AI is becoming a singularly a disrupting force in healthcare. The ways we deliver care, share information, and make critical decisions are being redefined with emerging technology, seemingly much faster than other novel health technologies in recent memory. At JPM this year, that reality was impossible to ignore. 

Earlier this month, we attended J.P. Morgan’s healthcare conference in San Francisco where we split our time between the conference floor and meetings across the city with founders and investors. Here are our key takeaways from the event.

The AI moment is urgent and exciting

AI giants have entered the healthcare space, with OpenAI rolling out ChatGPT Health and Anthropic launching new healthcare tools for Claude. These releases represent both a threat to incumbents and an exciting moment of fast-paced, big innovation for the ecosystem.

The landscape is shifting. Startups now have real opportunities to partner with major AI players rather than compete head-on, and to differentiate themselves by building real value beyond “AI positioning.” We see this in our own portfolio, with Function Health recently launching an integration with Anthropic’s Claude that sends members summaries of lab results and health guidance based on their own health data. This is especially important as there are open questions about how much traction point solutions will gain before the OpenAIs and Anthropics of the world dominate. 

The biggest upside of all this new competition—AI giants entering healthcare, startups racing to differentiate—is better outcomes for patients. Chronic patients consume 90% of healthcare spend. They deserve a more systemic approach to their care: earlier intervention, wraparound services, and data-driven decision-making.

Change can also bring on uncertainty. Large established businesses are unsure if AI will help them or hurt them. It has the potential to expand margins, cut costs, and better connect with high value customers, but also to put them out of business over the next decade. These organizations lack deep tech expertise, and everyone is scrambling to get up to speed. 

Optimism is back

This year’s conference felt more hopeful than any since before the pandemic. A year ago, conversations around AI’s role in healthcare felt more aspirational. Now, though, that future we have been dreaming about has become more of a reality. 

Organizations across the healthcare ecosystem that would historically take 6-12+ months to pilot a new technology are moving swiftly to experiment with AI, with early use cases spanning everything from ambient listening tools for clinicians to increasingly sophisticated workflow automation. 

While many of these applications focus on productivity and clinical efficiency, other sets of opportunities are also emerging in environments like medical devices and life sciences. In this latter camp, Ketryx, a 53 Stations portfolio company, is using AI to streamline compliance and quality workflows, helping teams operate more efficiently without sacrificing rigor. The company’s $39 million Series B fundraise in September underscores the growing demand for AI-native compliance tooling that actually works in regulated settings.

Enthusiasm for health tech was widespread across the investor landscape. VCs, strategics, and startups alike arrived bullish. Health system administrators came with a more practical agenda: they wanted to understand which AI applications are ready for deployment now, what regulatory guidance to expect, and how the Administration’s policy direction might affect incumbent players.

Looking ahead

Looking ahead, we see the next phase of healthcare innovation defined less by novelty and more by execution. The companies winning in these spaces share a profile: they’re embedded in real workflows, demonstrate measurable outcomes, and have built durable distribution rooted in real customer needs, not market hype.

That’s where we see our edge at 53 Stations. We focus on bringing innovative startups into legacy healthcare environments—supporting founders as they sell into complex organizations, and helping established operators adopt new tools without compromising reliability, compliance, or care delivery. In a market crowded with noise and AI-first claims, the winners will be companies that can bridge innovation and implementation.

The enthusiasm coming out of JPM is real, but so is the scrutiny. As healthcare enters a period of rapid transition, our conviction is simple: the most enduring value will be created by teams that can turn promise into practice—and we’re excited to partner with the founders and operators doing exactly that.