“Healthcare, But Make It AI” Is Doing It Wrong

I keep seeing pitches for “AI doctor” products, and here’s my hot take: if your product is “healthcare, but make it AI,” you’re doing it wrong. This happens whenever a technology gets hot — everyone rushes to use it more and faster, when the real question is how to use it well. “Can we?” is a fine start, but it needs “should we?” and “how should we?” right behind it. Healthcare problems are wicked problems. Solving them means understanding the problem deeply — with clinicians, patients, and existing research involved from day one — not just applying a new tool to an old shape. I don’t need to know if a product is AI-driven. I need to know if it works, and whether it does the job better, faster, cheaper, or more accessibly than what exists. There are health tech companies doing genuinely exciting things with AI right now. Let’s do it right.