I’ve been interviewing healthcare executives and leaders on how communication, trust, and organizational alignment shape performance across complex healthcare systems.
A pattern that keeps emerging across these interviews is that healthcare organizations struggle when confusion outpaces clarity. And it is clarity, not innovation alone, that ultimately drives trust.
Below are selected insights from my conversation with Dr. Heather Bassett, Chief Medical Officer for Xsolis, an AI-driven healthcare technology company.
On why agentic AI represents a turning point in healthcare
Dr. Bassett believes healthcare is approaching an important inflection point with agentic AI.
“We’re really at this inflection point, and most people don’t even know how to put it in words.”
She describes the shift as moving beyond AI that generates information toward AI that can take action.
“What does it mean to take workflow out of workflow?”
With agentic AI systems, the opportunity is not just generating answers. It is reasoning across multiple steps, adapting based on what it finds, and helping identify gaps, risks, and next actions.
“We’re really talking about AI that can review a patient’s clinical picture, identify gaps, flag risk, and route that case to the right human reviewer.”
On AI creating more human healthcare interactions
One of the biggest opportunities Dr. Bassett sees is AI reducing the administrative burden that has changed the clinician-patient relationship.
She points to ambient AI as a major example.
“When you’re speaking with your physician, a lot of times you’re either taking notes or they’re typing on the computer. This really changes that entire encounter.”
For her, this is not just an efficiency story.
“It’s about creating a relationship.”
By reducing documentation burden, AI can help clinicians return their attention to what brought many of them into medicine in the first place.
“I didn’t go into medical school to type into a computer. I went into medical school to speak with patients and actually interact with them.”
On ensuring AI does not widen healthcare inequities
Dr. Bassett believes healthcare leaders must consider who benefits from AI.
“The real question is who’s actually benefiting from the AI in healthcare right now?”
She points out that early adoption is often concentrated among well-resourced healthcare systems with the infrastructure, data, talent, and capital to invest.
The challenge is ensuring AI does not become another mechanism that widens existing gaps.
“When we are building these systems, when we are rolling them out, how do we make sure that we don’t continue to widen that gap?”
On measuring whether healthcare technology actually works
Dr. Bassett believes healthcare leaders must start with the problem before choosing the technology.
“You really have to start with what’s the clinical problem. What are you trying to solve?”
Without that discipline, organizations risk implementing technology without knowing what success looks like.
“What I often see is the reverse, where a tool gets deployed and then someone asks what success looks like.”
For her, responsible AI also requires transparency, explainability, and governance from the beginning.
“If you don’t have those conversations from day one, you’re just checking a checkbox at the end.”
On AI and the future of the healthcare workforce
Dr. Bassett challenges the belief that AI is primarily about replacing clinicians.
“This really isn’t about displacement. This is more about sustainability and how do we continue to provide quality care to our patients.”
She sees AI as an assistant that helps clinicians manage cognitive burden.
“I think of AI as a personal assistant for every clinician.”
But she also believes healthcare professionals must actively engage with these tools.
“The clinicians that are going to thrive in the next five to ten years are the ones that take the time to learn about AI and figure out how to use it effectively.”
On why AI implementation is only the beginning
Dr. Bassett emphasizes that deploying AI is not the finish line.
“The go-live is the beginning of the work, not the end of it.”
Healthcare organizations must continue monitoring performance, adapting models, and creating governance structures.
With agentic AI, the challenge becomes even greater.
“You’re almost managing a workforce at that point in time, a little agentic workforce.”
The leaders who succeed will be those who remain involved after implementation, not just during adoption.
On the leadership mindset healthcare executives need
Dr. Bassett believes healthcare leaders need to become more comfortable with responsible experimentation.
“In healthcare, we’ve kind of historically rewarded: do the same things over and over again.”
While caution remains essential, she believes waiting for perfect certainty creates its own risk.
“The leaders that thrive are the ones that are going to stop asking, ‘Is it safe to move?’ But start asking, ‘What’s the cost of standing still?’
What stayed with me after my conversation with Dr. Heather Bassett is that AI is forcing healthcare leaders to examine more than the technology itself. It is exposing how decisions are made, how problems are defined, and whether organizations have the systems needed to adapt. The opportunity is not simply adopting new tools. It is having the discipline to define the problem first, understand what success looks like, and remain accountable once the technology is in place. The leaders who navigate this shift will recognize that innovation is about changing how organizations think, operate, and make decisions, rather than simply implementing new tools. Because when technology moves faster than the systems built to support it, clarity and alignment are what determine whether progress actually happens.
Originally published as part of my Healthcare Leadership Operating System interview series.