AI Healthcare Leadership and Strategy: From Hype to Real Value | Parth Gargish

AI strategy for healthcare collapses the moment measurable outcomes are demanded — Parth Gargish on moving healthcare AI from hype to real value.

AI strategy for healthcare collapses the moment someone asks for the measurable outcome. Parth Gargish, CEO of NetSmarts with 20 years of custom software and a dedicated AI practice since 2016, joins Chris Hutchins to examine how to separate real value from hype and what AI transformation strategies actually look like when the goal is ROI rather than optics.

What We Cover

• Why "big wins lie in small things" and how an L1 customer support AI that starts at 50% resolution frees human agents to shift from support into customer success
• The PPT framework (people, processes, tools) and why people come first, deliberately
• Why mid-level managers are the stakeholder group AI roadmaps fail when they skip
• How to be direct about the fear factor: some roles vanish, and that is leadership's problem to solve, not the individual's
• What it takes to avoid investing in AI just to look cool and instead build AI that delivers measurable revenue, cost, or quality impact

Key Takeaways

• Product discipline separates AI initiatives that create sustainable value from ones that consume resources and fade. Value is measured in adoption and outcomes, not model elegance.
• Mid-level managers are the leverage point in every AI transformation strategy. If they cannot translate executive vision into daily decisions, the roadmap stalls at every level below.
• Upskilling is leadership's responsibility, not the individual contributor's. Organizations that outsource it to "initiative on your own time" pay for it in attrition.

Frameworks & Tools Mentioned

• PPT framework (people, processes, tools) for AI adoption
• Customer support automation (L1 ticket deflection, gradual improvement loop)
• Customer success transition models for reclaimed headcount
• ROI-first AI use case selection
• Dot-com adaptation as a template for AI workforce transition

## Timestamps 00:00 – Why AI Hype Fails in the Real World 01:45 – Introducing Parth Gargish 03:20 – Why AI Adoption Is Harder Than It Looks 05:40 – AI-First Strategy vs AI Experimentation 08:10 – Solving Real Problems, Not Building Demos 10:55 – Customer Support Automation as a High-ROI Use Case 13:45 – People Before Tools 16:20 – Fear, Jobs, and the Reality of AI Change 19:10 – Leadership Accountability in AI Transformation 22:00 – Upskilling, Reskilling, and Culture Change 25:10 – Why Experts Matter More Than Tools 28:00 – Separating AI Signal from Noise 31:00 – The Future of AI in the Enterprise 33:30 – Final Takeaway: From AI Hype to Real Value

About Parth Gargish

Parth Gargish is the CEO of NetSmarts, a company with 20 years of custom software and SaaS product development and a dedicated AI practice dating back to 2016. His work centers on helping organizations decode what AI will actually work for them, drive real business use cases with measurable ROI, and avoid investing in AI purely for optics.

Related Resources

• Episode: The Enterprise AI Journey: From Data Foundations to Generative and Agentic AI with Gary Cao
• Episode: From AI Strategy to Execution: Trust, Leadership, and Operational Reality with Brian Sutherland
• Episode: Healthcare Leadership, Operational Reality, and System Signals with MarKeisha Snaith
• Topic: Get it on Amazon

Transcript

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Christopher Hutchins: The tagline for my company: 0:03

humanizing AI for healthcare. We've talked about how healthcare needs to be emotionally ready before it can be technologically ready.

Christopher Hutchins: 0:22

Hundreds of thousands of dollars on data.

Parth Gargish: 0:26

The dot-com revolution, internet, and now AI. I think AI is the quickest technology, I mean, the human species has ever adapted, in the shortest frame of time. One of the major components of AI-first approach is PPT. People, processes, and tools. So people is the first step.

Christopher Hutchins: 0:59

We're on location at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas. This morning I have the privilege of discussing all things AI and some pretty cool technologies that my new friend Parth has been working on. Parth, welcome to the Signal Room and thanks for being with us. We've been hearing about so many different aspects of AI, and it's so exciting. I mean, I don't know about you, but I feel like I found my people. This is really just a lot of fun. And there's so much good that people are involved with here. I feel like we're just scratching the surface of the opportunities we're going to find to do things together. I know that you've got a company that's really doing some interesting things, because you have an interesting background as well. But it's worth thinking about building AI that is ethical, that hopefully augments and supports humans. It's not really going to replace you, but people can debate that all they want. I don't think that's going to get solved anytime soon. I'd love to hear a little bit about your background. I know you've done some interesting things at NetSmarts, but love to hear about what you're passionate about and what led you to where you are today in launching your company and some of the things that you're doing.

Parth Gargish: 2:16

Absolutely. Thank you so much. It's a really interesting world we are living in. We are lucky to kind of see a lot of transitions during our lifetime. The dot-com revolution, internet, and now AI. I think AI is the quickest technology human species have ever adapted, in the shortest frame of time. It's so fascinating. I was discussing with some colleagues and even with you that all those sci-fi movies are coming into reality in some way or the other. About myself, I have been involved in digital transformation and custom software development space. That's how I started my career 20 years back. I've been involved in the world of SaaS primarily. That is something we as an organization and I as an individual hold a very strong expertise on, and we are really proud of that we have created multiple SaaS products. In fact, thousands of them for our clients over the last two decades. Then we got into the space of AI since 2016. It's been a fairly 10-year-old AI practice we built at NetSmarts. Similarly have been in the world of AI since then. We started with small projects like data labeling projects, which were common back in the days because AI thrives on data, as we all know. We were creating large data sets for organizations who could then go with the AI-driven approach, and that's how we started into this segment. My focus really revolves around creating AI-first strategies for organizations who are looking either to step into the AI world and trying to decode what would work for them, what would not work for them, rather than just investing in AI just for the heck of it and looking cool around it. Actually driving business use cases which can get them some ROI in shorter or long term. Helping them craft out their AI-first roadmap, because every organization is unique in their own ways. Not one shoe is going to fit all. That's what we are really passionate about, and that is what we are working towards.

Christopher Hutchins: 4:31

You're touching on something that's actually what the whole premise of this show is about. There's so much noise that people are claiming they're doing all these wonderful things with AI, but through the noise, there's a signal that we have to dial in on, and what you do is actually precisely that. Tell me how you approach separating hype from reality and identifying the real-world use cases that are meaningful, not just somebody's excited because they can make a new ChatGPT that basically accelerates what Google used to do in a millisecond.

Parth Gargish: 5:09

Absolutely. I have always believed in the fact that big wins lie in small things, probably. It's not necessary that you have to make an AI use case which is really out of the box, and then you've done something big. It could be as small as automating one of your department functions where it might not be contributing in the form of direct revenues, but maybe contributing towards increasing your employees' efficiencies, or you're accelerating your go-to-market in some way, or for your clients. It doesn't have to be rocket science around it. To give you an example, one of our use cases, which we're really proud of, is in the customer support and customer experience side of things. Every organization needs better customer support as they keep growing because organizations grow based on retention of clients. That is how we have believed and we have grown as well as an organization. And that is, I think, an industry-agnostic use case. Every business needs that. In one of the use cases, we automated the L1 level of ticketing in terms of customer support. AI actually handles L1 in the form of chat as well as voice. Imagine that AI is able to take, let's say, 1,000 customer support queries every day. I'm taking a very minimal number, it goes way beyond that in some businesses. Out of which 50% is also handled by AI. And then 50% is handed off by AI to a human agent where it is not able to convince the customer with the resolution. And then, of course, you are improving on the efficiency because out of those 50%, eventually AI is going to take another 25% gradually because it's going to learn. So you are slowly and steadily automating your customer support function, increasing the bandwidth of your regular human customer support agents. And then they can do meaningful work for their customers and move them towards customer success roadmap, because there's a very thin line between support and success for especially growing organizations. And they're not able to focus on success because most of the time they're spending their time in support. Very small use case, but big time impact. It's all about what would work for you, what your business needs.

Christopher Hutchins: 7:39

I think what I find interesting is we're in this place and time where trust has been eroded massively in every part of society. And people are terrified. There's this fear factor. What you're talking about is identifying meaningful workflows that are actually close to where the action is. There's a cultural aspect to really getting the engagement that you need to have people raise their hand and say, hey, this is a workflow that I think we could actually make a lot better. How do you see that? And what's your thought about what leadership needs to be doing inside of organizations to foster a culture that people feel safe to actually identify those things? Because if they don't feel safe, some of the biggest impact things, because you mentioned some little things, people might not bring them up for fear of losing their job to AI.

Parth Gargish: 100%. I think the fear is real. And it's something I would not say is wrong. Because let's be honest, some roles are going to vanish, 100%. But I also believe that this is not the first transition we are going through, and this is not the last one as well. We have lived through similar transitions in the past. Of course, not as massive as AI probably, but we have gone through that. And the only thing which has made us all survive is the ability to adapt and then upskill. Every organization or top leadership should really promote upskilling and then make their team members feel safe. That is where we also come in with the AI-first approach. One of the major components of AI-first approach is PPT: 8:34

people, processes, and tools. So people is the first step. Your team needs to be dialed in to the concept, and the approach has to fall from top to bottom. It is not a bottom-up approach. The top leadership has to convince its people that this is the roadmap we are going towards. Everyone is safe, provided you do these things. And then you upskill. You need to prepare for the newer roles when the older roles are actually going to eventually move out of the market.

Christopher Hutchins: 10:01

For our listeners, you're hearing from a CEO of a tech company, and they're telling you it starts with people. I can't forget that. I'm glad that you're saying it because we are at this inflection point where leadership has to be really walking a fine line. The transparency has to be important. We have to be careful, obviously, with the timing of everything that we're doing. Some things you know as an executive that you kind of have to work through and figure out timing and how to deliver and implement things in your organization. But there's also this really important piece about trust being eroded. We have to find a way to help people be comfortable that we're working with them. We're not trying to do something to them, we're trying to find ways to enable them. And you said, yeah, jobs are going to be replaced. I think you're right. But I think the message we want to make sure people are hearing is it's going to replace people who don't adopt and learn how to use AI. Executives really need to hear from you the things that you're talking about. People is the very first thing on the list.

Parth Gargish: 11:24

Yes.

Christopher Hutchins: 11:25

What are some of the barriers that you see? And what would you tell executives that may be listening? They're trying to figure out where's that fine line. Because they don't have the understanding of AI that you have, and they might be a little bit nervous. Apart from reaching out and having a conversation with you, what are some of the things you would advise them to be thinking about and doing?

Parth Gargish: 11:46

Whenever there's a transition phase, it's the fear which actually kicks in first. And it could kick in in the top leadership as well as in your midline managers. I think it's very important as a CEO or as a C-level executive in an organization, you need to convince your midline managers first. They are the ones who are hustling on the ground level every day, and they need to manage the entire workforce which is going to be working towards your AI-first strategy or whatever you opt for in terms of AI implementation in your business. Have certain designated AI officers inside the organization who lead initiatives because you establish trust with them in the first place. They need to feel that they are a part of this. Whatever the board is deciding, they are very much involved and an equal stakeholder in this so that they can give the same comfort to their downline. And then a clear roadmap is very important. Make small wins visible. Have small goals. Maybe next six months we are going to automate our outreach function, maybe sales outreach. And then you have the sales managers working towards that and maybe implementation of tools and everything. But you can implement all the tools out there in the world. Unless it is processized and your people are using it, it's a cash burn. A whole systematic approach. Sometimes what we do is that we tend to do things ourselves, and that is where we lose the battle. I strongly encourage that it's not necessary that everything has to be done in-house. Get experts to help you. There's a reason why there are experts. I mean, we are a tech-driven organization, and if tomorrow someone comes and talks to me about manufacturing and setting up a manufacturing plant, I'm not the expert in that. I would rather go to someone who has actually been there, done it, who accelerates my time to market rather than me trying to hustle things, and then I lose time and I lose money, and then I realize I should have gotten a specialist on board. I think it's very important. Get an expert, speed up, have a roadmap, and then maybe you take things back in-house and in control.

Christopher Hutchins: 14:09

I think that makes a lot of sense. You're really talking about some things that people have to open up their thinking a little bit. Because culture gets talked about in ways that honestly sometimes don't, it feels almost like an exercise and you're checking a box. But in reality, it takes commitment, repetition, and to use your words, you have to have a systemic approach to this. Getting to your mid-level managers, the people who are closest to the workforce that are really doing these critical jobs. If an organization is trying to figure out where to start and put the pieces together so that you're starting to repair some of the trust, because roughly about 20 years ago, eight out of ten people would have told you that they trust the government. Probably a higher percentage trusted their clergy, their law enforcement. Pick an entity. But even for CEOs in particular now, the number is in the low 20s. I think it's like 24% of what I heard recently. How would you advise CEOs to engage their next-level management in order to start rebuilding that culture so that there's trust and they're able to advance things forward? Because to your point, it's the SMEs, the subject matter experts that are actually able to point out the areas of opportunity. And if they're afraid and they don't trust, how are you going to get them to step forward and help?

Parth Gargish: 15:52

It starts with empowerment first. Your managers, your midline, they need to feel empowered. They need to feel that they're stakeholders in this journey overall. Because with that feeling comes a lot of ownership. And then they will work with your vision, because your vision becomes their vision. It is very important to translate your vision in very clear, actionable items, and then tell them what they have to gain in this win. Yesterday at one of the roundtables I was speaking the same thing. There is no deal where there is not a win-win situation. If it's a one-sided win, even in our normal relationships, you cannot carry a relationship longer if it's only one person who is winning. There has to be some kind of ratio. Even if it's like 70-30, and then it kind of changes eventually, there has to be a win for the other side of the table as well. For your midline managers, it is very important they see what is the win there for them. Because at the end of the day, everyone is here to do something in their lives. They're ambitious, and that's why they are working. And the kind of drift we are witnessing right now in the overall technology, everything is changing so rapidly every day. There's new development, new algorithms getting developed, the whole working norm is changing across different industries. And there's no way out of it. It's inevitable. This change is something we are supposed to go through. There's no way we can have a way out of it. It's just that we have to adapt to it. Everyone knows that deep inside. And it's okay to have fear. But what is important is how you are facing that fear and what steps you are taking to get there.

Christopher Hutchins: It's an old concept that we've been dealing with since the dawn of mankind. Disruptive innovation is real and it happens. If we think back to the dot-com transition, I know that a lot of us never could have imagined how things would turn out and how much the internet and connectivity has transformed pretty much every part of our lives in the civilized world, industrialized world. This, I think, who knows if it's 10x or a thousand x or whatever it is, but we know it's massively disruptive. And it's only that consistent communication with human beings and really doing things deliberately to establish a safe environment for people where they actually feel like they're contributing, they're able to drive some things and take ownership of it. I was speaking with somebody yesterday and they put it in a really simple term for me. You have to have these conversations and answer the question that they have in their mind: 18:05

what's in this for me? Because you know, I think you want me to help you eliminate my job.

Parth Gargish: 19:21

Yeah. And everything does not have to be innovative from ground level. Take the example of touchscreen phones. Apple came out with them first. BlackBerry was ruling at one point of time. The only small tweak they did was they got rid of the keyboards. And it wasn't that we were not operating on screens without keyboards from before. Your laptop or even your desktop, you were using a mouse, but you were actually on a screen. They just used that concept and got rid of the real estate and made a larger screen. And today we are living on a smartphone day in, day out with a complete touchscreen panel. So it's not that you do everything from ground up. Maybe you take something, maybe there are so many LLMs out there, there are so many models out there, there are open source models out there. Plug and play, and then make something where you're solving a real problem rather than just saying that, hey, I'm doing AI. Because I meet a lot of people these days, and in a very lighter manner, I always say that AI organizations are just breeding like mushrooms. Everyone is doing AI. But are you solving a real problem? That is what is required for longevity of your organization. You have to be dealing with real problems and giving real solutions.

Christopher Hutchins: 20:44

The days of sneaking by with understanding of buzzwords, the game's kind of up now. Because you can't do a whole lot of implementations of AI without getting an ROI because it's not inexpensive to do these things. It's a very exciting, but maybe a little intimidating time when they think about what's ahead, because I don't even think we know. Like to your point, everything's moving so quickly. Six or eight months ago, I remember trying to get an image created using AI, and it was giving me these really horrendous things. I have no artistic talent when it comes to drawing, but I could do better than it was doing just that long ago.

Parth Gargish: 21:32

I have no talent in drawing either.

Christopher Hutchins: 21:36

But now, I mean, it's incredible what it can do. It creates things. If you can imagine it, you could probably get something that looks close to it. And it looks like it was done with art and precision. I don't know how, but it is amazing how fast it's gone.

Parth Gargish: 21:55

And we all have that advisor working with us, which is called ChatGPT or Copilot. And it gets us all the clinical information, data, stats, and everything. So if you really want to do something and make solutions, I think we are living in a perfect era. It's just that we need to use it in the right direction. And then maybe have an expert work with you. If you want your child to become a football player tomorrow, you will not tell him to start watching YouTube videos and become Ronaldo one day. You have to find the best soccer coach out there who has been there, done it, who has created players, and then work around that. So everything cannot be ChatGPT or YouTube or Google. There will always be a human component. Always. You cannot leave decision making in the hands of AI. I'm strongly against that. But you can use it for getting you visibility and guiding you on what the possibilities could be, but the decision making should always be with you.

Christopher Hutchins: 22:57

Absolutely. I couldn't agree with you more. Before we wrap, this has been a fascinating conversation. I hope you'll come back and be on the show with me again, because there's so much more that we could talk about. And honestly, in a couple of months, I'll bet you'll have some late-breaking news that'll be really interesting for people to hear about. I know I'll be interested. If people wanted to get in touch with you, or they want to know how do I find the right experts to figure out what's hype and what's reality, where do I put my resources? How do people get in touch with you?

Parth Gargish: 23:29

You can find me on LinkedIn. I think that's the easiest way to find me. Just search Parth Gargish. That's my name. It's quite unique. I've not seen anyone with the same name on the planet till now. So you can find me on LinkedIn very easily, or you can reach me on my email at parth.gargish@netsmarts.com. I also run a community for SaaS business owners called SaaS Next, SaaS NXT. We do events and shows across North America and we are trying to create a community where SaaS business owners can come in, collaborate, innovate with each other. I'm a person who has been a very strong believer of partnerships. Even with our clients, we work more like partners rather than vendors because we strongly believe that our success lies in their success. If they're not successful in the long term, I will not have a client for life. And that is something we are really proud of, that we have created clients for life. And that is what helps you sail through those rough days too, like the pandemic and everything. You survive through it as an organization only if you have clients who have believed with you and who are working with you as partners. That is the idea behind why we created that community. I'm really passionate about it. If you're a SaaS business owner, please feel free to reach out. I would love to have you there as a community member.

Christopher Hutchins: 24:51

That's fantastic. I love the focus on people are first. This is so refreshing, and I'm excited about what you're doing. Can't wait to hear about your successes. Let's definitely keep in touch and hope you enjoy the rest of the time here. I know there are a lot of good conversations being had, and to your point, I think a lot of partnerships are going to get born out of these few days here in Las Vegas. Parth, it's been an amazing pleasure to have you. Thanks so much for being on the show.

Parth Gargish: 25:17

Thank you for having me here. It was a lovely conversation. I would look forward towards a longer conversation sometime.

Christopher Hutchins: 25:22

Let's do that. Thank you. That's it for this episode of the Signal Room. If today's conversation sparks something in you, an idea, a challenge, or perspective worth amplifying, I'd love to hear from you. Message me on LinkedIn or visit SignalRoomPodcast.com to explore being a guest on an upcoming episode. Until next time, stay tuned, stay curious, and stay human.