In the brave AI health plan of CVS – and the surprising warning of the technology chief for the industry –

Whether the administrative burden for doctors alleviates, serve as the first contact point for patients or integrate quickly Medical research and diagnosisAI has a transformative potential for the health field. After American Medical AssociationTwo out of three doctors use AI, an increase of 78% compared to 2023.

CVS healthNo. 5 on the Fortune 500is an important player in the health industry with the country’s largest pharmacy chains. The company also provides clinical services through their subsidiaries CVS Caremark and Minuteclinic.

For Tilak Mandadi, the Executive Vice President of Ventures and the Chief Experience and Technology Officer at CVS Health, innovations are already underway to disturb the health industry. Before Mandadi took part in CVS Health in 2022, he had leadership roles in experience, technology and strategy in all hospitality and finance, including the MGM Resorts InternationalPresent Disney Parks and American Express.

In a conversation with AssetsMandadi discusses his most urgent agenda objects and his predictions for the healthcare industry in the KI era.

This interview was processed for length and clarity.

What inspired your interest in using the AI ​​in the healthcare system?

The health industry was not an enthusiastic or early applicant of the technology. There was a time when the healthcare industry remained behind the industries such as finance and others when the health industry was introduced. This is quite clearly reflected in the nature of the experience that consumers are provided.

My view is very similar to what happened in the developing countries, where it stays behind the industrialized countries when taking the wire telecommunications. Then when Cellular came into the picture, she actually jumped into the developed world how networked people became.

In my opinion, AI is this jumpwriting for health care. We are prepared for this, the application cases are very crystal clear and the technology is available. I think this is the opportunity to really skip.

You mentioned that the application cases are crystal clear. Can you give an example?

We have nursing management where nurses call people who go through stressful times and treat things like cancer. They call them these nurses and help them to control their health care and try to take stress out of their lives. Forty percent of their time had previously spent preparing for the call. AI takes this to 5%. So what happens to the other 35% of the time? You can actually spend more time with customers.

Another example is that we have people who call patients and members, and the call itself normally takes on X Number of minutes. Then twice as much time would be spent together. We now have AI who actually records the call and summarizes it for them.

I hate saying that, but I use it all the time, so I will say it: Ai allows us to take the stupid from work and to do the real added value.

What is your number one agenda as Chief Experience and Technology Officer at CVS Health?

The number one point is how we change the experience in healthcare. Good experience means that people do their own health better and more. People who operate their own health leads to trust in healthcare and doctors. Trust leads to changes in behavior in the way people look at their lives, and it has been proven to demonstrate that this change in behavior leads to better health results and durability.

I know it is a long chain, but all of this starts with the experience in healthcare that is better, and that is currently our main focus. How do we change the experience completely?

How does AI play a role in the transformation of experience and behavioral change?

Change of behavior results from a variety of things. For example, it comes from drug compounding, so that it is actually disciplined to take your drugs every day. If Ai helps us to identify people who are not disciplined due to their previous behavior, we can proactively deal with them and give them the tools that are necessary to better comply with drugs.

We recognize what the right thing for you would do next on your health trip. We want you to take control of your health trip, and the AI ​​makes this possible by simplifying health care. The reason why people do not take control of their health is not that they do not want, but because it is so complex. It is overwhelming.

So much is talked about the role that AI already plays in health. There are also concerns how to democratize access and ensure that technology protects people’s data. How do you address that?

There is a saying from my days at Disney. It was a science fiction writer who said: “The best technology is something that people don’t even know that it exists.” Technology on your face is not particularly productive. Technology that takes away human touch is not something that we are interested in at CVS. We are known for our human touch. And wherever we use technology, it has to improve human touch and in no way replace.

We are one of the first signatories for responsible AI in the last administration. We continue when we think about responsible AI. The principles we follow are very simple. There will be no prejudices in our AI models. There will be no hallucinations in the way our AI works. The applications for which we use AI are clear, defined and listed. It won’t be a surprise, do you use AI here or not? We know exactly what the model is doing.

The most important philosophy we have from AI is that AI will never make decisions. Period. So AI would help us collect the information. AI will help us to take the stupid work, the administrative work that we do not want, but decisions that affect health results would always be made by qualified people.

And what about the data piece?

If we give the patient, the member and the consumer ownership of health care data, no one should have control over it. I can give consent to the use of my data to others, but I should have access.

I mean, think about it. Do you have a place where you can choose your health records? It’s crazy. We want to help people own their health data and health data. And then I would like to create complete interoperability in the stakeholders, between PBMS, providers, a health system and health plans. The data should flow without hurdles, and this interoperability will make experience much better.

If you see five to ten years later in the street, how would you define, as with CVS, under your leadership and especially if we could think about the implementation of AI?

I think AI and technology can drastically change six dimensions of health care.

One is, how do we improve access to health care? Why can our pharmacists no longer offer health care? How do I use technology to have better and wider access to health care to consumers?

Second, how do we reduce health care costs? And technology will play an incredible role.

And it should be crystal clear what advantages are in real time when you are with a doctor. Health care is probably the only industry in which I could imagine where to buy something without knowing what it will cost. So you go an operation, but it is not clear what my total costs are. I want technology and AI to take this confusion away. Before you run for a procedure, we will tell you exactly what your costs will be.

You want to live longer and want to live a high quality life. I think technology will make a big difference.

Which timeline do we talk about here to see this in action?

I think health care will not be recognized in five years. It will be completely different in 10 years.

You should be able to reach the CVS app to click on a button and actually speak to an AI agent for the first consultation. The AI ​​agent then seamlessly connects them to a human doctor in real time. The biggest problem that people have in the healthcare system is that they are forced to do all homework and navigation in an extremely complex ecosystem. What customers want is that someone else does all homework and offers a one-stop shop.

Which types of roles or skill rates will be created with this important technological transformation in the health system?

The absolutely worst thing that companies can do is create a chief ai officer role. This is by far the worst thing that companies can do. Did we create a Chief Cellular Phone Officer for the company when the mobile phone became omnipresent? This is a tool with a solution. I think companies should create the role of Chief Experience Officer.

I think the existing roles will actually take on new responsibility. I think AI will be an essential part of the daily life of the doctor, the service representative and customer support. Everyone will use AI in their daily life to do their work better.