Our experts from Oliver Wyman Quotient, Partners John Lester and Marc Rousset, discuss the transformative potential of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare.

Rousset highlights that generative AI represents a significant leap forward while acknowledging the risks associated with the technology.

A common issue faced by organizations, especially in healthcare, is how they can effectively implement AI while avoiding "use case paralysis." Leaders should consider a balanced approach, incorporating both broad-based and high-value use cases. Broad-based initiatives help increase organizational exposure and understanding of AI, while high-value use cases focus on significant productivity improvements, such as enhancing call center efficiency or streamlining the note-taking process for doctors.

Finally, in the video, the partners stress the importance of preparing for AI's long-term transformative impact, drawing parallels with the early days of the internet, where unforeseen developments had the most significant effects.

John Lester

Hi, we're here at Oliver Wyman’s Health Innovation Summit 2024, talking about how artificial intelligence can transform healthcare. We're here from Oliver Wyman Quotient.

Marc Rousset

Quotient is our global AI offering that pulls together all our AI capabilities under one umbrella.

John

So let's talk about what AI can do inside healthcare. And specifically, when we talk about generative AI. Marc, tell me what is new and different about generative AI.

Marc

You know, a lot of AI up until this point has been marginal, but important, improvements over something we could already do. Neural nets, better form of forecast. Generative AI is generally a new tool in our toolkit. It can do things we've never seen before. It can create content in a way we've never seen before, and that makes it genuinely different. Genuinely something to be excited about.

John

So, we've talked to a lot of organizations here at the Health Innovation Summit about how they're using generative AI, how they might use it in the future. One of the big things that folks are wrestling with is the risk that come with generative AI. Is inaction your biggest risk?

Marc

Yeah, it's a great way to frame it. I love this question because if we talk about risk, people think about, “Hey, I'm getting in generative AI, but there's a lot of risk associated with doing that.” One thing we try and challenge you is, there's a lot of risk with not jumping into generative AI. And part of the logic here is that the cat's out of the bag. You know, a recent study with the Oliver Wyman Forum something like 50% to 60% of people have used generative AI in a work context already. It's there. And so, in our experience, we found, in one example, when we were doing our performance reviews, we were seeing a lot of reviews show up, produced by ChatGPT or other kind of generative AI models. And that worries us. That was a real risk. So our view was, you can try and shut it off, but people will work around it. How can we create a better managed, monitored experience that has all the benefits that people were seeking this out in the first place? But all the control, security, and all things you want to believe about a well-built system.  We created our own version of a review companion that helps you write a better review that can handle things like bias, can do all the things you would want to do to that goes beyond just helping you write a better review, linked to our training systems and all that kind of stuff. And that was for us, a way to mitigate risk.  We challenged our folks to say, “Hey, if you think there's a risk of getting into generative AI, what are some of the risks of not getting with generative AI?” As it sort of comes around, you know, comes at you from all angles?

John

Generative AI can be used in lots of places inside a typical org. I think a lot of organizations have had dozens and dozens, hundreds sometimes of use cases come up as ideas. How do you not get stuck with that much to do?

Marc

Yeah. Use case paralysis. I think there was a real trend in 2023 and early 2024 to just create compendiums of what are all the possible use cases we can do. And we all started asking, “which one should we pursue?” And a lot of people get hung up on the really big hairy ones, especially in healthcare. We talk about things like care plans, or UM, or things like that that are just really difficult. And what we suggest is you need to think about your portfolio that balances different solves that are out there. You need some use cases that are not necessarily very high ROI, but they raise the level of exposure and the aptitude of your organization.

John

So broad-based, like getting things in folks' hands.

Marc

Yeah. And that could be, you know, a typical productivity copilot of sorts. It could be any number of things. But there's so much to seeing is believing in this technology that helps have a broader conversation about what it can do, and is a great way to discover what are all the unlocks in your organization that only come about when people use it.

John

Okay, that's one part of the portfolio, what else?

Marc

You need some high-value use cases and this is your more traditional like what are the things that are going to make my call center, you know, 20% more productive. And are going to make, you know, my doctor take faster notes and be more productive. And those are ones that have a lot of stakeholders. They may take longer to get that ROI, but they're going to basically power the business case for that stuff. And so that's your second pillar, your high value use cases. Now the reality is you need also think about what's coming down the road. On a longer timeframe, three or four years from now. How can you be prepared for the transformative impact this may have? And it may not mean that you're working on something in the short term, but you're contemplating what happens to the market around you as this becomes pervasive everywhere. And that could be the types of preparations, from an investment standpoint, from an organizational capability standpoint, all these different dimensions that you need to think about as this technology continues to transform the industry around us.

John

So, I like that third one that's making sure that people focus on. And if we look back and think about the beginning of the internet and how people used it, most of the big impacts were not the things people were talking about in the early years. So keeping your eye on the ball makes a lot of sense.

This transcript was edited for clarity 

Our experts from Oliver Wyman Quotient, Partners John Lester and Marc Rousset, discuss the transformative potential of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare.

Rousset highlights that generative AI represents a significant leap forward while acknowledging the risks associated with the technology.

A common issue faced by organizations, especially in healthcare, is how they can effectively implement AI while avoiding "use case paralysis." Leaders should consider a balanced approach, incorporating both broad-based and high-value use cases. Broad-based initiatives help increase organizational exposure and understanding of AI, while high-value use cases focus on significant productivity improvements, such as enhancing call center efficiency or streamlining the note-taking process for doctors.

Finally, in the video, the partners stress the importance of preparing for AI's long-term transformative impact, drawing parallels with the early days of the internet, where unforeseen developments had the most significant effects.

John Lester

Hi, we're here at Oliver Wyman’s Health Innovation Summit 2024, talking about how artificial intelligence can transform healthcare. We're here from Oliver Wyman Quotient.

Marc Rousset

Quotient is our global AI offering that pulls together all our AI capabilities under one umbrella.

John

So let's talk about what AI can do inside healthcare. And specifically, when we talk about generative AI. Marc, tell me what is new and different about generative AI.

Marc

You know, a lot of AI up until this point has been marginal, but important, improvements over something we could already do. Neural nets, better form of forecast. Generative AI is generally a new tool in our toolkit. It can do things we've never seen before. It can create content in a way we've never seen before, and that makes it genuinely different. Genuinely something to be excited about.

John

So, we've talked to a lot of organizations here at the Health Innovation Summit about how they're using generative AI, how they might use it in the future. One of the big things that folks are wrestling with is the risk that come with generative AI. Is inaction your biggest risk?

Marc

Yeah, it's a great way to frame it. I love this question because if we talk about risk, people think about, “Hey, I'm getting in generative AI, but there's a lot of risk associated with doing that.” One thing we try and challenge you is, there's a lot of risk with not jumping into generative AI. And part of the logic here is that the cat's out of the bag. You know, a recent study with the Oliver Wyman Forum something like 50% to 60% of people have used generative AI in a work context already. It's there. And so, in our experience, we found, in one example, when we were doing our performance reviews, we were seeing a lot of reviews show up, produced by ChatGPT or other kind of generative AI models. And that worries us. That was a real risk. So our view was, you can try and shut it off, but people will work around it. How can we create a better managed, monitored experience that has all the benefits that people were seeking this out in the first place? But all the control, security, and all things you want to believe about a well-built system.  We created our own version of a review companion that helps you write a better review that can handle things like bias, can do all the things you would want to do to that goes beyond just helping you write a better review, linked to our training systems and all that kind of stuff. And that was for us, a way to mitigate risk.  We challenged our folks to say, “Hey, if you think there's a risk of getting into generative AI, what are some of the risks of not getting with generative AI?” As it sort of comes around, you know, comes at you from all angles?

John

Generative AI can be used in lots of places inside a typical org. I think a lot of organizations have had dozens and dozens, hundreds sometimes of use cases come up as ideas. How do you not get stuck with that much to do?

Marc

Yeah. Use case paralysis. I think there was a real trend in 2023 and early 2024 to just create compendiums of what are all the possible use cases we can do. And we all started asking, “which one should we pursue?” And a lot of people get hung up on the really big hairy ones, especially in healthcare. We talk about things like care plans, or UM, or things like that that are just really difficult. And what we suggest is you need to think about your portfolio that balances different solves that are out there. You need some use cases that are not necessarily very high ROI, but they raise the level of exposure and the aptitude of your organization.

John

So broad-based, like getting things in folks' hands.

Marc

Yeah. And that could be, you know, a typical productivity copilot of sorts. It could be any number of things. But there's so much to seeing is believing in this technology that helps have a broader conversation about what it can do, and is a great way to discover what are all the unlocks in your organization that only come about when people use it.

John

Okay, that's one part of the portfolio, what else?

Marc

You need some high-value use cases and this is your more traditional like what are the things that are going to make my call center, you know, 20% more productive. And are going to make, you know, my doctor take faster notes and be more productive. And those are ones that have a lot of stakeholders. They may take longer to get that ROI, but they're going to basically power the business case for that stuff. And so that's your second pillar, your high value use cases. Now the reality is you need also think about what's coming down the road. On a longer timeframe, three or four years from now. How can you be prepared for the transformative impact this may have? And it may not mean that you're working on something in the short term, but you're contemplating what happens to the market around you as this becomes pervasive everywhere. And that could be the types of preparations, from an investment standpoint, from an organizational capability standpoint, all these different dimensions that you need to think about as this technology continues to transform the industry around us.

John

So, I like that third one that's making sure that people focus on. And if we look back and think about the beginning of the internet and how people used it, most of the big impacts were not the things people were talking about in the early years. So keeping your eye on the ball makes a lot of sense.

This transcript was edited for clarity