The post-pandemic world has been an eye-opener for professionals in multiple industries. Efficiency and innovation are everything right now. Things are moving at an unprecedented pace, and among all the emerging technologies, Generative AI is turning out to be a game-changer, especially in the health and wellness IT sector.

Healthcare startups and wellness-focused enterprises have their work cut out for them trying to deliver smarter, faster, and more cost-effective solutions. Fortunately, Gen AI has emerged as a surprising savior. This transformative force has been a massive help in cutting costs without compromising quality. In this article, you’ll dive into the details of how Gen AI reduces the need for large teams, accelerates MVP delivery, minimizes human error, and ultimately drives long-term saving in IT projects related to this industry.

Rising Costs in Health & Wellness Tech

The spending on health IT keeps on rising without any signs of stagnating. This is a global challenge. Statista claims the global healthcare IT spending might surpass $821 billion by 2027, which is up from $326 billion in 2021. What are the factors that lead to such high costs? Well, there are plenty, but the ones that stand out the most are – 

• Complex compliance requirements (HIPAA, GDPR, etc.)
• Multidisciplinary development teams
• High testing and QA cycles
• Data processing and security infrastructure

These issues aren’t going away anytime soon. So, the only way for companies to remain competitive is to find a way they can innovate affordably. The answer? Gen AI. Let’s find out how this technology has impacted the financial aspect of healthcare IT.

Gen AI a.k.a. The Cost-Saving Catalyst in Healthcare

When it comes to revolutionizing workflows across all fields in healthcare, no one can beat Generative AI tools. The popular ones include the following – 

• GPT-4
• Med-PaLM
• Google DeepMind’s AlphaFold

From enhancing clinical decision-making to easing the process of medical documentation, patient interaction, and IT development, these tools are doing them all in the blink of an eye. Let’s take a closer look at how Gen AI is directly contributing to financial efficiency.

Reducing the Need for Large Development Teams

If you’re looking to build a health and wellness IT platform the traditional way, you’re looking at quite a sizable team to put together. You need front-end and back-end developers, UI/UX designers, QA testers, technical writers, data analysts, and even project managers. The more people on your team, the more overhead costs you have to bear. That will certainly put a dent in your pocket soon enough.

Gen AI automates most of these roles. How? Here’s a simplified version for your understanding

• GitHub Copilot is a code generation tool that can increase developer productivity by 55%.
• Natural language processing models can streamline time-consuming manual tasks like documentation, report generation, and compliance tracking.
• Using AI-driven UI builders and low-code/no-code platforms, small teams can build enterprise-level applications.

Sounds too good to be true? Well, when Mayo Clinic integrated Gen AI for internal development workflows, it resulted in a 35% reduction in active developer headcount. No compromise was made on the output. The time taken for bug resolutions and feature requests even improved.

Faster MVP Development & Testing

Startups don’t have the luxury to take their sweet time with MVP launches, especially since the competitive market is unrelenting. Launches can get delayed because of human error, or just the fact that people won’t be working 24/7 on a launch. A tool doesn’t have that problem. If you utilize Gen AI, your MVP delivery gets accelerated because of the following factors – 

• The tool auto-generates user stories, test cases, and wireframes.
• It rapidly builds prototypes using prompt-based development tools.
• It supports instant translation of clinical or wellness requirements into code.

McKinsey reported that organizations that adopt Gen AI can speed up their software development lifecycles up by 40%. The faster the timeline, the more money companies can save. With the right tools, an AI-powered telehealth app prototype can be created within 3 weeks instead of an estimated 8 weeks, saving a company an estimated $120,000 in project costs.

Minimizing Human Error in Critical Systems

Errors in other IT sectors might be salvageable, though costly. However, errors in healthcare can have life-threatening consequences. You’re taking the responsibility of someone’s health. Mistakes are inexcusable. However, humans are bound to make mistakes. Gen AI can mitigate the risk of such issues happening while also cutting costs related to rework and compliance.

How does Gen AI manage this? Check this out.

• The tool can review automated codes using AI flag potential bugs or HIPAA violations..
• AI chatbots and voice assistants that have been trained on medical datasets like Med-PaLM 2 can minimize misinformation in patient communication.
• Predictive models can identify anomalies in wellness platforms and can improve accuracy of health tracking tools.

A 2022 study by Johns Hopkins University might interest you in this regard. It claimed that medical errors are costing the U.S. healthcare system over $20 billion annually. Gen AI can significantly reduce this figure by detecting bugs, biases, or misclassifications before they escalate.

Long-Term Cost Benefits Beyond Deployment

Whenever anyone thinks of using Gen AI for cost savings, they always focus on the development and operations costs. Well, this modern technology takes care of sustainable cost reduction in other areas as well, such as the following – 

• Maintenance & Support – Get AI to predict system failures and automate support queries. This will reduce your need to keep up large customer service teams and pay them regular salaries.
• Data Analysis & Insights – Get Gen AI to gather real-time analytics on patient behavior, engagement and outcomes so you can save money on manual data crunching.
• Compliance & Risk Management – Gen AI always stays ahead of evolving privacy laws and compliance requirements. This minimizes the risk of costly lawsuits or fines.

Challenges to Keep in Mind

Who doesn’t want to save themselves from unnecessary costs? When you’re in the health and wellness IT field, Gen AI seems like the perfect solution to all your finance-related problems. However, it’s best to be cautious. 

There should be no compromise when it comes to data privacy and model accuracy. These are critical in health-related applications. If a company uses AI indiscriminately without proper guardrails, it can lead to compliance issues. 

Besides, not all Gen AI tools are ready for clinical-grade deployments. Becoming too reliant on AI without any human supervision can backfire. 

Finally, companies have to be careful regarding the data they are using to train the AI models. Bias in the training data can lead to inaccurate results, especially when dealing with a diverse population.

How to overcome these challenges? Simple! All you have to do is pair Gen AI with robust validation protocols, human-in-the-loop oversight, and compliance-aware frameworks.

In Conclusion,

The health and wellness IT landscape is evolving faster than ever. Startups and enterprises are struggling financially to keep up with this evolution. Fortunately, there is no longer any need to burn through capital to develop a high-quality digital product. Gen AI is the solution to cutting costs without cutting corners. With this technology, companies can shrink their team sizes, accelerate MVP delivery, minimize errors, and improve long-term scalability. 

Interested in testing out Gen AI for your company? Brainium’s tech team is up for the challenge. Contact us for more in-depth discussions.