A survey of health system IT leaders found that 81% consider clinician involvement in AI design and deployment mostly or vitally important, with no respondents calling it unimportant. The findings, released by Carta Healthcare, drew from members of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), the professional association for hospital and health system CIOs and senior technology executives - the people who evaluate, approve, and deploy AI inside their organizations.
"Health system IT leaders are telling us plainly that AI earns trust when clinicians stay in control," said Brent Dover, CEO of Carta Healthcare. "That is what holds up under audit, under accreditation review, and in the moment a result has to be defended. Clinicians at the helm, with AI as the force multiplier, is the only model that scales."
Clinician oversight linked to better outcomes
The survey also found that 77% of respondents have seen better outcomes when AI works alongside clinicians rather than on its own. None said the collaboration failed to help.
Respondents named hallucinations the top risk of AI without oversight, ahead of bias, model drift, liability, and the exposure of protected health information. Leaders were consistent that AI should augment clinical judgment, not replace it, and must be governed and validated before it is trusted with a clinical or operational decision.
For healthcare IT leaders navigating these decisions, the AI Learning Path for CIOs covers governance and deployment considerations relevant to this audience. Broader resources on AI for Healthcare address the clinical and operational context behind these findings.
What the results mean for adoption
The near-unanimous agreement on clinician control suggests a clear direction for AI procurement and implementation in health systems. IT leaders who evaluate AI tools are looking for products that put clinicians in the decision loop, not ones that attempt to replace them.
The full survey findings, including the complete breakdown of what slows AI adoption and what builds trust, are available from Carta Healthcare.
Why this matters for healthcare professionals
For clinicians, these results signal that the AI tools arriving at your organization should be designed around your input - and if they aren't, that's a red flag. The IT leaders who approve these systems are explicitly prioritizing clinician oversight, so you can expect governance processes that require your participation in validation and ongoing review. That means the practical takeaway is direct: your willingness to engage with AI pilots and provide feedback will shape which tools get deployed and how they perform.
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