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Healthcare executives told MobiHealthNews that successful AI implementation depends on thoughtful integration, tools grounded in clinical expertise and a focus on meaningful problems rather than chasing novelty.
Here is Part 2 of healthcare leaders’ perspectives on whether we are in an AI bubble:
Phill Tornroth, VP of technical strategy at Elation Health
I do think we’re in a bubble. For the past couple of years when anyone’s asked me if I think AI is going to completely transform the way we live and work or is it over-hyped, my answer has always been "yes." I think the comparisons to the internet are apt. Both things can be true at the same time. I think there are a lot of health tech startups that are inspiring the industry with what these models can do, but many of them won’t turn into sustainable businesses because for a lot of this the technology isn’t the hard part. The hard part is thoughtfully designing and integrating this technology into clinical environments and earning the trust of healthcare providers. Healthcare is the hard part.
Matt Cybulsky, managing director of healthcare at Catalant
AI is in its early stages and it's useful to distinguish this from other forms of bubbles like the dot-com bubble. This isn't to say there's no trouble afoot in the future – we're seeing a massive expansion of the technology with some arguing valuations are inflated, not to mention the financing required to keep up with competition domestically and internationally. It's early in the AI revolution with plenty of yellow flags.
Data centers are consuming immense amounts of power and water to operate processing, the impact on electrical grids and water resources isn't to be understated. Each use of AI may represent many liters of water used; the rapid growth has taken on a Zoroastrian character between resources and possibilities. With the massive infrastructure investment and desire to create annual revenues, a threat of physical obsolescence with the hardware is a curious risk to observe. Digital rot, like a spoiled apple, looms as an obvious risk ahead for the barrel of speculative growth estimations.
Instead of seeing this as an AI bubble with a threat of value destruction, it may be more relevant to see this as competitive fever only relieved by stringent diligence and reality testing for the markets ahead, especially in healthcare.
We're at a reckoning, not a bubble, I'd say (credit Peter Thiel). Technology advances incrementally with a few steps forward and many steps back. With a wild adoption curve and plenty of threats and rewards ahead of us all – all I can really advise is to watch closely, stay grounded and expect one of the most exciting and challenging tech stories of our time to continue to unfold.
If there were a bubble, and it was to burst, I'd love to be the guy who said, "I told you so." For today, I'm simply glued to the financial press to see what happens next!
Adam de la Zerda, CEO and founder Visby Medical
There may be a bubble in some of the hype and valuations of some companies, but not in the underlying usefulness of these tools, especially in healthcare. In our world, strict regulation and privacy requirements act as a natural speed limit, which means the risk is less about runaway AI and more about under-using technology that could reduce delays, errors and costs. The healthy path is to stay grounded in problems that matter, such as getting a woman from an at-home STI result to appropriate treatment quickly and to treat AI as one tool among many to make that journey better.
Anu Sharma, founder and CEO of Millie
The potential of AI in healthcare is undeniable, but the fundraising rounds have become increasingly supersized at sky high valuations without much differentiation in many cases, including to an AI bubble. Because of this, there must be some shake out for sure, and two kinds of winners will prevail: the AI products that stand on real data moats or go-to-market motions that make them incredibly sticky with customers and tech-first care delivery companies that embed AI deeply into their clinical workflows to deliver better outcomes, experience, with much lower cost structures vs. incumbents.
Dr. Julius Bruch, CEO of Isaac Health
From our vantage point, some of the market enthusiasm has definitely outpaced what’s clinically ready, but the underlying value is real. In cognitive health specifically, AI has already proven useful in screening and workflow support. If there’s a bubble, it’s likely around expectations. We’ve seen steady, incremental gains rather than dramatic disruption and that’s a healthier trajectory for clinical fields like ours that require caution and evidence.
Kara Egan, founder and CEO of Teal Health
AI is the shiny object of the moment, but it has real potential to help businesses on all levels, so the excitement is understandable. Like any new technology, especially one that is so dependent on its sources, we need to ensure we are asking the right questions before jumping all the way in.
Edmund Jackson, cofounder and CEO of UnityAI
There’s definitely a hype bubble, but not a technology bubble. We are simultaneously overestimating what AI can achieve in the short term and underestimating it in the long term. Companies that stick to the fundamentals of how value is actually created for clients, including with AI technology, will survive the long term.
Eirini Schlosser, founder and CEO of Dyania Health
There is a bubble in certain corners of AI – mostly where tools are being built without a deep understanding of healthcare’s complexity, or where marketing outpaces evidence. But the need to make sense of vast volumes of clinical text is not speculative; it's structural. Even the best-trained clinical teams cannot manually process millions of longitudinal records or match patients to opportunities at the pace modern medicine demands.
When AI is used to address those foundational constraints – and when it is developed with clinical input, transparency and safety frameworks – it feels less like a bubble and more like long-overdue modernization. The challenge ahead is distinguishing meaningful, validated systems from AI-washing. As the hype settles, rigor will matter more than velocity.
Sanjay Doddamani, founder and CEO of Guidehealth
We are not in a traditional AI bubble. Technology is advancing quickly, and the underlying pressures in healthcare are largely structural. Health systems badly need improved efficiency, stronger documentation, support for population and simultaneously precision-level patient management, as well as a relief from administrative burdens. These needs align closely with areas where AI has demonstrated tremendous promise.
The perception of a bubble often arises when organizations expect transformation without redesigning workflows or establishing clinical oversight. Solutions that depend solely on technology without complimentary operating models are unlikely to prevail. What will persist are models grounded in clinical governance, operational clarity, workflow integration and measurable performance.
Emily Greenberg, cofounder and president of Joy Parenting Club
The hype will cool, but the transformation underneath will continue to deepen. What we are seeing is not a bubble; it is a shift toward better discernment. The focus is moving from capability to responsible application. The next wave of leaders will build AI that is human-literate, meaning it understands tone, nuance, timing, cultural context and trust. Long-term value will come from using AI to extend human capacity rather than replace it.
Stephen Smith, cofounder and CEO of NOCD
I don’t think we’re in an AI bubble. If anything, we’re just beginning to see the surface of what’s possible. Look at how quickly AI has transformed something as fundamental as search in the past year, that’s one of the simplest use cases, and it’s already changed how billions of people access information every day. There will always be overvalued companies or overpromised products, but the underlying technology is real, and the pace of adoption is accelerating.
