Assessing healthcare’s agentic AI readiness: New research from Microsoft and The Health Management Academy

Healthcare has crossed into a profound and irreversible platform shift. 

After decades of digitization—and years of rapid advances in AI—the industry now stands at the threshold of a far more profound shift: the rise of agentic AI. 

Unlike earlier forms of automation, agentic AI goes beyond task assistance. Intelligent AI agents can plan, reason, and act autonomously collaborating alongside clinicians, care teams, researchers, developers, and all workers from the back office to the front lines. When embedded into everyday workflows, agents transform intelligence from something accessed on demand into something continuously at work—embedding subject matter expertise with human ambition to achieve our highest aspirations.  

But if pervasive agentic intelligence is the destination, how far along is healthcare on the journey?

Measuring healthcare’s readiness for agentic AI 

To answer that question, Microsoft, in collaboration with The Health Management Academy, conducted original research published in the January 2026 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Based on surveys and in-depth interviews with senior healthcare executives across provider organizations in the United States, the research offers a grounded, reality-based view of how health systems are progressing along the agentic AI maturity curve—from early experimentation to enterprise level optimization. 

What the research reveals 

1. Agentic AI remains early—but strategic interest is rising
   While enthusiasm is growing, adoption remains nascent. 43% of respondents report piloting or testing agentic AI, yet only 3% have deployed agents in live workflows. At the same time, one-third of respondents indicate no plans to explore agentic AI within the next one to two years—highlighting the gap between experimentation and operational readiness. 
2. Confidence in long-term impact is strong
   Despite limited deployment today, belief in agentic AI’s future impact is clear. 60% of respondents agree or strongly agree that agentic AI will meaningfully improve or disrupt the provider–patient experience, with similar optimism around productivity gains (57%). Nearly half anticipate deeper human–AI collaboration within the next three to five years—reinforcing the view that agents will augment, not replace, clinical and operational roles. 
3. A catalyst for workforce, productivity, and experience transformation
   More than three quarters (77%) expect AI agents to improve backend productivity, while 60% believe they will fundamentally reshape the patient–provider experience. Yet this transformation will require change: 60% cite reskilling and upskilling as a top challenge as ecosystems of AI models and agents expand. 
4. A clear gap between belief and deployment
   Qualitative interviews reveal that leaders increasingly view agentic AI as a strategic end state—one that depends heavily on progress in workforce readiness, governance, and data infrastructure. Moving from promise to sustained value will require deliberate, coordinated investment across all three. 

Why this moment matters: A leadership imperative

The publication of this research marks a shift in the future of work. The question is no longer if agentic AI will reshape healthcare—but how intentionally health systems choose to shape that transformation. 

Healthcare has a rare window to define the role of agentic AI before patterns harden, and expectations are set. Success will be determined not by technology alone, but by how effectively organizations prepare their foundations and empower their people to work alongside digital colleagues in a hybrid workforce. 

Building strong governance frameworks, establishing a trusted data foundation, and developing an AI ready workforce are no longer optional—they are prerequisites for leadership in the organizations on the frontier of the next era of transformation. 

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