HLTH USA 2025: The Year Healthcare Took its Relationship with AI to the Next Level
In this blog
Every October, Las Vegas becomes the heartbeat of healthcare innovation, and this year's HLTH annual innovation event did not disappoint. The conference pulled over 12,000 industry leaders, 900 exhibitors and some prominent figures who were not shy about sharing what's coming down the road in healthcare.
This year, the buzz wasn't about futuristic promises or bright shiny prototypes. It was about real-world deployment. Healthcare has officially crossed the threshold from "exploring AI" to living with it — for better, for smarter and for good.
Read on for my seven key takeaways from HLTH USA 2025, along with where I see WWT fitting into the puzzle:
AI moves from pilot to permanent resident
At HLTH, artificial intelligence wasn't just a roommate — it was the head of household. Conference conversations reverberated around ambient documentation tools that transcribe clinician-patient conversations, inbox messaging agents, patient cart review curation, and predictive models that drive proactive care for specific patient populations. In each case, we saw AI solutions moving from pilot to enterprise deployment, demonstrating tangible ROI rather than theoretical potential. But a question of caution ran alongside all the excitement: How do we scale without sacrificing safety?
Where WWT fits in
WWT's AI Proving Ground is built for precisely this moment. We help healthcare organizations test, validate and operationalize AI across clinical, operational and payer environments. Powered by Nvidia, AMD, Dell, and HPE architectures, we deliver trustworthy AI at scale — aligned with governance frameworks that healthcare leaders can take to their boards and their clinicians.
Mark Cuban's PBM mic drop
When Mark Cuban takes the stage, subtlety isn't expected. His HLTH talk about pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) was part economics lesson, part accountability sermon. He challenged every executive in the room:
"If you're signing contracts that let PBMs profit off patient pain, you're complicit."
Cuban's Cost-Plus Drugs model — transparent pricing, fixed markups and no hidden rebates — represents a growing movement to cut intermediaries and empower consumers. His message resonated beyond pharma: it called for inefficiency to be exposed wherever it hides in the healthcare supply chain.
Where WWT fits in
Transparency isn't just about pricing — it's about data visibility. WWT's data modernization and analytics capabilities give payers and providers a 360-degree view of costs, utilization and waste. Using AI and advanced analytics, we help organizations expose inefficiencies hidden in their systems, transforming opaque operations into transparent, ethical ecosystems.
M&A meets digital detox
In the expo hall, the buzz wasn't about unicorns — it was about unit economics. Digital health companies are feeling the squeeze as investors demand evidence over enthusiasm. The new reality: Profitability matters more than pitch decks, and M&A is the new R&D.
This "digital detox" phase is forcing organizations to streamline overlapping technologies and focus on interoperability. Panelists from CVS, Optum and General Catalyst emphasized platform integration as the key to post-merger value creation.
Where WWT fits in
When healthcare enterprises merge, their data often does not. WWT helps unify disparate systems and infrastructure through cloud modernization, integration architecture and interoperability frameworks that make acquired technologies work as one. Whether it's migrating 30 EHR instances into a single instance or rationalizing duplicative analytics environments, we bring order — and ROI — to digital chaos.
Burnout, meet automation
Clinician burnout is no longer an HR issue; it's a business risk. HLTH sessions highlighted sobering data: Over 60 percent of physicians report emotional exhaustion, and administrative burden remains the top cause.
The bright side? Ambient AI documentation, virtual co-pilots and intelligent workflows orchestration are turning the tide. Healthcare systems, such as the Cleveland Clinic and Intermountain, shared early results showing time savings of up to two hours per clinician per day.
Where WWT fits in
WWT helps healthcare systems modernize their infrastructure and layer in intelligent automation that actually serves people, not the other way around. Our approach combines human-centered design with technical precision to ensure innovation benefits clinicians as much as it helps them care for others.
Food-as-medicine, women's health, and whole-person care
The return of HLTH's "Food Lab" showcased a delicious truth (something I have always believed personally): Nutrition is now medicine. Major payers and retailers are developing programs focused on food security, wellness and prevention. Women's health made its strongest showing yet, covering fertility, menopause and maternal equity — underscoring that innovation must be inclusive to be effective.
Where WWT fits in
WWT connects data across consumer, retail and clinical ecosystems to support whole-person health. From mIoT wellness devices to data interoperability frameworks, we help organizations build secure, scalable systems that help promote comprehensive well-being.
Trust becomes the new tech currency
HLTH's AI discussions repeatedly circled back to the one theme: Trust is the next frontier for innovation. Regulators and health executives agreed that without explainability, fairness and governance, AI will never scale sustainably. Frameworks such as responsible AI charters, model transparency checklists, and bias auditing protocols are quickly moving from optional to operational.
Where WWT fits in
Trust is a capability, not a checkbox. Our Responsible AI framework equips organizations with data governance models, compliance maps, and bias monitoring tools to ensure AI is safe, ethical and explainable. WWT helps clients scale innovation that both clinicians and regulators can believe in.
Read: A concise overview of how AI is transforming healthcare, including real-world examples and outcomes.
The real headline: Integration, not innovation
The unspoken theme at HLTH 2025? Healthcare doesn't need more technology — it needs better orchestration of what already exists.
Innovation means little if it can't connect, scale or be trusted. That's the gap WWT fills — bridging infrastructure, intelligence and experience so healthcare can deliver on its promise of precision, personalization and performance.
Or, as one attendee quipped while leaving the exhibit hall:
"AI may be the star, but the real hero is whoever makes all this stuff actually talk to each other."
Challenge accepted.