As hospitals begin to adopt artificial intelligence, HOK’s Healthcare architects envision a future where technology creates more opportunities for human connection between caregivers and patients.
Hospital leaders already know that AI can analyze medical images and streamline administrative tasks. But HOK’s Healthcare design teams are asking a different question: How can intelligent buildings support both caregivers and patients throughout their journey? The answer starts with spaces that reduce cognitive burden and create calmer, more responsive environments for healing.
“The real opportunity of AI isn’t just efficiency—it’s creating space for empathy,” says Mark Banholzer, AIA, senior project designer in HOK’s Chicago studio. “That’s what designing healthcare experiences should be about: making human connection possible.”
This vision starts with understanding each patient as a whole person. “Wouldn’t it be nice if my whole life story became part of my medical record?” Banholzer asks. “Because of that, clinical decisions are broader. My care team knows me more.”
Such possibilities are informing HOK’s approach to hospital design. Banholzer imagines rooms that could respond intelligently to patient needs: “My device might connect with my room. It knows I have anxiety. So, the room adjusts its lighting to what makes me feel comfortable.”
For Sarah Holton, DNP, MBA, RN, LSSYB, senior healthcare consultant with HOK in Tampa and a former nurse, these innovations must serve practical needs. Drawing from her clinical experience, she compares the cognitive demands on nurses to those of air traffic controllers. “It won’t replace us. It’ll make our work easier to do,” she says. The ability to redirect tasks like email triage or documentation through AI tools could dramatically reduce clinician burnout.
Successful AI-ready environments, Holton emphasizes, need to support both technological integration and human interaction. “We want to have good social support. We want to have environments that are interprofessional,” she explains. “And we want space that really lets us recharge.” The goal, she notes, is to create environments where technology enhances clinical decision-making—ultimately improving outcomes for patients, facilities and disease management.
Karen Freeman, AIA, ACHA, NCIDQ, EDAC, LEED AP BD+C, HOK’s Atlanta-based Children’s Health practice leader, sees this balance as particularly crucial in children’s hospitals. “AI is increasingly important, but it can’t replace that human connection,” she says. “We want to augment it.”
This means carefully considering how technology integrates with the unique needs of young patients. Freeman notes that pediatric care depends heavily on sensory engagement: “They take on increasingly more sensory environments. So we need to ensure our technology does not interfere with that experience.”
The implications of these changes extend far beyond individual rooms or departments. Allison Wagner, regional healthcare leader in HOK’s London studio, sees wearable technologies and mobile health apps transforming the very nature of healthcare delivery. “It’s completely changing how healthcare will be delivered,” she says. “And it will certainly affect how we design hospitals in the future.”
This shift is redefining what “digital infrastructure” means for healthcare facilities. The focus is moving beyond screens and terminals toward a seamless ecosystem of data-enabled services that respect the physical, emotional and cognitive needs of patients and staff.
“As data becomes ubiquitous, one, it’s invisible,” Banholzer notes. “But does it become part of the building that lets the building itself be empathetic?”
HOK’s approach to AI-ready healthcare design starts with that exact question—how can buildings themselves become conduits for empathy? The answer lies in design strategies including adaptive lighting, acoustics, material selection and digitally enabled care flows. Healthcare designers also need to consider evolving space configurations, the benefits of modular design for long-term adaptability and underlying digital infrastructure needs.
Technology alone won’t transform healthcare. But technology aligned with empathy—with design that knows, listens to and supports us—just might.