Healthcare CIOs say AI and platform strategies are forcing a fundamental rethink of IT team structures, shifting roles away from infrastructure and support toward data, product and governance functions.
For years, many IT organizations were built around maintaining infrastructure, managing tickets and supporting siloed systems. Leaders at organizations such as Endeavor Health (Evanston, Ill.) and Lee Health (Fort Myers, Fla.) say those models are evolving, along with the roles and skills that support them.
That shift is starting to show up in how some organizations are redefining core IT roles.
“From my perspective, healthcare IT leadership is being fundamentally redefined from managing technology to creating enterprise value and enabling care transformation at scale,” Deb Anderson, CIO of Endeavor Health, told Becker’s.
At Endeavor Health, that evolution includes moving away from certain traditional IT functions.
Ms. Anderson said roles centered on on-premise infrastructure, ticket-based support and custom development that does not scale are being phased out.
“We are replacing them with capabilities in cloud, enterprise platforms, data, AI and cybersecurity, while elevating roles that connect technology directly to care delivery, including product leaders, clinical informaticists and IT business partners,” she said. “We are also deliberately shifting more capability into the hands of the business through self-service and configuration on governed platforms.”
A similar shift is underway at Lee Health, where CIO Chris Akeroyd described changes in how IT work is organized.
“We’re moving away from a highly siloed environment toward a more platform-centric one. That changes how roles are defined,” he told Becker’s. “The future of IT is less about managing tools and more about simplifying the environment to create agility and drive adoption.”
As those platform strategies take shape, AI is further accelerating changes in how teams are structured and what skills are needed.
Both leaders pointed to AI as a key factor shaping workforce priorities.
At Lee Health, Mr. Akeroyd said the organization has hired for machine learning and advanced large language model development roles, along with positions focused on AI governance, including ethics and oversight.
He also highlighted investment in educators and change managers to support adoption as new technologies are introduced.
“Gen AI is a core component of our strategy,” Mr. Akeroyd said. “That’s driving demand for skills across data, analytics platforms, cloud operating environments and cybersecurity.”
Alongside changes in hiring, expectations for IT leadership are also shifting.
At Endeavor Health, IT leaders are expected to translate technology into measurable outcomes across patient care, clinician experience, operational performance and risk.
“Technical expertise alone is now table stakes,” Ms. Anderson said. “Today’s leaders must operate at the enterprise level, simplify complexity and lead through transformation. This is a fundamentally different leadership model, one that requires operating seamlessly across clinical, operational and digital domains.”
As roles and expectations evolve, both CIOs said retaining talent depends on how organizations manage that transition.
Mr. Akeroyd said building trust through transparency is critical, including being clear about where the organization is headed and why changes are being made.
He also noted the importance of ensuring employees feel they are continuing to develop new skills as the pace of change increases.
At Endeavor Health, Ms. Anderson described a focus on reskilling and career pathway development aligned to platform- and product-based work.
“We invest in reskilling at scale, create new career pathways aligned to platforms and products and ensure our teams are working on the most meaningful initiatives in healthcare,” she said.
Ms. Anderson emphasized that this is not about replacing talent.
“It is about elevating it to operate in a fundamentally different, platform- and product-driven model,” she said.
Those workforce changes are also reshaping how CIOs define their own roles.
Mr. Akeroyd said the focus is moving beyond technology delivery.
“The CIO role has become less about delivering the technology and more about shaping the operating model,” he said. “Our responsibility is to build a technology organization that creates trust—with employees, clinicians and patients. That’s the future of the role.”
Ms. Anderson described IT as playing a broader coordinating role across the organization.
“The role of IT has shifted from owner to enabler and orchestrator,” she said. “IT is becoming the orchestrator of a complex ecosystem, ensuring platforms, data and capabilities operate in alignment.”
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