{"id":20588,"date":"2026-10-14T11:03:26","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T16:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/osf-blog.live.imagescape.com\/blog\/?p=20588"},"modified":"2026-10-14T11:03:26","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T16:03:26","slug":"agentic-ai-in-health-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/osf-blog.live.imagescape.com\/blog\/agentic-ai-in-health-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Agentic AI in Health Care"},"content":{"rendered":"

From automating routine tasks to generating clinical documentation and insights, there are many examples of AI in health care. A new phase of AI is emerging that goes beyond automation or content creation. Known as agentic AI, this approach has the potential to fundamentally change how work gets done across health care organizations.<\/p>\n

Rather than acting in isolation, AI agents for health care use multiple intelligent agents that can make decisions, take action and coordinate with one another to achieve an outcome. For health systems navigating workforce shortages, administrative burden and increasingly complex workflows, this shift from automation to intelligent orchestration could be transformative.<\/p>\n

What is agentic AI?<\/h2>\n

Traditional automation and AI tools are designed to perform specific tasks like flagging an issue, generating a recommendation or producing content. Generative AI, for example, excels at summarizing information or drafting text, but typically stops short of acting on that information.<\/p>\n

Agentic AI works differently. It involves connected agents that can understand a situation, determine the next step and communicate with other agents to move a process forward.<\/p>\n

Becky Buchen, senior vice president for innovation and transformation at OSF HealthCare, describes agentic AI as the next phase in AI\u2019s evolution. Early software bots followed rules humans programmed into them, but as AI has advanced, those bots can now learn from data and generate insights. Agentic AI builds on that foundation by enabling agents to anticipate what comes next and coordinate actions across an entire workflow.<\/p>\n

A common example is revenue cycle management. One agent may identify why a claim was denied, and another agent can determine how to fix the issue. A third agent can submit the corrected claim. Rather than relying on humans to predefine every rule or determine next steps, , the agents work together, using data and insights to complete the process from end to end.<\/p>\n

From Automation to Orchestration<\/h2>\n

What makes AI agents for health care powerful is not just speed, but coordination. Health care workflows usually involve multiple systems and teams. Agentic AI can help bridge those gaps by orchestrating tasks across technologies that don\u2019t naturally work together.<\/p>\n

However, this doesn\u2019t mean you can turn an agentic AI solution on and never check on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt OSF, we would need to supervise AI agents much the same way we would supervise our Mission Partners,\u201d Buchen explains.<\/p>\n

Leaders don\u2019t give a team member tasks and never check in again. They monitor performance, watch for changes and intervene when something isn\u2019t working as expected.<\/p>\n

That same mindset applies to agentic AI. Instead of noticing a problem weeks later on a dashboard, leaders will need to understand what \u201cnormal\u201d looks like and recognize early signals when something breaks, whether due to a data gap, process change or system integration issue.<\/p>\n

This shift requires leaders to think differently about oversight. As AI agents take on more interconnected tasks, leaders will need to be educated and upskilled to understand how those agents operate, interact and depend on one another. Much like managing a team, leaders must be prepared to assess when an agent\u2019s behavior or outputs change, diagnose what caused the disruption and intervene when necessary.<\/p>\n

Key Benefits of AI Agents in Health Care<\/h2>\n

When applied thoughtfully, agentic AI can deliver meaningful benefits across health care systems.<\/p>\n