LLMs and Generative AI for Healthcare

Chapter 4. LLM and Generative AI’s Patient and Clinical Potential

The latest AI design paradigms—encompassing agentic reasoning and vastly expanded context windows in LLM and generative AI prompts—will fundamentally change the nature and functions of healthcare applications. While revolutionary, the next generation of AI systems will not transform healthcare fundamentally overnight.

Some of the principal change drivers, however, will likely consist of startups and other tech companies. Many of these aren’t as encumbered by the inertia and risk aversion that can be found across large healthcare companies, and they may be the kind of early adopters that new technologies with yet-to-be-proven return on investment are hungry to find. On the other hand, traditional healthcare incumbents will likely be more cautious, likely jumping into AI when and if these kinds of technologies prove themselves in the marketplace and are seen to be safe and financially sound.

Yet, ironically, as tech multinationals and startups create a critical mass of diverse successes by infusing AI into healthcare, these positive results will filter out to much of the wider field. With returns beginning to accrue, healthcare companies will move toward AI solutions that help them deliver better care while remaining competitive. The coming years will witness tensions between the business ethos of startups with their “move fast and break things” world, contrasting sharply with some of the drawbacks of larger healthcare ...