Forrester Healthcare: AI-enabled care must meet rising patient expectations

Forrester’s latest healthcare analysis says AI adoption is shifting from experimentation to operational execution:
successful organizations will embed AI directly into clinical, administrative, and patient-facing workflows.

Healthcare providers are increasing technology investment, with Forrester projecting US provider technology budgets of $69 billion in 2026, up 7.6% year over year. Software is expected to represent about $25 billion, or 36%, of that spending.

High-priority applications include ambient clinical documentation, predictive analytics, care coordination, conversational AI, prior-authorization automation, revenue-cycle management, and real-time operational support.

Patient expectations are rising for convenient, personalized, connected care. AI can help explain medical records, guide patients through care navigation, improve access after hours, and reduce administrative friction.

Trust remains the main constraint. Consumers are more comfortable using AI for guidance than for autonomous clinical decisions, and they continue to prefer visible clinician oversight.

Forrester cautions that health literacy, accuracy, privacy, cybersecurity, interoperability, and third-party risk must be addressed before AI can reliably improve patient experience.

The business case is becoming stricter:
AI initiatives are most likely to receive continued funding when they show measurable gains in safety, quality, access, affordability, staff productivity, or cash flow.

The strategic takeaway is to begin with narrow, high-value workflows, integrate AI with existing systems, establish governance and human escalation, train staff, and measure outcomes rather than simply counting deployments.