Agentic AI at WellSpan: The future of digital healthcare experiences

Note: The video transcript has been edited to provide a concise overview of the episode.

Sean Broderick (Sean): Welcome to Digital Visionaries. Today, we’re joined by Mark Kandrysawtz, SVP and Chief Innovation Officer at WellSpan Health, a system that’s not just adopting digital tools, but fundamentally rethinking how healthcare is designed, delivered, and experienced for AI to human-centered design. Mark’s work sits at the intersection of empathy, innovation, and transformation. Mark is a true digital visionary and we’re delighted to have him on the show.

Mark, tell me about your journey in innovation and what has led you to this point to becoming the SVP and Chief Innovation Officer here at WellSpan Health.

Mark Kandrysawtz: My own professional journey started a long time ago. In PR and advertising. And when I started my career, I began working in a really creative centric agency where I really was exposed to and fell in love with the power of creativity as a business tool.

I founded a company called Benjamin and Bond which was a healthcare design consultancy focused on transforming healthcare using human-cantered design methods. I partnered with WellSpan through our Benjamin and Bond experience for several years and then I joined the organization through the acquisition of Benjamin and Bond, where together we formed a new team called WellSpan Innovations.

Sean: From a digital innovation perspective at WellSpan, what does that look like?

Mark Kandrysawtz: Well, it’s evolved over the last five years. WellSpan is a plan driven organization so we have strategic plans that help us keep our eye on the prize of what we’re trying to achieve. And so the 2025 plan that launched in 2020 really set out our ambition to develop innovation competencies that we knew were going to be important as we faced increasing headwinds that made the business of healthcare harder. And now as we look to 20230 and launch that plan, we’re doubling down on our innovation efforts. Not just because those business challenges have continued to get harder, but because we’ve recognized that consumers now have a powerful voice in their choice of healthcare, and that innovation and human-centred design are going to be key competencies for us to deliver the very best healthcare experience in our markets.

Sean: How do you build a frictionless experience in healthcare?

I like to think that WellSpan is in a post consumerism mindset, which means it's no longer a debate that our consumers have choice and we need to treat them as consumers.

Sean: Let’s shift gears a little bit into overall digital strategy and AI. AI is the favorite word in the industry right now. How are you thinking about some of the advances that AI can bring to WellSpan as a whole, but also, from a digital experience perspective?

Mark Kandrysawtz: I would characterize our attitude towards AI as being bullish.

The other thing to recognize is that AI is not one thing. It can deliver in different ways, different areas of the experience that might include you as a consumer and the way you act with your provider and care team and our organization as a brand. But it might also be in the inner workings of how clinical care is actually delivered and in the way we operate our business.

Sean: How is WellSpan utilizing AI today, both in a healthcare context and then also from a digital experience perspective as well?

Mark Kandrysawtz: We have initiatives at various stages of development in all areas of the business. On the consumer side, we are a global leader in the use of agentic AI for autonomous direct interactions with our patients, consumers, and community members. I would characterize it as still firmly in the innovation space but we’re rapidly scaling. We started this work in September of last year, so we began exploring, understanding – we call it discovery – learning about the space and what it might mean. Between September and March, we had completed about 6,000 fully autonomous agentic AI phone calls with our AI care team assistant named Anna. From March to April, we scaled to 260,000 completed interactions, and from April to May, we exceeded the one millionth completed interaction. So, we’re pretty far ahead, but that’s not what’s really important. What’s really important is that we’re learning a lot through that experience. And what we’re recognizing is that we have to bring our care team and consumers into this bold new world that we’re seeing because it’s pretty new.

Sean: 80% of your customers are embracing digital channels, and what’s even more impressive is that you have people who are in their seventies and eighties. How can you move that engagement on to one hundred percent do you think?

Mark Kandrysawtz: What we find is that people who are sceptical or maybe even a little anxious or fearful about the idea of interacting with a computer are quickly won over because of the type of experience that’s delivered. In our own data from our consumers that are using AI as part of their care experience, we regularly score between 8.6 and 9 out of 10 in their likelihood to recommend Anna as part of their healthcare experience to their friends and neighbors.

Sean: Do you think that perception is changing from healthcare as being maybe one of the slower industries to bring technology to the floor, to one of the most important?

Mark Kandrysawtz: I have colleagues across the country that are doing remarkable work in innovating in the space of medicine and clinical care. WellSpan is doing that work too. But where I see a huge area of opportunity to really lead the industry is the way we’re innovating in the business of healthcare. With the use of AI and technology, and simply by listening to our team members to redesign their work in a way that provides a better work experience–that I think, gives WellSpan a unique platform in that space.

Sean: Tell me about some of the upcoming projects that you’ve got from a digital perspective and some of the ones you’re most excited about in the coming year.

Mark Kandrysawtz: We’re fully embracing AI and I shared a little bit about what’s happening on the consumer side. On the team member side, we’re equally active. An area that I think is really important is digital diagnostics. What role does AI play in the way we diagnose and rapidly treat diseases? In the last calendar year, there were 3,000 people, 3000 consumers and WellSpan patients who had disease identified earlier than they would have using traditional modalities. What that means is that we could jump into action, get them into treatment, and put them on care plans that save lives. WellSpan is leading the way in our entire region with direct-to-consumer drone technology. That’s kind of breaking news coming soon. We’re under contract and working on a really ambitious plan to help people get the things they need, be as healthy as possible, and with the least amount of friction as possible.

Sean: Any other AI or digital projects that you’re excited about? How about robotics?

Mark Kandrysawtz: My wife delivered all three of her babies overnight. And of the things that she was most looking forward to after having the baby was a sandwich, a cold cut sandwich because it’s advised not to eat cold cut while you’re pregnant. And so, the only option was a frozen cheese sandwich after she had her baby because it was overnight. And so that has always kind of stuck in my mind.

We’re actually in the middle of construction right now on an autonomous robotic food preparation system that consumers will be able to order 24 hours a day right from their phone in the hospital and pick up a warm meal that’s literally made to order. And what’s kind of cool about it is instead of thinking about that as simply an operational challenge, we’re really embracing it as a cool consumer experience.

Sean: What advice would you have for other digital leaders in the healthcare space and where should they be focusing their time?

Mark Kandrysawtz: Number one is to listen. If you just take the time to deeply understand your user, whether it’s in the consumer experience or the team member experience, their insights and lived experiences are the most important clues and basis for what you could create next. The second is to do your homework on what’s happening with AI.

Sean: What’s a trend that really excites you in the healthcare space?

Sean: You are the definition of a true digital visionary, thanks for joining me.

Mark Kandrysawtz: My pleasure, it’s easy when you love what you do.