In this episode, Sara Vaezy, Chief Transformation Officer at Providence, discusses Providence’s strategic approach to digital transformation, consumer engagement, and responsible AI adoption to improve both patient and caregiver experiences. 

Sara highlights the importance of delivering personalized, frictionless, and proactive healthcare experiences across digital touchpoints. At Providence, a standout initiative is the use of conversational AI to enable ‘message deflection’ which reduces the volume of patient messages sent to physicians by helping patients resolve queries instantly through intelligent chatbots. Sara emphasizes building a digital workforce not just to automate routine tasks, but to rethink and redesign workflows creatively. With foundational investments in cloud infrastructure, unified data systems, and interoperability, Providence is well-positioned to scale AI use cases like ambient documentation and care navigation. 

Sara also shares how Providence has incubated and spun off innovative startups like DexCare and Praia Health to address critical gaps in supply-demand matching and patient personalization. She advocates for ethical AI governance, better observability tools, and designing AI-native healthcare processes that go beyond simply replacing human tasks. Take a listen.