Aetna’s Nathan Frank on Scaling AI to Give Healthcare Workers Time Back
Technovation with Peter High (CIO, CTO, CDO, CXO Interviews)Show Notes
What happens when AI gives healthcare workers more time to do the work only humans can do?
Nathan Frank, Chief Digital and Technology Officer of Aetna, joins Peter High to discuss how Aetna is scaling AI across healthcare while keeping people at the center. Frank shares how AI-enabled workflows are giving care-management nurses 90 minutes back per day, reducing the administrative burden of navigating clinical notes and multiple systems.
He also explains how Aetna is building on years of investment in enterprise data and clinical data infrastructure, applying responsible AI governance, and bringing employees directly into the product-development process. The conversation explores what it takes to move AI from experimentation to meaningful improvements for members, providers, and colleagues, and why Frank believes AI and humans together can create a better healthcare experience.
This episode is presented by ElevenLabs — Bringing technology to life. Learn more at elevenlabs.io
This episode is also presented by Retool — Build internal software better, with AI. Learn more at retool.com
More from Technovation with Peter High (CIO, CTO, CDO, CXO Interviews)
AI layered onto a broken process doesn’t fix the process; it just runs it faster. Prakash Kota spent his first 18 months at UKG consolidating two legacy companies into unified CRM, ERP, and data systems before any AI conversation began. Now, as Chief Transformation Officer, he is shifting the question from “what tools can we deploy?” to “what outcome are we trying to reach?” That discipline extends to the customer funnel, where AI-assembled signals travel with a prospect through every handoff, and to sales reps, where an autonomous assistant pushes pre-meeting briefs before a rep has to ask, reclaiming the 40–50% of call-prep time currently spent on research.
The binding constraint on AI adoption is not access to tools. It is the organizational fear and mindset shift required to reimagine work entirely.
Healthcare has accumulated friction that patients have come to accept as normal. Novant Health’s Chief AI Officer is systematically dismantling it.
Most generative AI programs stall at the pilot stage. Zoetis reached 95% computer-based colleague adoption.
The next generation of technology giants may not be built in software. They may be built in factories.