Ambra Caruso, Head of Digital Transformation and Technology at the Health Innovation Network South London, explores how NHS organisations can move beyond early AI experimentation towards meaningful productivity gains. Drawing on research and delivery experience, this blog examines the organisational and workforce factors that shape success and outlines a more realistic approach to understanding value, with a focus on implementation, adoption and sustainable improvement.
Across the NHS, non‑clinical AI tools are being piloted in a broad range of use cases, as demonstrated by a Health Innovation Network review funded by the Health Foundation. Scheduling aids, documentation support, query‑triage chatbots and workflow‑automation tools are appearing in pilots across acute, community and primary care settings. Early enthusiasm has been fuelled by supplier‑funded trials and a genuine appetite to relieve administrative pressure, creating low‑cost opportunities for teams to test solutions prior to procurement. Yet this rapid growth, while positive, has also contributed to uneven implementation and uncertainty about long‑term value.
As many organisations are discovering, moving from a promising pilot to a sustainable, system‑wide solution is far more complex.
The productivity promise
Sociotechnical research has long shown that technology delivers value only when organisations change alongside it. Non clinical AI tools are no different. Even if non clinical AI avoids some of the regulatory hurdles associated with clinical decision support technologies, the main barriers to impact are organisational rather than technical. Productivity gains depend on workflow redesign, staff confidence, data quality, and the ability to adapt local processes, not merely on deploying a tool.
However, current approaches to benefits articulation often depend on narrow assumptions. These include that minutes saved convert automatically into capacity released, that efficiency gains appear instantly at scale, and that value is measured solely in terms of direct cost reductions. The Health Foundation notes that these traditional productivity metrics often overlook dimensions such as quality, equity, and workforce wellbeing, all of which are essential for understanding value in healthcare settings.
This challenge is compounded by the rapid pace of technological change. Newer forms of agentic AI, capable of autonomous task execution, goal‑driven reasoning, and adaptation, promise greater efficiencies but also introduce significant complexity for workforce impact, governance, and organisational change. As the capability of the technology accelerates, the gap between what the tools can do and what NHS organisations can confidently plan for continues to widen.
This makes the problem of practice especially relevant. NHS organisations need credible approaches for articulating benefits of these tools, understanding enabling conditions, and planning for realistic productivity gains.
What other sectors have already learned
Other sectors offer important lessons. Private sector innovators increasingly treat AI as a long‑term strategic investment, not a short‑term cost saving exercise. AI should be conceptualised as an “intangible asset” that delivers value only when paired with complementary investments such as workforce development, data management, and process transformation. Meanwhile, international public‑sector examples demonstrate the importance of assessing AI not only through efficiency but also through public value measures such as equity, trust, transparency, and safety (Alhosani, N., & Alhashmi, S. (2024) Public value–based assessment of artificial intelligence in the public sector).
For the NHS, adopting similar principles could help shift AI business cases away from focusing only on time saving calculations to recognising time saved as an enabler of wider system benefits. These include patient flow, staff wellbeing, operational resilience, service equity, and improved experience.
How the Health Innovation Network South London can help
At the Health Innovation Network South London, we see this challenge repeatedly. There are high levels of enthusiasm and a growing market of AI tools, but variable clarity on where real productivity gains can be achieved and how benefits can be evidenced in a robust way.
Through our digital and productivity work, we support NHS organisations to consider expected benefits at an early stage and define how these will be measured, providing a stronger foundation for delivery over time. Our offer includes:
- Understanding and articulating the challenge: Rapid pathway reviews, workflow mapping, user engagement, and digital maturity assessments to identify where AI can deliver the greatest impact.
- Market reviews and supplier engagement: Clear insight into which tools can work effectively in NHS settings, including implementation considerations, and learning from other systems, supported by ongoing horizon scanning.
- Business case and procurement specification development: NHS aligned business cases developed with finance, clinical, and operational teams, grounded in realistic benefits and available evidence. Co-design of procurement specifications for new technology.
- Implementation and change support: Stakeholder engagement, shared learning, project management and adoption guidance to support successful implementation.
- Measuring impact: Clear key performance indicators, baselines, and dashboards to track benefits and inform decision making throughout delivery.
Our approach is practical, evidence‑based and aligned with NHS operational realities, supporting organisations navigate an increasingly complex AI landscape while building internal capability.
Looking ahead
AI holds significant potential to reduce administrative burden and release time for care. However, delivering meaningful and measurable productivity gains requires more than piloting tools. It requires organisational change, robust approaches to benefits articulation and a clearer understanding of how value develops over time.
Drawing on socio-technical insight, structured analysis, and practical implementation support, the Health Innovation Network South London works with NHS organisations to move from ambition to measurable impact.