AI, growth, and the future of healthcare: why the real risk is not being ambitious enough

A conversation between SCAN Health Plan CEO Sachin Jain and a16z General Partner Anish Acharya points to an overlooked dynamic: the biggest risk for legacy organizations isn't investing too early in AI. It's being insufficiently ambitious. Most enterprises treat AI as a cost-cutting efficiency play, but Acharya argues that the technology's real power is in reshaping work, customer relationships, and organizational structure. For healthcare leaders, the less obvious implication is that AI's greatest impact won't come from replacing humans. It will come from enabling them to do work they couldn't do before. Organizations that lean into this now will build advantages that grow over the next 12 to 18 months.

Why the obvious fix makes things worse

Most organizations approach AI the same way: as a productivity tool to do existing work faster. Acharya argues this misses the fundamental shift. Previous technologies like electricity, the internet, and mobile extended human intellect. They helped people be more productive. AI is different.

"The shape of this new technology is so fascinating because it actually can do work on our behalf."

This distinction matters because it changes where organizations should invest. The conventional wisdom says use AI to reduce headcount, cut costs, and optimize existing processes. Acharya's analysis suggests this is wrong. When CH Robinson, a freight brokerage company, adopted AI, they didn't reduce their workforce. Instead, they drove technology literacy across the organization and focused on maximizing ambition rather than efficiency.

The hidden consequence: organizations that treat AI as a cost center will optimize themselves into irrelevance. The ones that treat it as a value driver will create separation that grows over time.

The 18-month payoff nobody is talking about