Ardent Health CEO expresses optimism for AI | ViVE 2025

Nashville – With nearly three decades in health care, Marty Bonick has seen the arrival of new technology and tools that don’t always meet expectations.

Bonick, the president and CEO of Ardent Health, talks about the way electronic health records were touted as a remedy to improve the work experience of doctors and nurses. Today, many doctors and nurses point to electronic health records as a leading cause of burnout.

While he takes a measured approach, Bonick nonetheless possesses enthusiasm for new technology, including artificial intelligence. He talked about his optimism, and the ways Ardent is using AI, in an interview with Chief Healthcare Executive® at the ViVE conference.

“I do think we are at the point where technology is going to start working for our caregivers and our patients, versus the other way around,” he said. (See part of our conversation in this video. The story continues below.)

For Bonick, the ViVE conference is in his back yard. Ardent is based in Brentwood, a suburb of Nashville. The for-profit health system operates 30 hospitals and more than 200 other sites of care in six states.

Bonick said he’s encouraged by the advances in AI.

“It’s been around, but it's starting to come mainstream, and we're starting to see the impact it can make, versus it just being cool new technology,” he said. “So I'm excited about that. I think that's the general vibe I'm getting from ViVE is the excitement about what, the promise of what this technology is going to be able to do.”

Ardent is partnering with health tech companies on various AI solutions. The company tapped Ambience to provide AI-powered clinical documentation, which summarizes physician visits with patients and provides a summary of the appointment.

Bonick says he’s encouraged by the physicians’ response to the ambient documentation tool, which he says is allowing doctors to have better, more engaging conversations with patients.

“Our doctors love it,” he said. “For the first time in a long time, I've gotten emails, texts from doctors saying, this is the best thing.”

He said one doctor was considering retirement, but now plans to continue practicing, with Bonick saying the doctor expressed the sentiment, “I can be a doctor again.”

“It just feels like we are making a positive difference,” he said. “And so that's allowing them to be present with their patients. That's allowing them to not go home and do the pajama time homework that they normally do, and it's going to allow us to ultimately have better documentation, help us with our billing or coding.”

Ardent is taking a careful approach when it comes to considering AI tools in supporting clinical decisions, he said.

“I think we need to be cautious. I don't think we need to stifle that innovation … but you need to make sure that there's not an implicit bias or inherent bias,” Bonick said. “Now, I'll say the same thing, that as humans, we all have biases as well.”

“But we need to be mindful,” he continued. “We need to be careful. You know, I don't think AI is going to replace humans so much as you know, humans that are working with AI are going to be, you know, far ahead of those who are not.

Ardent is also seeing success with the development of “virtual nursing,” where nurses communicate remotely with patients to go over discharge instruction and answer patient questions, giving nurses on the floor more time to spend with patients.

“The early results of that are helping our nurse satisfaction and helping our patient satisfaction in very positive ways,” Bonick said. “Their satisfaction has gone up, and the patient satisfaction has gone up.”

Ardent Health suffered a significant cyberattack in November 2023 which prompted the system to divert ambulances for a few days following the breach. The system had to unplug all of its web-based systems, including its electronic health records.

Today, Bonick is encouraged by the progress the health system has made in improving its cybersecurity, but he said he’s keenly aware of the threat of ransomware groups that are deploying more sophisticated attacks.

“Obviously the technology improvements are helping us,” Bonick said. “They're also helping the bad actors out there that are trying to penetrate and so this is something that you can never let your guard down on.”

“But going through that, it's made us smarter. It's made us wiser about how we have to create deliberate structure in our IT environment to make sure that we can segment the organization more effectively than we were able to this last time,” he added.

Bonick credited the quick thinking of the system’s leaders. He also said that Ardent had practiced some exercises to prepare for cyberattacks, though he adds, “I don't think we had done one that said, you're going to turn your internet off.”

“So we've learned from that,” Bonick said. “It's a competitive team spirit that we have, a dedication to our purpose of caring for others and knowing that people's lives were on the line, our patients, but also our caregivers that are caring for them.”

“We got to see the best of everybody come out from that episode of something bad and turning it into something good.”

When asked if the fear of another cyberattack prompts some sleepless nights, Bonick pointed to the value of strong support from the board of directors and good governance, which he said is invaluable for weighing AI options and also addressing the threat of cyberattacks.

“It's about having good governance, good leadership, good processes all the way through your organization,” Bonick said. “We've got a great board that's helping us to think about the big things that that we need to be paying attention to.”

“I won't say I always sleep good at night, but I think good planning helps you to rest a little bit better,” he said.