AI Advances Executive Decisions at HIMSS’26
Guest: Andy Ottum, EVP, Certilytics
LinkedIn: Andy Ottum
LinkedIn: Certilytics
Joining Beth Friedman on FINN Voices during HIMSS26 offered a timely opportunity to reflect on a challenge that has quietly plagued healthcare for years. The challenge isn’t a lack of data, but a failure to analyze it fast enough for strategic decision making.
From my perspective at Certilytics, the industry has already invested heavily in data infrastructure. Health systems, payers, and employers have built warehouses, dashboards, and reporting layers that promise insight. And to be fair, those tools do deliver answers – eventually. The problem is that “eventually” does not work when decisions need to be made in hours, not weeks.
Beth and I explored what I often describe as the expertise bottleneck. Even with robust analytics platforms, getting a clear answer still requires multiple teams, systems, and interpretations. By the time a leader receives a report, the moment to act has often passed. Worse, different teams may produce different answers from the same underlying data, creating confusion instead of clarity.
That gap between data availability and decision readiness is where I see the most meaningful opportunity for innovation. Advances in AI, particularly language models and agentic systems, offer a path forward. But the real value is not in layering AI on top of raw data. It is in creating integrated systems that combine data with institutional knowledge, governance, and repeatable decision frameworks.
Faster Healthcare Decision Making
When done correctly, this approach transforms analytics from a retrospective exercise into a real-time capability. Instead of assembling teams to answer a question, leaders can interact directly with systems that deliver accurate, contextual insights in seconds.
Consider a Medicaid director preparing for a legislative briefing. Today, assembling the necessary data and context could take weeks. In a more advanced model, that same leader could generate a tailored, defensible summary in minutes.
Similarly, a health system CFO negotiating with a payer could access dynamic insights during the conversation itself, rather than relying solely on pre-meeting preparation.
AI Amplifies the Health Data Analyst Workforce
This shift impacts the workforce as well. Contrary to common fears, these tools are not replacing analysts. They are amplifying them. By automating repetitive tasks, organizations empower experienced professionals to focus on higher-value problem-solving while embedding their expertise into systems that scale across teams.
HIMSS26 made one thing clear: the industry is ready for this shift. The energy around AI is real, but so is the risk of applying it without the necessary healthcare context. Success depends on balancing technical innovation with deep domain expertise. If we get that balance right, the future of healthcare decision making will be both faster and meaningfully better.
Listen to the Conversation
About FINN Voices Podcast
Amplifying the power of health innovation to improve people’s lives.
FINN Voices amplifies the power of health innovation and information technology. Hosted by health experts from FINN Partners, each episode offers a peek behind the curtain of innovation with healthcare’s leading changemakers. We talk about their ideas and challenges along the way; continually shaping critical conversations and introducing the new health technologies that lie ahead.
Follow the show’s hashtag #FINNvoices