Why Cincinnati Children’s CEO wants to be early with AI

Cincinnati Children’s CEO Dr. Steve Davis was an early believer in AI’s ability to transform healthcare. He had his team dive in early; his foresight and persistence paid off.

“A couple of years ago, we actually required every one of our employees to take, what we called AI 101, which is just safe, smart use of artificial intelligence,” he said, during an interview with the “Becker’s Healthcare Podcast.” “Initially, people were curious as to why we would require every employee to do it. We knew it was gonna become like the handheld calculator from my generation where teachers would say you shouldn’t use a calculator to pretty much now everybody uses one.”

That preparation has proven critical as the technology has rapidly gained traction across healthcare. Within just months of introducing ChatGPT to his leadership team, Dr. Davis witnessed its use spread widely.

“Within six months, our information services people looked at who was using an artificial intelligence tool on our servers and it was over 50% of our employees, so the fastest adoption really in history,” he said.

Despite the excitement, Dr. Davis is clear-eyed about the challenges. Many of the initial AI and large language models in healthcare were not designed for pediatrics. But that didn’t stop him.

“We’re, in many instances, building our own tools,” he explained. He also voiced concern about affordability as vendors seek profitability. “While AI holds great promise, there was an article in the [local newspaper] this morning that talked about AI potentially having its Uber moment.”

The ‘Uber moment’ referred to the ride-share app’s initial launch and growth; many people started using the app quickly because rides were so much more cost-effective than taxis and service was easy to download. But then as the business matured, prices increased 92% in five years and enthusiasm dropped.

“The article talked about the same hype cycle for AI in healthcare that could lower the cost of care,” said Dr. Davis. “But now there’s enormous pressure for some of these companies to start making a profit, and prices may well go up. If that’s the case, we’ve got to figure out how do we control our expenses in such a way that we can continue to invest in the most important technology without adding to the cost of healthcare.”

As costs rise and adoption accelerates, the impact on the workforce is front of mind. Health systems continue to invest in technology and AI-driven platforms, and some within the organization wonder if their role will be phased out.

“We tell them we are not looking to replace employees with artificial intelligence, but if you’re not willing and able to learn how to use AI tools, you might be replaced by somebody who does,” Dr. Davis said. For him, resilience and adaptability are as important as technical knowledge in preparing staff for the future.

Even with these uncertainties, his perspective remains optimistic.

“The things that we can now do for patients that we couldn’t do in the past are truly remarkable,” he said.

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