After years of experimentation and pilot programs, AI in healthcare is entering a new, more demanding phase of operational scrutiny. Organizations now face pressure to embed artificial intelligence into clinical and operational workflows in ways that are secure, interoperable and measurable.

Healthcare leaders are increasingly evaluating how AI and agentic workflows can evolve beyond isolated proofs of concept into tangible results, according to Rob Strechay, principal analyst at theCUBE Research. That shift will shape discussions during theCUBE’s Coverage of Google Cloud at HIMSS26.

“HIMSS26 could be a very interesting year, maybe even groundbreaking, as healthcare organizations, both payer and provider sides, examine how they will use AI and agentic workflows,” Strechay said. “This will be an exciting year of how use cases have moved out of AI point-of-concept purgatory and into production. A big focus will be on data sovereignty, security, skills shortages and, of course, the return on investment of AI.”

Join theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, on March 17 for theCUBE’s Coverage of Google Cloud at HIMSS26. TheCUBE will focus on how healthcare organizations are embedding AI into clinical and operational workflows, modernizing interoperable data platforms and balancing scale with security and trust. Coverage will also examine measurable outcomes, governance priorities and where Google Cloud fits within a fast-changing healthcare cloud landscape. (* Disclosure below.)

AI in healthcare and the data usability challenge

AI in healthcare is advancing quickly, but operational readiness varies widely across organizations, according to Paul Nashawaty, principal analyst at theCUBE Research and host of the AppDevANGLE podcast. As providers and payers move from experimentation to real-world use, integration and workflow alignment continue to shape progress in AI in healthcare initiatives.

“Healthcare is quickly becoming one of the most important proving grounds for enterprise AI, but the real challenge isn’t the models,” Nashawaty said. “My research shows that more than 70% of organizations cite data integration and quality as the primary barrier to production AI, which is exactly why platforms such as Google Cloud’s Vertex AI Studio and partner-driven solutions are focusing so heavily on making healthcare data usable at scale. We’re also seeing adoption move beyond pilots. Our research indicates that roughly 30% of regulated application workloads are expected to incorporate AI into production workflows by the end of 2026, putting healthcare among the fastest-moving regulated sectors.”

Bridging that gap in AI in healthcare increasingly depends on pairing platform capabilities with domain expertise, especially in highly regulated environments where compliance and interoperability requirements are complex, according to Jessica Lamb, partner at QuantumBlack AI by McKinsey & Co. More than 85% of healthcare organizations are experimenting with generative AI, she noted in an exclusive interview with theCUBE. But turning experiments into operational impact requires securing large volumes of fragmented data and making it accessible and usable across clinical and administrative systems.

“Our goal at Google is to provide a full AI stack — we’re unique in the industry with that,” said Jim Anderson, vice president of North America partner ecosystem and channels at Google Cloud, who joined Lamb during the interview. “Provide a robust data platform so they can leverage that data and then do it securely, so security in healthcare is non-negotiable. We focus on that with regards to our strategy and vision around AI … around multimodal technology, AI assist technology, agents and those types of things.”

Agentic AI in action: Measurable gains in healthcare workflows

As healthcare organizations look to operationalize AI, attention increasingly turns to deployments that demonstrate clear business and patient impact, according to Samrah Khan, director of system integrator partnerships at Google Cloud. In healthcare environments, that can mean pairing Google Cloud’s data platform and agentic AI capabilities with integrators that understand payer and provider workflows at a granular level.

“This is where Google Cloud and Perficient really come together, where you use what we call our agentic brain, which is our data platform that our agentic AI runs on top of,” Khan told theCUBE during an exclusive interview. “You combine that with Perficient’s expertise of understanding that customer’s business function and business processes, and taking our platform and … turning it into real outcomes for that specific customer. We’re no longer [saying], ‘Let’s try this, let’s try that, and hopefully you’ll get some ROIs.’ We’re actually talking about real numbers here, whether it’s call volume, etc.”

In one example involving a large healthcare payer, Perficient Inc. worked with Google Cloud to deploy agentic capabilities directly into customer service and operational workflows, according to Yusuf Tayob, chief executive officer of Perficient, who joined Khan during the interview. The effort focused on accelerating access to relevant data, calibrating human oversight and preparing the workforce to work alongside AI rather than around it.

“Now, you’ve got an ability to build the tech much faster,” Tayob said. “In this case, we put agents next to [the] people helping those patients; 1.7 million calls we fielded so far, over 200,000 chat conversations. I think productivity’s up about 10%, but more important … the patient experience … scores are up 20%, and it’s because you’ve got a workforce that now knows how to work with the AI.”

At HIMSS26, the conversation around Google Cloud will unfold against this broader industry shift toward operational AI. As healthcare organizations confront integration barriers, workforce readiness and return on investment, the emphasis moves from proving what AI can do to demonstrating what it’s already delivering.

TheCUBE event livestream

Don’t miss theCUBE’s Coverage of Google Cloud at HIMSS26 on March 17. Plus, you can watch theCUBE’s event coverage on-demand after the event.

How to watch theCUBE interviews

We offer you various ways to watch theCUBE’s Coverage of Google Cloud at HIMSS26, including theCUBE’s dedicated website and YouTube channel. You can also get all the coverage from this year’s events on SiliconANGLE.

TheCUBE podcasts

SiliconANGLE’s “theCUBE Pod” is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube, which you can enjoy while on the go. During each podcast, SiliconANGLE’s John Furrier and Dave Vellante unpack the biggest trends in enterprise tech — from AI and cloud to regulation and workplace culture — with exclusive context and analysis.

SiliconANGLE also produces our weekly “Breaking Analysis” program, where Dave Vellante examines the top stories in enterprise tech, combining insights from theCUBE with spending data from Enterprise Technology Research, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

Guests

During theCUBE’s Coverage of Google Cloud at HIMSS26, conversations will reflect how healthcare organizations are navigating the practical realities of AI deployment in regulated environments. Stay tuned for our complete guest list.

(* Disclosure: Google Cloud sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Google Cloud nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Image: SiliconANGLE