Over the past year, I’ve spoken with a surprising number of clinicians who have chosen to reject AI entirely. Not cautiously, not critically, but completely. Some feel overwhelmed. Others feel scared. Many worry that using AI somehow cheapens the human side of medicine. I empathize with every one of those concerns.

But here’s the truth we cannot afford to ignore:

Healthcare is moving forward with or without us.

AI has already been woven into diagnostics, workflow, documentation, monitoring, triage, imaging, population health, and every corner of the system that has been stretched thin for too long. These tools aren’t replacing clinicians. They’re replacing the parts of our day that exhaust us, slow us down, and keep us away from patients.

The danger isn’t that AI will take our jobs.

But refusing to engage with it will only make us less effective in the jobs we want to keep.

When you reject every tool on principle, you also reject the opportunity to shape how those tools are used. You lose the ability to advocate, to guide, to protect patients with informed insight. You give up your seat at the table.

I’m not asking clinicians to love AI. Just to stay open-minded enough to understand it.

Because the future of healthcare is not slowing down. The pressures are not easing. The demands are not shrinking. And the next generation of clinicians is already learning in a world where these tools are essential.

If we want to stay relevant, effective, and grounded in the realities of modern care, we can’t pretend AI doesn’t exist. We have to engage with it thoughtfully, responsibly, and humanely. Not because technology is perfect, but because our patients deserve clinicians who can navigate the system they’re actually living in.

Healthcare is changing fast.

The question is whether we change with it or get left behind.