Why "Practical AI"

Devon Mobley

January 29, 2025

For a few months, I've been using the terms "Practical AI" and "Practical Intelligence." There are a few reasons for this, not the least of which is that it aligns well with our naming convention: Practice Inbox and Practice Intelligence.

However, the more important reason is that healthcare doesn't want AI solutions that solve problems nobody on the ground cares about—like AI playing doctor or making purely theoretical recommendations. Instead, they want specific, tangible solutions that address the real-world challenges providers, managers, and staff face daily. This is why we call our AI methodology practical.

Evolution of Software in Healthcare

To make this concrete: a single software feature is just a tool in a toolbox. Healthcare—particularly in private practice—has reached a point where managers and directors no longer want to (or they simply can't) juggle isolated tools. They just need the problem solved.

When deployed effectively, AI is remarkably good at doing exactly that. Unfortunately, many AI demos still feel underwhelming because they have too narrow a focus or solve far-removed problems. Our mission is the opposite: identify the issues healthcare teams genuinely care about and deliver a comprehensive stack—powered by AI—to actually solve them.

"Practical AI aligns with what the healthcare industry demands: bringing together comprehension, simplicity, and power. By unifying essential tools into a single, cohesive platform and enhancing them with AI, we’re moving beyond fragmented or single-minded approaches to a next-generation platform. It’s less of a swiss-army knife and more like an operating system. This transformation enables MANY types of tasks (not just one) to be completed 10%, 20%, or even 500% faster than before."

Practical AI embodies the promise that technology has long made to healthcare but has often failed to deliver at scale. Calvient changes that.

T-Shaped Automation: Broad First, Then Deep

In borrowing from the concept of T-Shaped123 people and skill—we’ve adapted this idea to automation in healthcare.

Calvient implements a strategy called "T-Shaped Automation" to ensure we address both the everyday tasks and the complex, high-impact problems:

  1. Broad Approach (Horizontal Bar): We quickly enhance a variety of common workflows, providing immediate value. This might include accelerating prior authorizations, optimizing scheduling, or summarizing faxed documents with AI.
  2. Deep Approach (Vertical Stem): Once the broad set of workflows is running smoothly, we focus on the most vital processes that truly differentiate your organization. Here, we build specialized AI integrations and automations, delivering deeper, higher-impact transformations.
"With the Calvient platform, the tools are always there, but we help you put them to use."

This methodology, proven in other industries, has demonstrated that verticalized AI solutions can effectively streamline operations and boost efficiency, especially when they solve problems that actually matter to clinicians and staff.

Step-By-Step Approach

Building on this T-shaped strategy, we developed a clear three-step process that ensures both breadth and depth—covering initial needs and leaving room for deeper automation:

Example of our process for prior authorizations.

  1. Centralize: We integrate essential tasks and workflows into a unified platform, eliminating silos and enhancing collaboration. Right away, you unlock AI "accelerators" for basic workflows.
  2. Measure: We implement tools to track performance and gather insights. Calvient includes key metric dashboards covering operational areas that matter most, plus self-service analytics to see where the biggest time-savings can be found.
  3. Streamline: Armed with a clear picture of what’s working and what’s not, we leverage AI to optimize the workflows that matter most. This is the "deep" part of our T-Shaped Automation, delivering the highest return on effort.

Throughout the process, we continuously track outcomes—ensuring measurable improvements and sustained value for your organization.

Into the Future

Practical AI represents the next evolution in healthcare technology, moving beyond isolated point solutions to offer comprehensive, intelligent platforms that tackle the industry’s most pressing challenges. By focusing on real-world problems, and balancing a broad-first and deep-second strategy, Calvient empowers healthcare organizations to work more efficiently, deliver better patient care, and stay ahead in a rapidly evolving landscape.

As healthcare increasingly demands more sophisticated and integrated solutions, embracing Practical AI will be essential for organizations aiming to thrive and innovate in the years to come. At Calvient, we’re dedicated to helping you make that transformation—one practical solution at a time.

References

  1. The T-Shaped Engineer
  2. Harvard Business Review: Introducing T-Shaped Managers
  3. T-Shaped Toolkit