Built for AI, not retrofitted with it — why headcount alone will not deliver the build
By Chris Beckage, Procom Technology Solutions
BOTTOM LINE
Building AI-native is a different kind of hard. There’s no legacy to work around, which sounds like an advantage until every assumption must be made correctly the first time.
Adding AI and building around it are different jobs
There’s a difference between a healthcare organization that’s adding AI to what it already has, and one that’s building around AI from the first blueprint. Healthcare leaders are increasingly having to distinguish between the two — new facilities, new platforms, greenfield builds where AI isn’t a feature request bolted on in year three, it’s a design constraint from day one.
That difference changes the shape of the work entirely.
Why retrofitting is constrained work
Retrofitting AI onto legacy infrastructure means working around what’s already there — data models built for a different era, integration points that weren’t designed to feed a model anything, governance frameworks written before “AI” was a line item. It’s real, valuable work, but it’s constrained work.
Why building AI-native is a different kind of hard
Building AI-native is a different kind of hard. There’s no legacy to work around, which sounds like an advantage until every assumption must be made correctly the first time — how data flows, how clinicians interact with the system, how the whole thing scales before a single patient walks through the door. Even sizeable internal teams may need outside expertise for this kind of work: a fixed opening date doesn’t wait for the org chart to catch up with the ambition.
When the opening date does not move
The sharpest pressure point is the timeline. A greenfield build tied to a physical opening date — a new tower, a new campus — doesn’t get to slip quietly the way a software rollout sometimes can. The building opens when it opens. That kind of fixed deadline, layered onto a build this technically ambitious, is exactly where even a well-resourced team starts to feel the gap between “we have enough people” and “we have enough people who’ve done this specific kind of work before.”
What the build team actually needs
Headcount alone will not answer this. The team needs people who have delivered this kind of build before, on a timeline that cannot move.
QUESTIONS TO TAKE BACK TO YOUR TEAM
Before the next milestone lands, test this:
- Is this build AI-native or AI-retrofitted — and has delivery capacity been scoped for the one it is?
- Does the team include people who’ve done this specific kind of build before, not just people who are available?
- What happens to the opening date if that specific expertise isn’t in place on time?
Next stepss
Procom Consulting Services works with healthcare technology leaders to work out what kind of gap they are facing, then matches the right approach: a specialist, a team of specialists or a defined project.
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About the author
Chris Beckage, Vice President, Consulting Services
With over 25 years in the staffing industry, Chris drives Procom’s Consulting Services efforts to expand market opportunities and partnerships across North America.
