What We Learned at HIMSS 2026
Three days, hundreds of conversations, one consistent theme: health systems are done with point solutions. Here is what stood out from the floor.
We came to HIMSS 2026 expecting to have conversations about how the role of AI in healthcare is rapidly evolving. We did. But the conversation that kept resurfacing was not about buying more tools to automate more functions, it was about building a sustainable future for health systems through a consolidated platform approach.
Health system CIOs and CMIOs have spent the last three years buying individual AI tools for individual problems. One vendor for ambient scribing. Another for patient engagement. Another for coding. Another for prior authorization. And now, across dozens of conversations at HIMSS, we kept hearing the same thing: the aggregate complexity of managing these vendors is becoming untenable.
The Theme That Kept Coming Up
Point solution fatigue is real. We heard it from RCM leaders dealing with four separate vendor contracts for sequential steps in the revenue cycle. We heard it from IT teams managing six disparate AI integrations. We heard it from CMIOs who are watching clinician frustration tick up not because the tools are bad, but because there are too many of them.
This validates everything we have built at Cleo. The acute care OS is not a product category we invented, it provides the answer the market is arriving at on its own.
What Clinicians Told Us
We also spent meaningful time talking to clinicians directly, the daily end users of acute care AI. What they want is simple: tools that work without adding new workflows. Ambient documentation that produces notes they can sign, not notes they have to rewrite. CDI prompts that are meaningful and non-disruptive, not manual and retrospective. Everything accessible from the same place they already work.
That is exactly what Cleo is working to provide. We left HIMSS energized, and with a growing list of health systems who want to see the platform in action.
If you stopped by our booth and want to continue the conversation, or if you missed us at HIMSS and want to see what the acute care OS looks like, we would love to show you.
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Cleo unifies ambient documentation, charge capture, and real-time CDI in one platform built for acute care.
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