Health-care providers deploy agentic AI agents to automate complex tasks and reduce clinician workload

More than two-thirds (68%) of health-care providers have already adopted AI agents into their workforce, according to KPMG. Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) deployed AI agents to handle insurance claims, completing 1,100 claims per month and reducing appeals time from 45 minutes to five minutes while improving appeal success rate from 65% to 100% in nine months.

Agentic AI agents (autonomous AI systems that make decisions and retrieve information without manual input) differ from prior digital health tools by handling nuanced, complex scenarios. HSS is deploying a 24/7 AI scheduling and triage service via web, text, or phone that asks patients clarifying questions and books appointments based on clinician availability, location, and insurance coverage, with escalation to human specialists for sensitive or uncertain cases.

According to KPMG research, 84% of health-care providers are already comfortable delegating decision-making about specific processes to AI agents. Dr. Ashis Barad, chief digital and technology officer at HSS, envisions a future in which 90% of non-clinical health-care tasks could be administered by AI agents, freeing clinicians for complex and specialized cases.