Healthcare work is urgent and time-sensitive. Philips is transforming AI literacy into a daily skill so professionals can focus more on patient care and less on administrative tasks. The company is deploying OpenAI’s ChatGPT Enterprise on a large scale and training teams in its responsible usage within real workflows—not just pilot projects.

Why this matters now

Healthcare systems in Canada face ongoing staffing shortages, increasing demand, and the scrutiny of new technologies. AI is only beneficial if your entire organization understands when to use it, how to assess its outputs, and where to ensure human involvement remains. Philips is establishing this foundation with shared skills, shared safeguards, and shared confidence.

The OpenAI foundation

Philips’ enterprise implementation focuses on OpenAI’s ChatGPT Enterprise, providing regulated access, permissions, logging, and data management. Employees were already familiar with OpenAI’s tools; the program harnesses that curiosity into secure, measurable improvements in everyday work.

Leadership first, then everyone

Executives received hands-on training so they could model usage, not just impose it. This top-down approach was combined with a bottom-up initiative encouraging employees to suggest and test use cases in low-risk environments. Momentum is generated from both ends: visible leadership and grassroots enthusiasm.

Responsible AI is the backbone

As a healthcare technology company, Philips adheres to strict safety, privacy, and regulatory expectations. Responsible AI principles—including transparency, fairness, and human oversight—are formalized and integral to the rollout. Teams begin with internal, non-patient workflows to build expertise and trust before handling regulated processes.

Practical examples

• Summarizing lengthy policy documents for specific roles, with links to the exact clauses and effective dates.

• Transforming meeting notes into actionable lists and plans ready for approval, traceable to their sources.

• Converting free-text service notes into structured checklists that align with hospital protocols.

• Drafting incident post-mortems with references to original logs.

Each scenario illustrates how literacy applies to daily work, rather than just theoretical training.

What’s changing in 2026

The focus has shifted from sporadic trials to a scalable literacy program powered by OpenAI. With skills and trust established, Philips is transitioning from individual productivity improvements to workflow-level automation and agent-assisted processes—always under clear governance.

Outcomes that matter

• Time restored to clinicians: Minimizing administrative workload so clinicians can better focus on patient care.

• Increased confidence: Teams know when AI is beneficial, when it isn’t, and how to escalate appropriately.

• Secure experimentation: Guardrails, permissions, and logging provide a safe space to learn swiftly without compromising regulated workflows.

How the program functions

1. Launch with leadership. Conduct hands-on sessions for executives to set expectations and demonstrate safe use.

2. Establish the guardrails. Publish a straightforward Responsible AI policy: acceptable use, data controls, review processes, and escalation paths.

3. Initiate a bottom-up challenge. Invite staff to propose low-risk use cases; provide a sandbox environment and evaluation criteria (accuracy, usefulness, satisfaction).

4. Provide governed access to OpenAI. Use ChatGPT Enterprise with role-based permissions and logging.

5. Evaluate what counts. Track time savings, quality, and ensure outputs connect back to sources.

6. Scale by workflow. When literacy is high and results are reliable, progress from task-level successes to comprehensive workflow enhancements.

Lessons for healthcare leaders

• Lead from the top. Train leadership to demonstrate AI use in their own work.

• Encourage bottom-up drive. Empower people to suggest, test, and manage their use cases.

• Align early. Involve compliance, data, and clinical safety teams early so that momentum is an advantage, not an obstacle.

• Bring principles to life. Embed transparency and human oversight into everyday practice, not just policy documents.

• Concentrate where time counts. Start with administrative burden; it’s the quickest route to delivering meaningful impact.

Considering a similar program?

Generation Digital assists healthcare organizations in designing curricula, governance, and evaluation that are aligned with Canadian standards—and in deploying OpenAI’s ChatGPT Enterprise to build trust and achieve measurable outcomes.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is OpenAI used at Philips?
Philips provides regulated access to ChatGPT Enterprise and trains staff to integrate it into real work, beginning with low-risk internal tasks before advancing to regulated workflows.

Why prioritize AI literacy over isolated pilots?
Literacy fosters consistent skills and trust across various roles, facilitating faster and safer adoption than sporadic trials.

Where does AI have the greatest initial impact?
Reducing administrative burdens—like summarizing, documenting, and searching with traceability—allows clinicians to reclaim time for patient care.

Is this safe for healthcare?
Yes—when conducted with responsible AI principles, permissions, logging, and human oversight, and when regulated workflows are addressed only once confidence and quality standards are achieved.