Artificial intelligence (AI) is already taking hold in healthcare by helping clinicians predict patient risks earlier, conduct precise robotic-assisted surgeries, and automate time-consuming administrative tasks. But a new frontier has been rapidly emerging, called agentic AI, which is bringing an even more powerful layer of support into hospitals.
So, What Is it Exactly?
Agentic AI is not a glorified chatbot or digital assistant. Instead, it’s a class of AI that proactively acts on behalf of users, making decisions, taking actions and helping make sure nothing important falls through the cracks.
In other words, unlike traditional digital tools that rely on patients to take the first step—like clicking a button or opening an app—agentic AI anticipates needs, understands context and acts as a partner that helps support and advise, from admission through, and beyond, discharge.See How It Can Work
Right now, hospitals picked to participate in TEAM have a window of opportunity to assess their readiness and close gaps—but the countdown has indeed begun to get the proper protocols and pathways in place by the January 1, 2026 kickoff.
Example 1: Education Compliance
- With traditional engagement: The patient should watch a video about post-surgery exercises, but it’s buried in a long list of things, so they haven’t done it yet.
- With agentic AI: The system intelligently identifies patients at greater risk for infection and sends them relevant education—plus encouragement: “Learn what steps you can take to prevent infections and go home on time. Watch this short video now, or we’ll remind you later.”
- Result: Higher engagement with critical educational content that supports better outcomes, reduced Length of Stay (LOS), and fewer readmissions—without adding to the nurse workload.
Example 2: Discharge Readiness
- With traditional engagement: The patient receives the estimated discharge date, but doesn’t know what they need to or can do to ensure they go home on time.
- With agentic AI: The system nudges the patient to complete tasks for personalized discharge planning: “Your estimated discharge is in two days. Do you have a ride home? If not, no worries. We can help you get one.”
- Result: Reduces discharge delays, reduces care team workload, and improves hospital throughput.
Example 3: Meal Ordering
- With traditional engagement: The patient must remember to order their meal at the right time.
- With agentic AI: The system gently prompts the patient: “Did you want to order lunch? You’ll need to place your order by 11 a.m., so you have about 20 minutes left.”
- Result: Reduces missed meals, supports nutrition goals, makes patients happy (not “hangry”) and eases staff workload.
How to Evaluate Agentic AI Solutions
When evaluating solutions for a hospital, it’s important to look for a full range of capabilities that go beyond traditional digital engagement. Here are some to consider:
- Full navigation capabilities: From admission to post-discharge, the agentic AI you choose should keep patients on track with timely prompts, progress tracking and care plan adherence support.
- Proactive engagement: Your solution should keep patients, families and caregivers engaged with care plans, education modules and critical follow-up reminders.
- Always available, no app required: Patients should be able to engage instantly after check-in, without downloading an app or remembering logins.
- Discharge readiness tracking: The agentic AI solution you use should help prevent common discharge delays by surfacing barriers like pending tests, transportation issues or confusion in understanding care instructions.
- Post-discharge check-ins: The solution you choose should not end at discharge. It should check in after the patient returns home, gathering feedback and sending reminders so follow-up actions are completed.
- Caregiver inclusion: Make sure your solution automates real-time updates for caregivers, keeping everyone aligned.
Strengthens the Entire Ecosystem
The benefits of agentic AI in the hospital setting extends far beyond the patient’s bedside. Hospitals can optimize resources, reduce readmissions and improve outcomes by ensuring patients stay engaged and informed—and follow through with important actions. For clinicians, it means fewer manual tasks and more time spent on direct patient care, while the technology works in the background supporting their activities.
Agentic AI marks a shift from patients doing the work to patients feeling better supported, guided and cared for at every touchpoint. By reducing friction, enhancing usability and proactively prompting action, it improves patient activation, experience and outcomes, while also reducing the overall cost of care.
Find Out More
- On May 1, 2025, Get Well, the leader in digital patient engagement, unveiled Opal, its on-demand AI patient assistant for hospital experience and post-discharge support. Learn More About Opal
- Schedule a Demo to see how Opal can improve the care experience for patients and clinicians.
