ABBYY Survey Reveals Healthcare Companies Suffering Severe Skills Shortage for Deploying GenAI
Many scaling back and some abandoning AI altogether
New research commissioned by ABBYY has revealed the major challenges faced by healthcare organizations trying to integrate sophisticated GenAI technology – leading to almost a quarter (22%) pulling the plug on AI tools completely, and nearly 1 in 3 (31%) scaling back.
However, all those who stuck with it and completed deployment said they are now satisfied with the current results of GenAI after augmenting it with other technologies and introducing intense staff training, according to the ABBYY State of Intelligent Automation Report: GenAI Confessions.
The survey, conducted by Opinium Research, shows that a huge 42% of healthcare leaders said employees did not have the skills to deploy GenAI, compared with just 29% globally.
Managers also complained that staff were spending MORE time on tasks (32%) compared to 18% globally. Worryingly, almost a quarter (24%) found that their GenAI tools suffered hallucinations – much higher than the global average of 16%. In addition, 34% said that training the models was harder than expected and 31% did not have proper governance in place.
Many business leaders were able to address these challenges using other technologies, with 51% turning to Document AI, 41% using AI agents and 27% using process intelligence. These measures improved user trust and satisfaction (52%) and reduced the need for human review (48%), as well as increasing quality of output (48%). With employee skills being an issue, more than half (59%) introduced training for staff to better use the tools and 37% set up regular check-ins to review AI use.
Unfortunately, difficulties with deployment led to 31% deciding to scale back or remove AI tools that weren’t working, compared to only 20% of respondents globally doing the same. This decision is reflected in planned investment in AI for 2026, with just 24% of healthcare managers expecting to increase budgets by more than 20%, much lower than the global proportion of 38%.
It seems that financial services leaders spent money on GenAI tools that promised more than they can provide. In some cases, they didn’t even need it. Before moving forward with GenAI tools for agentic automation, companies need to first evaluate their current processes and create a visibility map of their workflow with data analytics tools such as process intelligence. When training models prove more difficult than expected, pre-trained, purpose-built AI turns out to be the right solution.
Maxime Vermeir, Senior Director of AI at ABBYY
Interestingly, one of the goals of GenAI use in healthcare was to monitor staff performance (19%) - much higher than other industries such as financial services (6%), retail (7%) and IT (10%).
The research also showed that four-in-ten (42%) of healthcare business leaders admit that a driving factor for introducing GenAI was that employees were already using it on a Bring Your Own Software (BYOS) basis for personal productivity. Over half (58%) say employees use it to ‘look smarter and more professional’ while the same number say employees love it for reducing workload. Generally, staff are optimistic about GenAI, with 88% of leaders saying workers are positive about using it.
GenAI is creating remarkable opportunities to reimagine how work gets done, which is rightfully generating a great deal of excitement. However, shadow AI, when individuals use commonly available tools like ChatGPT, Grok, or Perplexity without oversight at work, potentially raises serious data privacy and compliance concerns. The corporate benefits of GenAI’s potential are truly unlocked when leaders drive secure, strategic adoption with risk management as a priority.
Ulf Persson, CEO at ABBYY
Top uses for GenAI in healthcare: data analysis and insights (71%), automating document processes (61%), employee productivity (56%)
Access the full State of Intelligent Automation: GenAI Confessions 2025 here for more information.
Methodology
Opinium research of 1,200 senior managers or above in companies of 100+ employees in the US, UK, France, Germany, Australia and Singapore, of which 64 were T&L organisations.
Research undertaken between 20th of June and 8th of July 2025.
About ABBYY
ABBYY helps organizations optimize processes, accelerate decisions, and drive better outcomes with Process AI and Document AI. More than 10,000 enterprises, including many Fortune 500 companies, rely on ABBYY’s 35 years of innovation to turn business data into actionable insights that improve the way we work and live. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, and offices in 13 countries, ABBYY leads the way for smarter agentic automation. For more information, visit www.abbyy.com/company and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
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