U.S.’s largest healthcare educator taps tech giant's expertise to address disconnect between billions in AI investment and workforce readiness.
Physicians spend nearly 50% more time on paperwork than they do with patients. That imbalance doesn't just frustrate doctors—it threatens the quality of care and accelerates burnout across the profession.
Healthcare systems have invested billions in artificial intelligence to solve this problem. The technology is here. The AI tools are deployed. But a recent survey reveals a critical gap: most doctors using these tools feel unprepared to manage them effectively and operate without formal organizational guidelines for AI use.
AI Training at the Scale Healthcare Demands
Adtalem Global Education, the nation's largest healthcare educator, is partnering with Google Cloud to launch the first comprehensive AI credentials program of this scale that will be designed specifically for healthcare students and practicing clinicians.
The program will reach students across Adtalem's five institutions, spanning nursing, medicine, veterinary medicine, behavioral health and allied health professions. That includes one in every three new nurses entering the U.S. workforce, thousands of physicians, veterinarians and therapists—plus practicing clinicians at Adtalem's 270 healthcare system partnerships across all 50 states.
The entire healthcare pipeline, across every discipline, AI-ready.
Participants will earn AI certificates upon completing specialized tracks designed for healthcare roles. These aren't generic AI courses. Each track will address the distinct AI applications and clinical decision-making challenges specific to that profession.
"We're moving at the speed healthcare demands," said Michael Betz, Chief Digital Officer and President of Walden University, Adtalem Global Education. "This partnership with Google Cloud gives our students a competitive edge in their careers—whether they're treating patients, providing mental health counseling, or leading healthcare teams. Our graduates will enter the workforce confident in using AI to enhance their clinical decisions, spend less time on paperwork and more time connecting with patients. Healthcare providers are telling us they need professionals who can help drive responsible AI innovation and adoption, and our students will be ready to lead that change from day one."
Why This Moment Matters
The timing couldn't be more critical. Healthcare is caught in a brutal paradox: staffing shortages and burnout at historic highs, while administrative work consumes more clinical time than patient care. AI was supposed to solve this. Instead, it created a new challenge: doctors have the tools but not the training.
Healthcare can't wait for gradual adoption or small-scale experiments. Adtalem and Google Cloud are moving at the speed the crisis demands, systematically upgrading America's largest healthcare education pipeline while other institutions are still debating whether to offer an elective course.
Building Workforce Advantage Through Infrastructure
What makes this different: Adtalem isn't treating AI as a supplemental offering. They're integrating it throughout the educational experience, creating graduates who view technology as a natural extension of clinical excellence, rather than a separate skill they'll figure out later.
The credentials program will roll out progressively across Adtalem's institutions. The company plans to expand the model through additional healthcare technology partnerships, building on the blueprint they established with Hippocratic AI.
But the broader implications extend far beyond individual institutions. As America's largest healthcare educator systematically upgrades its workforce pipeline, the ripple effects will reshape how the entire industry approaches AI adoption.
For an industry spending billions on AI with mixed results, the Adtalem-Google Cloud partnership offers a fundamentally different approach: start with the workforce.
After all, even the most sophisticated AI systems require skilled professionals to unlock their value. Healthcare doesn't need more AI tools. It needs professionals trained to use them well.
Now, at an unprecedented scale, they're getting exactly that.
For more information, email the Adtalem Communications Team: adtalemmedia@adtalem.com.
