Where's the humanity in AI?

July 29, 2025

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Designing Tech That Cares

When you ask someone about their experience with the healthcare system, they rarely talk about forms, portals, or databases. They talk about people — the nurse who truly listened, the doctor who explained things with empathy, the staff who made them feel seen and safe.

Those human moments are at the heart of care. And they aren’t just “nice to have” — they are essential. People who feel supported and understood engage more fully in their health, stick with treatment, and achieve better outcomes. And ultimately, it’s the outcomes that matter most.

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As artificial intelligence accelerates, it’s fair to ask: Where does that humanity go?

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The Risk of Losing What Matters

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The promise of AI is enormous: faster answers, sharper predictions, personalized recommendations, and systems that continuously learn. In healthcare, those capabilities can dramatically improve access, consistency, and quality of care. We risk technology becoming a cold substitute for the trust and empathy that people depend on — especially when they are at their most vulnerable.

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Patients living with chronic conditions know that trust is built over time. Relationships matter. That’s why there’s a legitimate fear that as AI expands, healthcare could become more transactional, automated, and impersonal — exactly when people need human connection the most.

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Digital systems alone can’t replicate the experience of truly being heard. Imagine someone facing a frightening new symptom after starting a medication, what they need is a human voice, not a chatbot. When your health is at stake, the last thing you want is to feel like just another number.

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That risk is real. So at Sidekick Health we’re taking it seriously.

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Augment, Don’t Replace

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Our challenge — and our responsibility — is to design AI that augments human care, instead of replacing it. The true promise of AI is in protecting human moments, not removing them.

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By automating repetitive tasks, reducing administrative burdens, and surfacing meaningful insights, AI can free up clinicians, care managers, and health coaches to focus on what only humans can do: listening, empathizing, reassuring, and guiding.

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And when people trust their care, they stay engaged. When they stay engaged, outcomes improve. That’s the engine that powers Sidekick’s programs: helping people improve their health, sustainably and measurably, while giving our partners — the health plans and life sciences organizations that provide patient care and therapeutics — digital solutions that scale responsibly and cost-effectively. For us, protecting the human connection isn’t just a philosophy, it is a strategy for success.

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At Sidekick, this is a core principle. We deploy AI where it makes sense — helping patients with reminders, education, onboarding, and self-management — but we keep people in the loop where the human touch matters most. That includes live support from health coaches, clinical oversight for safety, and empathy-led design that prioritizes trust.

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AI should help clinicians be more human, not less.

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Our Commitment: Designing Tech That Cares

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To keep humanity in healthcare, we must build it directly into our design. That means:

Human oversight by design, never as an afterthought
Transparent and explainable systems so trust is never undermined
Patient-centered experiences that support, not sideline
Behavioral science to personalize interventions meaningfully
Workflows that protect time for human connection while AI handles routine complexity

These design principles aren’t optional. They are fundamental to delivering the kind of outcomes our patients deserve — and to helping our partners deliver sustainable, scalable programs that work.

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AI will keep advancing, faster than ever. But no matter how powerful it becomes, we don’t want it to replace the human experience of being cared for by another person. That’s especially true in healthcare, where trust is fragile and deeply personal.

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Our commitment at Sidekick is to use AI responsibly and strategically: to extend, support, and scale human care — not to erase it. Because when patients feel seen and supported, they engage more fully in their own care, leading to better outcomes. That engagement is what makes Sidekick’s programs succeed — improving lives while enabling our partners to deliver measurable, sustainable results.

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That is the promise of responsible AI: not just empathy, but empathy that scales.

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Because at the end of the day, technology is never the hero. People are. Our mission is to help them do what they do best, even better — for every patient, every partner, every time.

About the author

Olafur "Oli" Viggosson

CPTO, Sidekick Health

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Where’s the Humanity in AI?

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Where’s the Humanity in AI?

See how we're revolutionizing digital health

Want to learn more about implementing digital-first health solutions?

About the author

Would you like to talk to us about this article?

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