How AI and automation can redefine sustainability for AMCs

Academic medical centers (AMCs) have long been the backbone of the American healthcare system. These institutions fulfill a vital three-pronged mission: advancing medical research, educating the next generation of clinicians, and delivering complex care to some of the country’s most vulnerable patient populations. But today, AMCs are facing a growing financial crisis—one that threatens to erode their unique role and puts the future of the healthcare ecosystem at risk.

Tightening margins are forcing AMCs to reconsider how they sustain this mission. The situation has been described not as a short-term budget issue, but as a long-term, systemic crisis—one exacerbated by reduced federal research funding, potentially significant cuts to Medicaid, growing health inequities, and rising labor costs. If left unaddressed, these pressures could result in deep cuts that ripple across every part of the academic medicine landscape—from medical innovation and provider training to high-quality patient care.

Yet, amid this uncertainty lies a crucial question: Could the smart application of emerging technology, particularly AI and automation, be the key to redefining sustainability in academic medicine?

“We’ve always had this old mindset of hiring—I have tasks that I need someone to do, how can I write a job description for the tasks that are out there,” says Franco Cardillo, Executive Director of Digital Strategy and Operations at MUSC. “But we can’t be in a growth overdrive all the time. So we’ve been shifting our mindset instead to ask: how can we leverage technology to change what's possible?” 

The cost of compromise

When AMCs are forced to tighten their belts, the consequences go far beyond fewer nurses or delayed capital investments. Budget cuts directly impact their core functions:

• Innovation stalls when research funding shrinks, leading to fewer clinical trials, slower drug development, and missed opportunities to address pressing public health issues.
• Medical education suffers when faculty are stretched thin, residencies are scaled back, and training resources decline, compromising the next generation of clinicians.
• Patient care is disrupted when cost-cutting measures lead to staff burnout, longer wait times, and limited access, especially in underserved communities.

These ripple effects threaten to widen the gaps in equity and quality that already plague the U.S. healthcare system. But the answer isn’t to work harder with less. It’s to work smarter using the tools and innovations already at our fingertips.‍

A path forward with AI and automation‍

Academic medical centers face no shortage of complex operational challenges: repetitive administrative tasks, fragmented workflows, and manual processes that drain valuable time and resources. This is where AI and intelligent automation can make a meaningful difference.

By reimagining how work gets done in healthcare—through the strategic deployment of AI-powered Agents—AMCs have the opportunity to reduce operational burdens, reallocate staff to higher-value tasks, and optimize system-wide efficiency. Automation can deliver measurable impact across the entire health system:

• Intelligent intake & registration: Automating check-in, insurance verification, and data integration reduces front-office workload and improves patient access—without adding headcount. In fact, when North Kansas City Hospital and Meritas Health automated intake, not only did patients experience a 90% reduction in check-in time, but the health system increased the efficiency of its workforce, meaning that 80 open roles didn’t need to be filled.
• Prior authorization management: AI can pre-fill forms, flag missing data, and reduce denials, enabling prior auth teams to quadruple their throughput in some cases. Today, 91% of prior authorizations submitted through Notable at Fort HealthCare are successful, saving 15 minutes per successful submission.
• Patient engagement: Automated patient communications ensure that the right patients receive the right messages at the right time—yielding higher activation rates with lower staff effort. By meeting patients where they are, MUSC reduced no-show rates by 7.6%, completed 110,000 monthly digital registrations, and reached 98% patient satisfaction since the initial go-live.
• Revenue cycle optimization: Streamlining coding, billing, claim submission, automated denial response letters, and more, accelerates reimbursement while maintaining compliance. Automated coding at the Marshfield Clinic resulted in a 6.4% accuracy increase of persistent HCC codes, unlocking millions in additional revenue.

These aren’t just operational wins—they’re strategic ones. Each hour saved and dollar preserved can be redirected toward frontline care, cutting-edge research, and medical education. It’s how AMCs can protect their missions while adapting to modern demands.

Redefining sustainability at academic medical centers

True sustainability in academic medicine means being able to deliver on the promise of equitable, innovative, high-quality care indefinitely—not only for today’s patients, but for generations to come. That demands a new model of thinking—one that treats technology not as a cost center, but as a long-term investment in institutional viability.

By embracing AI and automation, AMCs can shield their clinical and research missions from future budget shocks. They can shift from reactive cost-cutting to proactive reinvention, rebalancing workloads, optimizing resource use, and creating resilient systems that can keep pace with change. 

Ready to learn more? Discover how MUSC is using automation to secure its future here.