The real risk of AI in healthcare is Artificial Intimacy

I recently listened to a podcast where Brené Brown unpacked the concept of “artificial intimacy” with Esther Perel. A concept everyone working in healthcare needs to understand.

Because as AI charges ahead promising “efficiency!” we risk leaving the human behind. A good example is Hippocratic launching “$9/hour AI nurses” to automate patient care. 

The bigger question: Will these AI helpers (I refuse to call them nurses because they’re not) truly drive better patient outcomes? Or just optimize processes while we grieve the loss of personal connection?

That’s what Perel calls Artificial Empathy: “Instead of feeling cared for, I’m feeling loneliness. A kind of ambiguous loss, because the real connection I crave just…isn’t happening All the experiences we have are pseudo experiences.”

Tragic, right? Especially for something as sacred as the patient-provider relationship. Can you imagine having your cancer treatment only “guided” by faceless AI helpers, rather than a human who intimately understands your fear, your pain, your WHY?

I sure can’t, but what’s the solution?

Amit Shah, Virta’s COO, dropped this gem on a recent CareOps webinar:

“If a task taps into empathy, creativity, emotional accountability or complex problem-solving - it’s a human job. AI and automation are the backstage crew, never the star of the show.”

Bam. Automation as a supporting actor, not the lead. A way to augment human capacity, not replace it altogether. 

Because at the end of the day, people keenly respond to people. As Parel laments, “We’re the most hyper-connected society in history, and also the loneliest.” What we crave is real, unvarnished connection.

So yes, unleash AI to cut through the administrative clutter and streamline clinical workflows.  By doing so, we free up our clinicians’ schedules, enabling them to devote more time engaging deeply and personally with patients.

That's true efficacy. 

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Quick intro: we’re Thomas and Rik, building Awell - a low-code platform allowing care teams to design, implement and optimize care flows in days, not months. CareOps grew out of our years spent improving CareOps at innovative providers.