What HIMSS26 Confirmed About Healthcare’s AI Movement

Four days. One Microsoft booth. Hundreds of real conversations.

Last week, the Genzeon team had the privilege of being part of the Microsoft booth at HIMSS26, right at the center of where healthcare innovation, AI ambition, and real-world execution came together.

Here’s what we witnessed—and what we believe: the AI debate is over. The groundwork to move AI from pilots to production at scale has already begun.

There was no longer a question of whether AI belongs in healthcare. Every conversation—with customers, during theater sessions, in solution demos, with industry experts, and with partners building AI solutions—circled the same themes: How do we scale AI responsibly? How do we make this real for clinicians, care teams, payers, and providers? And how do we support them in their daily workflows while improving outcomes for patients and members?

Starting with Intent on Day One: Microsoft Partner Pre-Day Set the Tone

We kicked off HIMSS26 on Monday, March 8, with Microsoft’s Partner Pre-Day—a deep, focused engagement with HLS product engineering, marketing, and partner teams before the expo floor even opened.

These weren’t just alignment meetings. We had the opportunity to dig into how AI is being engineered responsibly into workflows, what it truly takes to move customers from pilots into production, and where partners like Genzeon can accelerate adoption by building AI directly into the flow of work—where healthcare actually happens.

When partners and product teams align early, outcomes accelerate. The energy from Partner Pre-Day carried through the rest of the conference.

Three Days, One Booth, and a Packed Theater Session

For three full days, Genzeon showcased our platform, REVA, inside the Microsoft booth—and the traffic never slowed.

The range of conversations was remarkable. Providers were reimagining revenue cycle workflows. Payers were leaning into AI for operational efficiency. Health systems were asking tough questions about governance and ROI. Microsoft field teams were looking for real proof points that resonate with HLS customers.

One of the highlights was our theater session on the Patient Engagement Solution (PES), with Hadas Bitran, Partner Group Manager, Microsoft Healthcare Israel, in attendance. The session was standing-room only. Engagement ran deep, and the questions were sharp.

What made it resonate wasn’t just the slides or the demo—it was the honest dialogue about the real-world patient experience challenges PES is solving today. Leaders weren’t looking for hype; they wanted practical answers. How does AI-driven patient engagement actually work? How do you align innovation with compliance and trust? How do you make it fit into existing environments?

That message came through clearly: practitioners are looking for substance, not buzzwords.

The Podcast Conversation That Captured It All

Ahead of HIMSS, our CEO, Ilanko Kumaresan, sat down with James Caton, Director of Global Partner Solutions at Microsoft and host of the Generate Now! podcast, to talk about what Genzeon is building—and why it matters.

They covered REVA’s core value proposition (with industry estimates suggesting up to 11% of claims are underpaid—a massive issue REVA is purpose-built to address), patient engagement powered by Microsoft Health Agent Service, health intelligence capabilities, and the broader Microsoft ecosystem that brings it all together.

If you’re looking for an honest, unscripted perspective on how AI is improving healthcare today, it’s worth a listen.

What the Week Confirmed

Across every conversation—whether with prospects, clients, Microsoft executives, sales leaders, solution teams, industry advisors, ISV partners, AI startups, or healthcare organizations—one theme remained consistent:

AI must be workflow-first. Copilot must be role-aware. Trust is non-negotiable.

On the main stage, hearing how Optum is advancing agentic AI wasn’t surprising—it was confirming what many are already seeing. Agentic AI is no longer a future concept; it’s being deployed now.

Dragon Copilot is helping reduce clinician documentation burden, working alongside them across systems and improving care delivery. Payers are using AI to simplify prior authorization. Health systems of all sizes are finding responsible ways to move faster. And partners building AI solutions are contributing across every aspect of care delivery.

This is what AI-driven transformation looks like in practice: incremental, thoughtful, and scalable.

The Moments That Mattered Most

For our team, the most meaningful moments at HIMSS26 weren’t the announcements. They were the people.

Clients. Go-to-market partners. Former colleagues. New connections.

Clinicians speaking candidly about what’s working—and what isn’t. Business and technology leaders who genuinely believe AI can support clinicians and bring more humanity back into care delivery.

To the Genzeon team who showed up with clarity, energy, and conviction all week—thank you. You represented our clients and our mission with excellence.

To our Microsoft partners—thank you for building an ecosystem worth being part of.

And to everyone we met on the HIMSS floor—thank you for the work you’re doing to bring healthcare technology to life at scale.