Overview of the Issue
It is possible to develop a particular insight into the perspectives of Artificial Intelligence (AI) integration in the private health sector. The range of options through which AI-driven robots can enhance healthcare delivery is broad. An instance is AI machine learning that serves replacement for traditional machine learning in precision medicine. This opportunity to predict the chances for particular treatment procedures to succeed is a breakthrough. AI also can help nurses with structuring clinical notes on patients due to natural language processing features. Moreover, AI can fulfill an administrative function, significantly improving efficiency in hospital administrative areas. In contrast, integration of Artificial Intelligence can be a substantial issue and challenge for the private health sector, and in particular, for Ramsay Health Care. On the one hand, rapid development and gradual integration of AI in the private health care sector potentially minimize the number of workplaces and reduce work hours. Attempting to gain maximal profit from this intervention, business owners may even renounce some job types currently done by employees. On the other hand, AI integration into the health care system may impact human behavior. For instance, AI-driven bots may become better at modeling conversations, and most interactions of patients would be done with robots instead of actual medical specialists. It would negatively impact social experience resulting in deterioration of communication skills of the entire population.
Stakeholder Groups and Their Perspectives
With respect to types of stakeholders, the perspectives of the three most essential groups can be examined. Investors are the ones most concerned with minimizing costs and increasing profit obtained from a private health care sector. It is not in their interest that growth of shares value, net profit, or another form of financial return is limited by the necessity to fulfill social responsibilities. That is why it is possible to expect investors to argue for the maximal integration of AI. Then it is customers, as another vital group of stakeholders. They are concerned with service quality, safety, and cost. As mentioned above, AI-driven bots may deteriorate the social communication experience. However, the moderate and gradual integration of AI is cost-effective and improves services quality from the perspective of customers. Employees are ones who can be both benefited and be negatively affected by AI integration in the private health care sector. They may expect robot-driven applications to facilitate them in their responsibilities fulfillment. It may enhance the quality of service and reduce work-related stress. However, it is also possible that the complete integration of AI would increase the unemployment rate. Some workers may lose their jobs, or work hours would be reduced. It is likely that without having strong social policies in the private health care system and established ethical guidance, employees would become the most vulnerable and unsatisfied group of stakeholders.
The Challenges and Opportunities
Challenges to the private health care sector presented by the integration of AI are substantial. From the infographics, it is possible to see that the healthcare and social assistance spheres are most endangered. 11% of jobs would become automatable in the next 15 years. It would affect all the people employed in this sector. Other industries are less influenced, but changes in their operation would cause indirect influence on the functioning of the private health care system as well, which is detailed in the next slides. The other issue presented by the integration of AI in the health care system is the change in social behavior. The prevalence of chatbots and reduction in interaction between specialists and patients results in the gradual deterioration of communication skills. Infographics show that patients have favorable experience using applications for coping with severe events. It may indicate a gradual increase in the popularity of AI-driven digital applications. Such tendency leads to lowering the number of everyday social interactions overall. It may negatively impact the behavior of humans because of inevitable adapting to communication with bots. On the other hand, the number of opportunities presented by the integration of AI in the private health care system is impressive. It includes but is not limited to improving treatment outcomes through machine learning and rule-based systems intended for diagnosing and treating disease. A variety of administrative applications may reduce the scope of duties of healthcare workers, while natural language processing may assist nurses. AI integration would also optimize expenses, making the private health sector more profitable. Other industries may also become more cost-effective, resulting in more affordable medical equipment available.
Ethical Responsibilities
With respect to ethical responsibilities in relation to the AI integration in the private health care system, there are some implications and respective measures to be discussed. As it was outlined in previous slides, the possibility of reduction in the number of workplaces and even extinction of some jobs is a significant challenge. The respective ethical responsibility of employers, with the support of investors and customers, is to ensure that workers are protected from job loss. It is also vital to replace types of positions that would become obsolete with new ones, fully compatible with AI-driven opportunities. The other crucial concern to discuss is the ethical responsibility of employers and investors to maintain humanity or prevent potential changes in people’s behavior because of the spread of machines’ in most spheres. Replacement of administration and customer services roles leads to making humans addicted to technologies. Employers should ensure that patients always have access to conversations with a respective specialist in case AI-driven applications are not a solution. Employers also should limit the daily interacting of people with bots.
Recommendations for a Strategic Response
It is possible to suggest a set of recommendations for a strategic response to the adverse consequences of integrating AI in the private health care sector. First, there should be a focus on capital-intensive strategies of care. It would enable to prevent the reduction in the number of jobs while not depriving AI of its usefulness as the complementary tool for some processes’ facilitation. Moreover, continue enabling people to provide some services AI can also do not only limits the negative influence on human behavior but may be beneficial for companies that intend to show their superior care to customers. The other potentially useful strategic response is a direct limitation of influence AI has on people’s behavior and unemployment rates. It can be done by banning the complete automatization of processes in the private healthcare sector. Also, should be ensured equal access to AI-based and labor-based services. The additional recommendation is to consider replacing positions that would become obsolete with ones compatible with AI-driven solutions. It would ensure an unchanged number of types of jobs and reduce unemployment rates. Finally, it is possible to suggest a vital solution to address ethical implications. It is the rise of private clinics’ social responsibility. It should be done by the promotion of stakeholders to establish ethical guidelines to ensure the protection of workers from unemployment regardless of the level of AI’s development. This intervention is less likely to influence the deterioration of behavior that AI might cause directly, but it is rather beneficial for the sense of humanity overall. Business ethics is a crucial part of the functioning of both society and corporations. The simultaneous effect of all three strategic responses would address existing threats and challenges.
References
Davenport T, Kalakota R. (2019) ‘The potential for artificial intelligence in healthcare’, Future Healthc, 6(2), pp. 94-98.
Davidson, J. (2020) The robots are coming: 2.7 million Aussie jobs to disappear. Web.
Inkster, B., Sarda, S. and Subramanian, V. (2018) ‘An empathy-driven, conversational artificial intelligence agent (Wysa) for digital mental well-being: real-world data evaluation mixed-methods study’, JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 6(11). Web.
Korinek, A. and Stiglitz, J. (2021) ‘Artificial Intelligence, Globalization, and Strategies for Economic Development’, National Bureau of Economic Research, w28453. Web.
Matjaz, P., Mahmut, O. and Janja, H. (2019) ‘Social and juristic challenges of artificial intelligence’, Palgrave Commun, 5(61).
University of Bern and Inselspital Opens the Center for artificial Intelligence in Medicine (2020) Web.