News: Nearly 80% of payers prefer vendor-built AI tools, survey finds

Close to 80% of payers now prefer implementing vendor-built artificial intelligence (AI) tools rather than deploying internal capabilities, a new survey from Innovaccer found.

The survey draws insights from 63 health insurer organizations, including regional health plans to national carriers. Respondents were polled from mid-December 2025 to mid-January 2026 and include senior and C-suite executives.

Like patients and providers, AI use is surging among payers, with nearly 78% respondents in the survey reporting using solutions to improve care and three-quarters report “aggressively pursuing or progressively experimenting” with AI in care innovation. Current plans for future investments also emphasize the shift, with 75% of respondents reporting plans to spend an average of $10 million on AI over the next three to five years. A third of respondents also report planned investments of at least $20 million.

Interoperability was the top-reported infrastructure barrier, followed by real-time data access, inadequate data architecture, and cloud capabilities. The survey notes payer data often exists in “legacy systems and silos,” which limit the rate of AI adoption.

Innovaccer CEO and Cofounder Abhinav Shashank said that the shift to outsourced solutions reflects the focus of how to “truly operationalize AI.” Overall, 86% percent of respondents said they are not fully ready to operationalize AI at full-scale. Shashank said the most important aspect of doing so is the “context and data infrastructure” behind solutions.

“What we are seeing is an emergence of how do you have platforms that companies can effectively offer that allow for more agentic orchestration,” Shashank said. “Because the reality of it is the technology is going to be a massive addition to how payers operate.”

Editor’s note: To read the full study, click here. To read additional coverage from Fierce Healthcare, click here.