In a recent Wall Street Journal essay, writer Daniel Akst described something that’s becoming all too common in healthcare: after struggling to reach his doctor, he turned to an AI chatbot for answers. What he found was responsiveness and clarity… the kind of time and attention he couldn’t get elsewhere
It’s an understandable choice. While some patients are turning to AI out of preference for healthcare; others may be doing so out of necessity – a reflection of widening access and capacity gaps across healthcare.
The Real Challenge: Connection in a System Under Strain
This isn’t a story about the rise of AI so much as it is about the strain on human connection in healthcare. Akst gives color to this very conundrum in his article stating: “I’m blessed to have talented physicians who practice in superb facilities at a world-class medical institution. What I don’t have is very good healthcare.” Despite modern medicine’s best efforts to train the exceptional professionals and develop new solutions, navigating to the right care is rushed, frustrating and burdensome. When providers are stretched thin and systems are hard to navigate, people look elsewhere for guidance. Increasingly, that means AI-tools that are immediate, available, and willing to listen.
The problem isn’t that AI is filling the gap. The problem is that the gap exists in the first place.
Where AI Belongs in Healthcare
At Brado, we see this moment not as a warning, but as an inflection point. The same technology patients are turning to out of necessity can become a powerful extension of care – if it’s connected to the right system.
Our Conversational Engagement Platform (CEP) does exactly that. It connects advanced conversational AI technology to the standards and workflows of each health system it serves. Every configuration is white-labeled and customized, so the experience reflects the
organization’s brand voice, clinical protocols, and patient experience goals.
When that connection is made – when AI is integrated with the provider rather than operating apart from them – it moves from being a substitute to becoming a support system.
Provider-Anchored. Patient-Centered.
Our approach is simple: the provider remains the anchor; the patient remains the center. The CEP connects the two through intelligent, empathic conversational engagement – meeting patients where they are, helping them work through frictions, understand their options, and
moving them toward care safely and confidently.
This isn’t about replacing human interaction. It’s about extending it, helping providers be present even when they can’t be in the room, and helping patients feel guided rather than left to navigate alone.
A Moment to Lead
The Wall Street Journal story highlights both the risk and the opportunity in front of us. If AI continues to evolve outside the healthcare system, it may further erode trust. But if it’s built into the system – responsibly, transparently, and anchored in clinical credibility, it can restore it.
That’s the future we’re building toward at Brado AI: one where technology doesn’t replace the provider, but reinforces what makes care work-trust, access, and connection.
