AI Moves from Promise to Practice, Transforming Clinical Care Across the U.S., Philips Report Finds
New findings show AI helping clinicians expand capacity, reduce burnout and deliver better care for more people amid rising demand, workforce shortages and increasing costs
Royal Philips (NYSE:PHG, AEX: PHIA)), a global leader in health technology, today released its 2026 Future Health Index U.S. report, "AI in practice: Shaping the future of healthcare now," revealing how AI is delivering measurable benefits across healthcare systems under growing strain. The report shows AI increasingly embedded into clinical workflows, helping clinicians regain time, improve decision-making, expand patient capacity and reduce administrative burden.
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FHI 2026 US Report Cover
Among the key findings from the U.S. report:
- More than one-third of healthcare professionals (36%) say AI has increased their capacity to see more patients, with clinicians reporting a median increase of five additional patients per week.
- Clinicians say AI saves them time every week. Nearly half (49%) reported time savings of at least 132 hours per year on average, or the equivalent of more than three full working weeks – time spent on higher-value clinical tasks such as thinking through cases in more detail.
- More than one-quarter of healthcare professionals (27%) say AI has helped them identify or prevent a potential medical error at least three times in the past three months, underscoring AI's growing role in supporting safer care and clinical decision-making.
- Clinicians also report meaningful improvements in well-being, including better work-life balance (35%), reduced work-related stress (36%) and less overtime or taking work home (32%).
The report shows that AI adoption is becoming nearly universal among healthcare providers, with three-quarters (74%) of clinicians saying their use of AI-enabled tools provided by their organization has increased over the past year and a similar number (73%) say the use of AI-enabled tools is resulting in time-savings. Clinicians report using that regained time to focus more on patient care, clinical decision-making and higher-value tasks while also using that time to keep up to date with research and clinical developments and the ability to apply greater precision to their work.
Emerging from this year's report is the advent of a new "hybrid care team," where AI supports clinicians and patients while human judgment remains central to care. A majority of clinicians are comfortable with AI supporting decisions as a ‘partner' when it comes to diagnostic decision support tools, medical image analysis tools, medical imaging processing systems and surgical guidance systems, amongst others. Importantly, more than 90% say it is essential to keep a human in the loop as AI advances.
At the same time, the findings point to ongoing readiness challenges. Nearly eight in 10 healthcare professionals say training for AI-enabled tools is limited or inconsistent at their organization, underscoring the need for stronger infrastructure, workforce readiness and governance as AI adoption accelerates.
"The growth in adoption of AI over the last year has been nothing short of remarkable – and healthcare leaders are increasingly seeing an AI dividend. Their investments are giving time back to clinicians and improving the patient experience," said Jeff DiLullo, Chief Region Leader, Philips North America. "We're still in the early days of this transformation. To realize these benefits across the broader healthcare ecosystem and have impact at scale, AI must be embedded seamlessly into clinical workflows and supported by consistent education and training."
About the Future Health Index 2026
The Future Health Index is the largest global survey of its kind, analyzing the perspectives of healthcare professionals and patients across multiple countries. Based on proprietary quantitative research involving over 2,000 healthcare professionals and more than 20,000 patients across 10 countries, the 2026 edition examines how AI is actively being used across healthcare systems and the value it creates in time regained, expanded capacity and improvements in care delivery. For more information, or to download the full U.S. report, visit www.usa.philips.com/futurehealthindex-2026.
About Royal Philips
Royal Philips (NYSE:PHG, AEX: PHIA)) is a leading health technology company focused on improving people's health and well-being through meaningful innovation. Philips' patient- and people-centric innovation leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver personal health solutions for consumers and professional health solutions for healthcare providers and their patients in the hospital and the home. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, ultrasound, image-guided therapy, monitoring and enterprise informatics, as well as in personal health. Philips generated 2025 sales of EUR 18 billion and employs approximately 64,300 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. News about Philips can be found at www.philips.com/newscenter.
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Avi Dines
Philips North America
Tel: +1-781-690-3814
Email: avi.dines@philips.com