As artificial intelligence has become increasingly ubiquitous in everyday life – from the auto-correct function of a typical smartphone to chatbots capable of simulating conversations with humans, quickly analyzing data sets and much more – it is also changing the way healthcare professionals and organizations deliver healthcare, as well as the patient experience.
Today, doctors use AI to schedule appointments, document patient visits, create discharge summaries and care plans, analyze medical images and even to aid in patient diagnosis, for example.
Local businesses and medical experts agree that AI is here to stay, including in healthcare settings. But they also warn that humans must monitor artificial and augmented intelligence, using it as a tool to improve their work or the care they provide – not as a replacement for human beings or for personal connections.
“It’s not going to go away,” said Jonathan Liebert, president, CEO and executive director of the Better Business Bureau of Southern Colorado. He met with Dr. Vinh Chung, dermatologist and founder of Vanguard Skin Specialists, for an informal discussion in late October about the role of AI technology in healthcare and daily life. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Data from a November 2024 American Medical Association survey of 1,183 practicing physicians nationwide found that 66% of doctors used AI in their practice, compared to 38% in 2023.
The 2025 Physicians AI report, recently released by physician-led website Offcall, found that 67% of doctors surveyed use AI on a daily basis in their practice, 89% use it every week and 84% say it makes them better at their jobs. Only 3% never use it, according to the report. Offcall conducted the survey of more than 1,000 clinicians across 106 specialties in October.
The task before business owners and medical providers now is to implement AI technology “responsibly and strategically,” Liebert said.
A second, related task is to look at the bigger picture: “What does this mean? How do we do this? Why do we do this?” said Liébert.
Chung cautioned: “With AI, as it comes along, I think we really need to draw a line. When is it harmful? When is it a tool? That’s the framework (we need).”
The 2025 Physicians AI report finds that doctors most often fear that their employers are using AI for cost-cutting purposes, not healthcare. Other major concerns include the inevitable liability they believe AI will bring, and who will bear legal responsibility for any patient harm related to its use; and the “loss of the art of medicine” – the combination of a doctor’s gut instinct, ability to recognize patterns based on experience, overall assessment of a case, wisdom to know when to act and when to observe, and human connections such as reading body language and establishing trust with their patients.
“We can feed artificial intelligence all the information we want, but it’s not going to be able to have the emotional intelligence that a human being has… to really know someone,” Dr. Frank Samarin, a dermatologist at Mountaintop Dermatology, said in the fall.
He was speaking over a cup of coffee with Chung and Dr. Deb Henderson, a dermatologist at the Skin Cancer & Dermatology Center. It was one of 100 coffee meetings Chung committed to holding with medical providers in the greater Colorado Springs area by the end of 2025. The initiative was Chung’s way of combating isolation, which he said could worsen with the rise of AI, and prioritizing and building stronger connections within the local medical community.
“What concerns me about AI is that we’re replacing human connections with something that will distract you for hours and hours,” Chung said, highlighting AI’s use in professional contexts and for personal entertainment.
The personal connection with their healthcare providers is important and necessary for patients because it provides a sense of dignity, dermatologists agreed.
“So I think they don’t just feel like a number. And they probably feel seen and known,” Henderson said.
CommonSpirit Health primarily uses AI to improve the human element of healthcare, by ease the administrative burden on practitioners, Dr. Andrew French said in a recent interview. He is President of the Physician Company for the Greater Colorado and Kansas Health System market.
“AI, as it is in every other business and industry, is growing at a rapid pace. There are lots of opportunities to do lots of different things in healthcare, in clinical care,” French said. “We try to be very intentional in selecting tools that do things like decrease the cognitive load on our practitioners and make communication with our patients clearer. …And think about how we deploy these tools, think about how we test them to make sure they will do what we want them to do, in the way we want them to do it, before we flip a switch and use it everywhere (CommonSpirit).”
Dr. Richard Zane, chief medical and innovation officer at UCHealth, said the health system is also focused on the responsible use of AI to improve lives.
“Innovation is a strategic pillar for UCHealth, including the meaningful use of AI to improve lives by delivering exceptional quality care and experience to our patients while enabling our employees to work at the peak of their competence and significantly reducing administrative burden,” he said. “We ensure that the use of AI is safe, ethical and transparent and all of our policies, including the use of AI, require strict patient confidentiality and HIPAA compliance.”
There will always be a need for humans to guide the ship, so to speak, medical experts agree.
“For clinicians, nurses, doctors, advanced practice providers, at the end of the day, it’s still about the delivery of health care. At the end of the day, they’re still the ones making connections with patients. They’re still the ones with the expertise…Ultimately, I think every doctor, nurse and advanced practice provider understands their responsibility to the well-being and health of patients in our communities,” French said.
Vanguard’s skin specialists and Skin Cancer and Dermatology Center use ChatGPT, an AI chatbot, on a daily basis, Chung and Henderson said. The skin cancer and dermatology center also uses an AI-powered patient messaging system.
Another common application of AI in the medical setting is as a scribe, French said. CommonSpirit, UCHealth, and Mountaintop Dermatology all use AI documentation and tracing tools; An AI tracing program used by UCHealth, called Abridge, also helps medical providers monitor their patients for sepsis.
Writing tools have reduced the number of administrative tasks required of doctors and other healthcare providers, improving their work-life balance, reducing burnout and improving the efficiency of care, said French, Samarin and Jill Collier, a primary care nurse practitioner at UCHealth.
“Rather than looking at a computer and furiously typing out their notes and evaluations, they can interact meaningfully with the patient. It allows us to move the chair away from that computer terminal. It allows our doctors to sit down with patients and have face-to-face, person-to-person conversations, connect with them, actively listen and empathize in a way they’ve never been able to before,” French said.
For Collier, medical AI, including tracing programs, AI-based medical search engines like Open Evidence, and general-purpose chatbots like ChatGPT help him do his job more efficiently, allow him to create ultra-personalized care plans, and give him more time with his patients.
She was one of 250 UCHealth providers who tested the Abridge program when the health system began piloting it last January. Today, nearly a third of UCHealth’s 6,000 doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants use Abridge, the health system said.
“It gives me more intentional time with the patient. I feel more present,” Collier said of the tracing program and other AI-based tools. “…Most people didn’t go into medicine because they wanted to spend all day on the computer. »
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the medical community to establish new ways of providing care, but telehealth virtual visits “do not replace” traditional medical settings, Henderson said.
“I don’t think the patients felt seen. They didn’t feel as well cared for,” she said.
Yet in the age of AI, Collier stressed that people need not be afraid of it.
“I think at this point there’s nothing to fear. I think we should all have a healthy skepticism about AI and that where it’s going, I think it’s safe. … The medical AI that I’ve seen, it’s not excessive. I haven’t seen anything yet that makes me have any kind of fear about where it’s going,” she said.
As AI continues to evolve and its use becomes more widespread, French emphasized how organizations and healthcare providers must ensure that human oversight remains in place.
“There are many different things that AI could be used for in healthcare. This does not mean that all of them add significant value to patients or clinicians. Using AI is about being selective in the tools you use, to provide the maximum benefit to clinicians and patients while allowing clinicians and healthcare experts to validate, pilot and help design what the results of these tools will be – before using them in the clinical space,” said French.