Hospitals and academic medicine may lead during the GenAI revolution 

Glenna Crooks, PhD and Paul Hambly, EVP of Supply at Toluna

AI is transforming industries across the board, and healthcare is no exception. This is the fourth in a series of articles reviewing physicians’ perspectives on GenAI. It addresses physicians who provide care in high-volume practices (150+ patients per week) and mixed adult-pediatric patient settings. Unlike their colleagues in other practice settings, these institutional physicians view GenAI through a collaborative rather than competitive lens.  

Location matters 

The data tells a compelling story: physicians working in academic and hospital environments don’t just embrace GenAI; they see it fundamentally differently than their peers. They’re ready to embrace the GenAI revolution and show more optimism about GenAI compared to other practice settings. This mirrors the enthusiasm we see in high-volume practices: 

An institutional mindset 

Across every measure of GenAI optimism, hospital and teaching physicians lead the way, consistently outpacing colleagues in other practice settings in GenAI enthusiasm: 

• Adoption timeline: 91% expect GenAI adoption within 3-5 years, compared to 86% in other practice settings. 
• Insight recognition: 89% believe GenAI will help uncover insights they might miss, versus 86% for other settings. 
• Efficiency expectations: 87% expect job efficiency improvements, compared to 83% in other practice settings. 
• Job enhancement: 83% believe GenAI will make their work easier, versus 80% in other practice settings. 
• Regulatory confidence: 47% are confident that regulators can keep pace with GenAI development, compared to 42% in other practice settings 

Embracing collaboration 

Perhaps the most revealing is how hospital-based and teaching physicians view GenAI’s impact on the healthcare workforce. Only 58% believe that GenAI will displace healthcare workers, compared to 65% of physicians in other practice settings.  

This isn’t a trivial difference. It represents a fundamentally different perspective on the role of technology in healthcare. Team-based care may be more common in these settings, and technology may be more readily accessible.  Typical hospital infrastructure may also give physicians confidence that their institutions can handle GenAI implementation challenges that might overwhelm other practice sites. If so, they will be among the most confident early adopters. 

Coming next

Our next article will reveal the views of pediatricians, whose views demonstrate a more protective instinct towards GenAI applications and its impact on patients.