The Heart of Healthcare | A Digital Health Podcast

Why Healthcare Is Totally Unprepared for AI | TowerBrook Advisors President Eric Jon Larsen

22 snips

May 27, 2025

In this discussion, Eric Jon Larsen, President of TowerBrook Advisors, shares insights as a leading healthcare strategist. He highlights how US healthcare, filled with unproductive labor and unstructured data, remains unprepared for the transformative wave of generative AI. The conversation emphasizes the unique vulnerabilities of the $4.9 trillion sector, the historical resistance to technological shifts, and the potential for AI to revolutionize productivity. Larsen also discusses geopolitical competition, particularly with China, and the upcoming challenges and opportunities for healthcare innovation.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Generative AI as New Intelligence Species

Generative AI is the first technology likely to obsolete more jobs than it creates.
It represents a multiplication of intelligence, potentially a new species of non-biological intelligence.

INSIGHT

Healthcare's Unique Industry Control

U.S. healthcare is an oligopolistic industry tightly controlled by about 150 influential CEOs.
Its culture of risk aversion and incrementalism explains slow tech adoption compared to other sectors.

INSIGHT

Capital Shifts Power Dynamics

Healthcare's heavy incumbency differs from past technological disruptions where insurgents usually win.
Massive capital deployment by incumbents is reshaping tech development dynamics.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

US healthcare has more unproductive labor and more unstructured data than any other industry, making it both vulnerable to disruption from generative AI and especially unprepared for it.

That’s the provocative thesis of Eric Larsen, president of TowerBrook Advisors. In this episode, he joins host Steve Kraus to explain why generative AI is unlike any other technology we've seen—and why the $4.9 trillion healthcare sector is uniquely exposed.

We cover:

🧠 What makes GenAI a true “general purpose technology”—and how it compares to past innovations like the microprocessor or the internet

🏥 Why healthcare has failed to adopt past tech shifts, and why this time could be different

🔐 The role of the “F-150”—the 150 leaders who effectively control the US healthcare system

🤝 Whether incumbents or insurgents will win the AI race in healthcare

📉 Why GenAI will reduce labor costs and what that means for health systems that spend over half their budgets on people

🌐 How China is sprinting ahead in deploying medical superintelligence

🧬 What a compressed century of biomedical discovery could look like—and why Larsen believes we’re approaching longevity escape velocity

—

About our guests:

Eric Jon Larsen is President of TowerBrook Advisors and a member of the healthcare leadership team at TowerBrook Capital Partners, a $30 billion AUM investment firm based in New York and London. TowerBrook invests across private equity, structured minority, and growth opportunities, with a strong focus on healthcare, partnering with health systems, payers, and other strategics. Notably, TowerBrook is the first mainstream private equity firm to achieve B Corp certification, reflecting its commitment to responsible business practices.

Eric is a nationally recognized healthcare strategist with a global advisory portfolio spanning CEOs and boards of leading healthcare organizations. He spent 25 years at The Advisory Board Company—five of those as President—advancing best practices in healthcare delivery worldwide. Following the firm's 2017 acquisition by Optum (UnitedHealth Group), Eric co-led strategic partnerships and market development efforts at UnitedHealth. He is also a Venture Partner at Thrive Capital and SignalFire, and serves on several digital health boards, including Somatus and Contessa Health. Beyond healthcare, Eric is active in the arts as Chairman of The Washington National Opera and trustee of The Washington Ballet. A Georgetown University graduate, he lives in Washington, D.C., and Miami with his wife and three children.

—

🙏 If you're enjoying the show, we would so appreciate it if you left us a review!

—

📍 Connect with us:

Heart of Healthcare website

Instagram

TikTok

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.