AI companies are invading the U.S. healthcare system. Will they make Americans healthy again?
- S B
- Jan 20
- 4 min read

Good health is the most coveted asset among humans. We are not strangers to common sayings like “health is wealth” or “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.”
That universal desire hasn’t gone unnoticed. AI companies have made a tremendous bet by investing heavily to integrate themselves into the U.S. healthcare system. But why?
Is this an exercise in preventive medicine or an exercise in data integration? Will an AI health conversation a day keep the doctor away, or will it simply give AI companies more data and more influence on our day-to-day lives?
When I sign up for ChatGPT Health and my healthcare provider enrolls in either Claude for Healthcare or OpenAI for Healthcare, will I be healthier? Or will my medical records just become another data point in the apps on my phone, present but not necessarily useful?
Will my doctor have more time for me, or will this cut my visit time in half?
The Connected AI Chatbot
OpenAI announced that ChatGPT Health would allow users to access both their medical records and consumer-level data from wearable devices within ChatGPT. Shortly after, Anthropic announced that Claude users would have access to the same capabilities. Both tools will allow users to share information from health records and fitness apps, including Apple Health, to personalize health-related conversations.
This is groundbreaking because it means patients can see a more complete picture: their clinical snapshots alongside their daily measurements.
With an AI available 24/7, patients can use it to understand their data, ask questions about tests and charts, and navigate the complex healthcare system.
But what will most patients actually do with this data? Integrating records is easy; changing a patient’s trajectory is the hard part.
The Connected Industry
Healthcare providers will use professional versions of these tools, not just consumer chatbots. OpenAI for Healthcare and Claude for Healthcare both emphasize privacy and are positioned for HIPAA-compliant use. They also promise a simpler day-to-day for clinicians by reducing paperwork, saving time, and easing administrative stress.
Both OpenAI and Anthropic have explicitly stated that conversations and files shared within their respective Health environments are not used to train their foundation models.
The difference is what they prioritize in practice, and which parts of care and operations they are built to support.
Claude for Healthcare (Anthropic) primarily targets administrative tasks and health record integration, and is better suited for drug discovery, clinical trial design, and analyzing large scientific datasets.
OpenAI for Healthcare primarily targets clinical reasoning and patient communication, and is better suited for patient chart summarization, drafting patient communications, and simplifying complex medical reports into plain language.
Two different strategies by two of the biggest names in AI. The elephant in the room is whether healthcare providers will feel comfortable using these tools, and to what extent.
Patient-first or Data-first?
At the core, these platforms are pulling in data from multiple sources and using AI to process and interpret it.
But is this a patient-first strategy or a data-first strategy? Will success be measured by improved outcomes and better-quality care, or by the number of paid users on each platform?
In the modern world, it’s easy for tech tools to become background or digital white noise. Will this be another platform to keep up with, or will there be tangible benefits to using these tools?
The New “Apple a Day”
For the first time in our history on this planet, the “Apple a day” is being replaced by an “AI conversation a day.” Whether this leads to a healthier America depends less on the technology and more on whether we use the time AI saves us to actually improve our health. What that means practically remains to be seen. Digital platforms for nutrition and lifestyle changes aren't new. The novelty is having our hospital and medication records linked to our behavioral data.
AI will save us time. It will make us more efficient. But after an AI explains my A1C trend alongside my sleep data, will I do what’s necessary to get healthier?
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"AI is the tool, but the vision is human." — Sophia B.
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About the Author
Sophia Banton is an AI leader working at the intersection of AI strategy, communication, and human impact. With a background in bioinformatics, public health, and data science, she brings a grounded, cross-disciplinary perspective to the adoption of emerging technologies.
Beyond technical applications, she explores GenAI’s creative potential through storytelling and short-form video, using experimentation to understand how generative models are reshaping narrative, communication, and visual expression.


