No Pilot Graveyards: How Novant Health’s CAIO Turns AI Into Patient Outcomes

Vijay Sankararaman (0:00)

We've gone after several other conditions that the population at large either are ignorant or unreachable by normal human means.

Peter High (0:10)

Welcome to Technovation. I'm Peter High, president of Metis Strategy. My guest today is Vijay Sankararaman. Vijay is the Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer of Novant Health, a not-for-profit healthcare system serving communities primarily in the southeast of the United States. The organization generated nearly $12 billion in operating revenue in 2025 and includes more than 43,000 team members, 21 medical centers, and over 900 locations. As CAIO, Vijay leads AI Strategy, product development, engineering, platforms, and data science. His team works closely with clinical, operational, and technology leaders to reimagine how care is accessed and delivered while ensuring the new capabilities are developed responsibly.

Prior to joining Novant Health, Vijay held product and engineering leadership roles at Walmart and Lowe's.

In this conversation, Vijay and I will discuss how Novant Health is using AI to make care easier to navigate, expand patient access beyond traditional hours, and reduce the administrative burden of clinicians. We'll also explore the role of autonomous agents in identifying and reaching patients at risk, how Novant determines when human involvement remains essential, and why the organization is concentrating on a select group of high-value opportunities rather than creating a graveyard of disconnected pilots. Vijay, welcome to Technovation. It's great to speak with you today.

Vijay Sankararaman (1:26)

Nice to have you. Nice to meet you here.

Peter High (1:28)

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Vijay Sankararaman (2:51)

Absolutely. Novant Health is a Catalinas-based multi-state provider system, 45,000 strong team members who represent about 20, 22 plus large hospitals and a number of other clinical outlets that we provide remarkable experience.

We have a little over about 8 million patient encounters we make annually. Very delighted to be here to speak all the AI led journey we are going through.

Peter High (3:28)

Speaking of which, you are the Chief AI Officer of the company. Talk a bit about your purview, a role that's emerging in some corners, not all, but clearly obviously within Novant Health. Talk a bit about the role of CAIO as you are applying it in that organization.

Vijay Sankararaman (3:41)

Absolutely. Very humbled and privileged to represent the role for an amazing company here at Novant Health. Peter, for us, when we think about AI, our fearless leader, the CEO, and his amazing team, we look at the business as a whole. Most important thing for our business is patient, remarkable patient experience. How do we bring that to life? How do we make sure that we look at all the clinicians doing their jobs staying top of the license, bring that to life? When we look at that, AI providing itself a transformative moment for us to reimagine the craft of rendering healthcare as situates very important. Me and my team are privileged enough to directly represent through the transformation office to the entire executive team.

Peer groups run across the organization and we look at all the problems in its own merit and leverage where the automation can help to play that part.

Peter High (4:50)

And the organization also has a Chief Digital and Information Officer, Onyeka and Chega. Talk a bit about the interplay between your roles, if you will.

Vijay Sankararaman (4:58)

Yeah. Onyeka and his team are a very healthy peer group for us. We work hand in glove with the team.