Thursday, August 20th, 2026 Independent & Reader-Supported
Insurers deployed software to process approval requests faster. Providers deployed software to submit more of them. The volume rose, the staffing did not fall, and the patient is waiting roughly as long as before.
Robotics in distribution was a capital project only the largest operators could justify. Leasing, smaller machines and software that runs on existing racking have moved it within reach of companies shipping a few thousand orders a day.
The most consequential AI deployments of the year are not chatbots. They are agents reconciling invoices, chasing documents and closing tickets nobody wanted to touch.