The shift to agentic AI in healthcare is accelerating, with every day bringing new partnership bulletins and enterprise capital offers.
On Sept. 30, San Francisco-based Assort Well being, which says it has created a affected person expertise platform powered by specialty-specific agentic AI, closed a $76 million Collection B financing spherical. In one other instance, Duke Well being mentioned it could co-develop and take a look at agentic AI merchandise with Trase Techniques, with the primary section of improvement starting on the Duke Coronary heart Middle.
Not too long ago Healthcare Innovation interviewed Fawad Butt, founder and CEO of Penguin Ai and former chief information officer of UnitedHealthcare, Kaiser Permanente and Optum, in regards to the transition going down to the brand new world of agentic AI.
His Palo Alto, Calif.-based firm has pulled in $29.7 million in enterprise funding and says its flagship platform combines task-specific small language fashions (SLMs), digital staff and brokers, with a healthcare-specific AI platform to streamline processes reminiscent of prior authorizations, claims processing, medical information summarization, and appeals administration.
“We constructed our personal small language fashions for prior auth, danger adjustment, and claims adjudication, after which we provide you with our brokers out of the field,” Butt mentioned. “That’s what a platform is meant to do. It’s supposed to present you what you want so you will get to ROI in 90 to 120 days.”
A weblog publish from the regulation agency of Morgan Lewis famous that within the third quarter of 2025, $17.4 billion was invested in utilized AI, marking a 47% enhance yr over yr. “Projections counsel that spending on agentic AI might attain $155 billion by 2030. The main target has shifted from growing massive language fashions (LLMs) to integrating AI into workflows. Traders are prioritizing startups that display traction in enterprise adoption, with deal phrases emphasizing integration over innovation.”
Assort Well being’s funding spherical was led by Lightspeed Enterprise Companions, with investments by Felicis, First Spherical Capital, Chemistry, A*, Liquid2, and Quiet Capital. Following a latest Collection A spherical simply 4 months prior, the corporate has raised $102 million to this point and plans to make use of these funds to speed up the event of its Assort OS platform.
Past the problem of scheduling physician’s appointments, Assort Well being says it has improved the affected person expertise throughout each touchpoint together with care navigation, lab assessments, prescription renewals, and doctor referrals. ”At Assort Well being, we’re leveraging agentic AI to revolutionize the way in which supplier practices and hospitals have interaction with sufferers to take away obstacles to care,” mentioned Jon Wang, founder and co-CEO of Assort Well being, in an announcement. The corporate says that slightly than occupying medical name heart groups with routine calls and having sufferers in want of care left on maintain, Assort Well being integrates itself into EHR and follow administration workflows with the usage of AI and pure language processing to create ease for the affected person and resolve any inquiries.
In one other new agentic AI take care of a deal with scheduling, Santa Monica, Calif.-based Bonsai Well being raised $7 million in seed funding led by Bonfire Ventures and Surprise Ventures. Since launch, Bonsai says, it has engaged greater than 235,000 sufferers throughout greater than 100 healthcare teams and specialty practices and scheduled over 36,000 appointments, serving to sufferers obtain well timed care, liberating employees from repetitive duties, and driving predictable progress for practices.
“Sufferers usually miss care just because practices don’t have the time or instruments to constantly attain them. Our objective with Bonsai is to quietly take that work off employees’s plate, so sufferers keep on monitor with their well being and practices can deal with delivering care,” mentioned Travis Schneider, co-founder and co-CEO of Bonsai Well being, in an announcement.
The $7 million in seed funding will speed up Bonsai’s specialty-trained AI brokers, increase into new medical specialties, and scale commercialization efforts nationwide.
“What Travis and Luke have constructed is nothing in need of category-defining, an agentic AI platform purpose-built for healthcare. We imagine this crew is uniquely positioned to remodel how practices function, creating higher outcomes for sufferers and stronger companies for suppliers,” mentioned Jim Andelman, co-founder and normal associate at Bonfire Ventures, in an announcement.
Some well being techniques are partnering to develop their very own AI brokers. Duke Well being simply introduced a partnership with Trase Techniques to create superior AI brokers.
The intention of the agentic AI initiatives is to streamline administrative assignments and optimize the allocation of assets, whereas additionally enhancing medical features reminiscent of affected person scheduling requests, care coordination, and entry to medical research, Duke Well being mentioned.
Duke Coronary heart employees will co-develop and take a look at agentic AI merchandise with Trase Techniques aimed toward enhancing clinician workflows, elevating the affected person care expertise, and enhancing well being outcomes. The primary section of improvement will start on the Duke Coronary heart Middle, which treats greater than 65,000 folks with coronary heart illness yearly.
“At Duke Well being and Duke Coronary heart, we’re dedicated to advancing healthcare via innovation and analysis,” mentioned Manesh R. Patel, M.D., chief of the Division of Cardiology on the Duke College College of Medication, in an announcement. “AI has the potential to assist our medical doctors, nurses, and researchers maximize the usage of data to personalize cardiovascular look after our sufferers. We try to develop confirmed and trusted instruments that can enhance well being outcomes and create a greater expertise for sufferers and care groups alike.”
