the era of AI and digital healthcare.

Furthermore, clinical workflows enhanced by AI will improve patient outcomes and the delivery of precision medicine. AI algorithms are already being used in certain specialities to improve diagnostic accuracy, such as X-rays and CT scans to detect more minute abnormalities and in colonoscopies to detect polyps. These algorithms don’t replace the specialists but rather help triage urgency and improve accuracy, augmenting human expertise.

Perhaps the greatest impact of AI in the immediate future will be risk prediction. For example, by reviewing large datasets, algorithms can identify patients at high risk of developing sepsis or opioid dependency after surgery. Another area of research is stroke classification. One study published in 2023 by Miyamoto et al. showed that a trained AI algorithm was able to classify the type of stroke with high accuracy.10 This has the potential to decrease time to treatment and improve patient outcomes. Additionally, AI can assist in developing personalised treatment plans based on a patient's medical history and genetic information. As noted by Saeed et al., “Implementation of AI-driven decision-support tools led to decreased medical errors by 20% together with enhanced treatment efficiency reaching up to 15% thus proving their value in workforce performance optimisation.”

The time and cognitive burden saved by AI will enable healthcare professionals to focus on higher-order, strategic, and human-centric work. This will allow for professionals to provide more attention, guidance, and coaching for patients; the reason we all got into healthcare in the first place.

Healthcare leaders should encourage and foster a culture of AI use, where AI is viewed as a tool to augment work rather than replace human expertise. Concerns of job displacement will remain; emphasis on enabling humans to engage in impactful and meaningful work is the key to balancing the success of AI implementation and scaling. The “human in the loop” is crucial. Many studies have shown a positive correlation between the quality of the provider-patient relationship and health outcomes, and AI is one tool that can be used to improve upon those trends.

In conclusion, the healthcare systems of tomorrow will need a workforce that is not only AI-ready but also AI-agile and able to flex their human capabilities by leveraging AI tools for true human-centered care. Leaders of health systems and educators need to ensure that current and future clinicians are prepared for this new ecosystem. Building the AI-healthcare talent pipeline for the future requires a multi-pronged and human-centered approach. This includes using AI to streamline recruitment and retention, but also personalised and continuous education and upskilling for all members of the healthcare team. AI can help us deliver high-quality, patient-centered care while enhancing clinician well-being. We just have to be brave enough to reimagine the system.

References

1. The Impact of AI on the Healthcare Workforce: Balancing Opportunities and Challenges. HIMSS. Published April 11, 2024. Accessed July 31, 2025. https://gkc.himss.org/resources/impact-ai-healthcare-workforce-balancing-opportunities-and-challenges
2. The Complexities of Physician Supply and Demand: Projections the Complexities of Physician Supply and Demand: Projections from 2021 to 2036.; 2024. https://www.aamc.org/media/75236/download
3. Workforce. ANA. Published October 14, 2017. Accessed July 31, 2025. https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/workforce/
4. Berlin G, Murphy M. The pulse of nurses’ perspectives on AI in healthcare delivery. McKinsey & Company. Published October 2024. Accessed July 31, 2025. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/healthcare/our-insights/the-pulse-of-nurses-perspectives-on-ai-in-healthcare-delivery
5. West A, Kelly G, Zucker J, et al. Achieving growth: Putting leadership mindsets and behaviors into action. McKinsey & Company. Published January 13, 2025. Accessed July 31, 2025. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/achieving-growth-putting-leadership-mindsets-and-behaviors-into-action?stcr=02928694C56A4D3890FF04A6B15A50D4&cid=other-eml-ttn-mip-mck&hlkid=321bc2515cec4b80888fb4e1a11c5101&hctky=1926&hdpid=f5de6d6d-4d36-4c76-9cc8-fa080ae848cb
6. Mayer H, Yee L, Chui M, Roberts R. Superagency in the workplace: Empowering people to unlock AI’s full potential. McKinsey & Company. Published January 28, 2025. Accessed July 31, 2025. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/superagency-in-the-workplace-empowering-people-to-unlock-ais-full-potential-at-work?stcr=948C71CCACAE4E57ACC50D4F4C9D1072&cid=other-eml-ttn-mip-mck&hlkid=cef00e0582794f1e8b3c2e60b1088085&hctky=1926&hdpid=f5de6d6d-4d36-4c76-9cc8-fa080ae848cb
7. Maham Saeed, Muhammad Saqib Jalil, Fares Mohammed Dahwal, Mohammad Tonmoy Jubaear Mehedy, Esrat Zahan Snigdha, Abdullah al mamun, & MD Nadil khan. (2025). The Impact of AI on Healthcare Workforce Management: Business Strategies for Talent Optimization and IT Integration. The American Journal of Medical Sciences and Pharmaceutical Research, 7(03), 136–156. https://doi.org/10.37547/tajmspr/Volume07Issue03-15
8. The Benefits of the Latest AI Technologies for Patients and Clinicians | Harvard Medical School Professional, Corporate, and Continuing Education. Harvard.edu. Published August 30, 2024. Accessed July 31, 2025. https://learn.hms.harvard.edu/insights/all-insights/benefits-latest-ai-technologies-patients-and-clinicians
9. Miyamoto N, Ueno Y, Yamashiro K, et al. Stroke classification and treatment support system artificial intelligence for usefulness of stroke diagnosis. Frontiers in Neurology. 2023;14. doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2023.1295642
10. Garg A. How AI Is Transforming Healthcare Teams. Forbes. Published September 4, 2024. Accessed July 31, 2025. https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbestechcouncil/2024/09/04/how-ai-is-transforming-healthcare-teams/

--Issue 06--