Key Takeaways
- Agentic AI is moving from experimentation to essential infrastructure: AI agents are now reliable, operational layers that support complex healthcare workflows — improving accuracy, reducing manual effort, and enhancing patient and provider experiences.
- Trust, integration, and measurable outcomes will define the leaders in 2026: Organizations that emphasize safety, day-one value, deep system integration, and strong analytics will scale AI successfully across regulated environments like healthcare.
- Real-world results prove AI agents can simultaneously drive efficiency and elevate patient care: Early adopters — from Navia Benefits to Michigan Orthopedic and 42 North Dental — are showing that AI can reduce no-shows, improve scheduling, optimize referrals, and deliver strong financial ROI while improving access and experience.
Over the last year, we’ve seen something remarkable: AI agents are no longer experimental side projects — they’re becoming the dependable layer that keeps vital workflows moving. They listen, act, escalate when needed, and deliver measurable outcomes at a speed and scale we simply couldn’t achieve before.
Charles Lamanna, Vice President, Business & Industry Copilot, at Microsoft, accurately described the increasing scope, scale, and transformative impact of agentic AI in a recent article in Fortune magazine. He wrote:
“That represents a real shift…Agents are improving accuracy, reducing manual effort, and boosting customer experience. They’re emerging as a dependable layer inside the enterprise and are shaping how organizations will operate in the years ahead.”
At IntelePeer, we’ve had a front‑row seat to this transformation. As we look to the year ahead, our product and market strategy is clear: trust, day‑one value, deep integration, and analytics that provide real-time controls will separate leaders from laggards. Those are the essential factors that make agentic AI safe, auditable, and outcomes‑driven in healthcare and other regulated markets.
What’s new and what’s next for agentic AI in healthcare
Over the past year, we’ve taken deliberate steps to lay a foundation for 2026 and beyond, ensuring that healthcare organizations can scale AI safely and effectively. Key initiatives included:
- Clinical‑grade voice AI: We’ve expanded our voice automation capabilities to integrate seamlessly with EHR and scheduling systems, setting the stage for smarter, more empathetic patient engagement at scale.
- Actionable analytics: By introducing rapid‑deployment models, we’ve made it easier for organizations to move from pilots to measurable outcomes quickly; an approach that will accelerate over the coming months.
- Next‑generation agentic AI: Our platform now supports composable agents with strong governance and observability, creating a trusted, secure, and outcomes-focused foundation for the next decade of healthcare automation.
These initiatives add capabilities and improve agent performance now and future‑proof workflows. That gives leaders the confidence to experience the benefits of agentic automation today and expand deployments over time as needs and market conditions change.
Real-world results: customer success with AI agents in healthcare
Healthcare innovators are already proving what’s possible when trust, integration, and rapid ROI come together:
- Navia Benefits streamlined member support and built a scalable AI blueprint, freeing teams to focus on personalized service and handle complex cases efficiently.
- Michigan Orthopedic improved scheduling efficiency and referral management, reducing delays and unlocking insights from unstructured EMR data.
- 42 North Dental deployed AI agents to reduce no‑shows and accelerate collections, recovering millions in receivables while improving patient access.
These customers are proving that business outcomes and high-quality patient experiences aren’t competing priorities; they’re two sides of the same transformation.
A leadership framework for scaling agentic AI in healthcare by 2026
In his Fortune piece, Lamanna frames the agentic era as a redesign of work itself, just as the developments of steam power, electricity, and digital technologies reshaped industries, economies, and everyday life. We are witnessing a similar transformation today as we restructure workflows around agents that orchestrate tasks, improve outcomes, and empower human decision-makers.
Based on our experience serving thousands of clinics and teams, we believe leaders should prioritize – and expect – five critical elements when evaluating and deploying agentic automation platforms:
- A foundational commitment to trust and safety
- A demonstrable ability to deliver Day-One value
- Straightforward integration with existing infrastructure
- Embedded analytics as an intelligent layer of control and observability
- Seamless interoperability that connects staff, models, systems and workflows
Why this matters for patients and teams
Agentic AI isn’t about replacing empathy or clinicians; it’s about freeing time for what matters most. When agents handle scheduling, reminders, insurance verification, and payment workflows, staff can focus on complex cases and patient experiences. That means increased access, fewer delays, higher utilization, and stronger financial performance — exactly what we designed our recent initiatives to deliver.
It’s important to remember that we are still in the early stages of agentic AI technology and adoption. As Lamanna notes, “this is the least capable these systems will ever be.” The coming year will bring agents that collaborate, escalate, and learn across teams and processes, multiplying the benefits that leaders are seeing today.
Building the future together
We see our recent initiatives as important innovations that make AI increasingly observable, integrated, and scalable for multisite specialty practices, DSOs, and other organizations across regulated industries. We’ll continue to collaborate with our customers, our robust partner ecosystem, and like-minded industry leaders to accelerate the pace of innovation.
Together, we will make 2026 a pivotal year for the adoption of trusted, safe, scalable, and outcomes-focused agentic AI solutions that deliver meaningful improvements in healthcare experiences, business productivity, and everyday life.