Preparing the Healthcare Workforce for an AI-Enabled Future
December 3, 2025Share:
As CEO, I regularly speak with people from across the healthcare industry. One theme consistently emerges: our workforce is being asked to deliver better quality and safety in an environment where roles, tools, and expectations are evolving at an unprecedented pace.
Artificial intelligence is accelerating this shift. The World Economic Forum estimates that over half of all employees will require reskilling by 2027. In healthcare, this translates into new quality and safety requirements, rapidly advancing technologies, and teams already operating under significant strain.
A question many are grappling with is this:
How do we prepare our workforce for what’s next—without compromising today’s standards of safety and quality?
At NAHQ, we’ve observed a clear pattern. Organizations that focus solely on skills-specific tasks or tools often find those skills quickly become obsolete. In contrast, those that invest in building competencies—the enduring blend of knowledge, skills, and behaviors—are better equipped to navigate change and consistently deliver quality care.
I consistently hear these challenges from hospitals and health systems:
- Training efforts are fragmented across departments and often disconnected from strategic goals.
- Identifying competency gaps - and linking them to outcomes like safety events or star ratings - is difficult.
- There’s a lack of a unified, evidence-based framework that connects roles, expectations, and development.
This is where leadership plays a pivotal role. Preparing teams for an AI-enabled future isn’t just about technical fluency. It’s about cultivating adaptive capacity—the ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn as new tools, roles, and systems emerge.
Across our work with organizations—from large systems like the Veterans Health Administration and Kaiser Permanente Northern California to smaller sites—we’ve seen the power of a coordinated, competency-based approach. These organizations are using industry standards to guide performance, learning, and growth - not just within quality teams, but across clinical and non-clinical roles, behavioral health, and soon, long-term care.
The challenges are complex. But the momentum is real.
Stephanie Mercado, CAE, CPHQ
NAHQ CEO
To achieve Quality, Safety and Value, follow the NAHQ Framework
At the core of all NAHQ offerings is our Healthcare Quality Competency Framework™. This twice-validated Framework, endorsed by Joint Commission, identifies the domains that define Quality and the industry standard competencies required to effectively advance Quality and advance healthcare.
