People-First Leadership and AI in Healthcare with Praneetha Elugunti

Summary

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Episode Overview

Podcast: Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Episode Title: People-First Leadership and AI in Healthcare with Praneetha Elugunti
Host: Scott King
Guest: Praneetha Elugunti, Administrator & Assistant Professor of Healthcare Administration, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science
Date: February 16, 2026

This episode explores the balance between people-first leadership and artificial intelligence (AI) adoption in healthcare. Praneetha Elugunti shares her experience leading Mayo Clinic’s digital health and AI initiatives, emphasizing the fundamental importance of people in the evolution of health systems, and how thoughtful implementation of new technology can enhance patient outcomes, streamline workflows, and prepare organizations for the future.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Praneetha Elugunti’s Background & Leadership Journey

• [01:05] Praneetha’s entry to healthcare wasn’t driven by technology, but by a commitment to people, shaped by her volunteer work at a safety net hospital and exposure to both the power and pain points within healthcare systems.
• Roles at Mayo Clinic straddle healthcare operations, digital transformation, and AI innovation.
• Leading digital health and AI initiatives, Praneetha focuses on translating “big ideas into things that actually make someone’s day a little bit easier, whether that's our patients or our staff.”

“I didn’t really come into healthcare because of technology. I came into it because of the people.”
— Praneetha Elugunti [01:16]

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AI in Healthcare: Opportunities & Headwinds

• [02:52] The biggest opportunity lies in having “honest conversations about how AI should show up in healthcare.”
• At Mayo Clinic, AI implementation is:
  • Intentional
  • Decentralized & Staff-Led
  • Clinician-Driven
  • Focused on “governance, equity, ethics and transparency.”
• AI is viewed not as a replacement, but as an empowerment tool:
  • Reduces friction, clinician burden, and improves workflows.
  • Personalizes and expands access to quality care.

“We’re implementing AI to enhance that clinical decision making, empowering our patient outcomes and streamlining care... AI empowers, not replaces our people.”
— Praneetha Elugunti [03:15]

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Clinicians’ Role in AI Adoption

• [03:50] The involvement of clinicians should be tailored to specific tech use cases.
  • For example, with ambient listening/documentation tools (a major 2025 trend), clinicians must be engaged throughout product design and implementation to ensure workflows are positively impacted.
• Successful adoption relies on collaboration between staff and tech developers.

“At the end of the day, it’s their workflow that’s impacted. You want them to be engaged... from a product development and design perspective, but also from an implementation [one].”
— Praneetha Elugunti [04:02]

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Defining Growth & Value in Healthcare Organizations

• [04:30] Growth is not “doing more,” but “doing things better and being more connected.”
• Mayo Clinic stands out for connecting discovery, delivery, and diffusion of innovations.
• Praneetha’s focus is on translating technical innovation into trusted, scalable, and usable tools for clinical environments.
• When done right, “innovation stops feeling more like a project and really starts to feel about how we’re shifting the paradigm of care being delivered.” [05:16]

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Investing in People vs. Technology

• [05:31] The most worthwhile investment for 2026 is in people, not just technology or platforms.
• It’s essential to educate the workforce, build governance structures, and involve staff and care teams at every step.
• The trend for 2026: agentic AI, which will be successful “when people are used to help shape that solution and can then grow in the adoption.”

“I think certainly the investment can never be wrong when you invest in new people, not just technology or platform.”
— Praneetha Elugunti [05:32]

• Technology is “never one and done”—continuous enhancements are necessary as organizational needs evolve.

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The Future of Growth: Human-Centric Care

• [07:13] Best opportunities ahead involve human-centered care—with capabilities spanning physical, digital, and virtual modalities.
• Growth is about connecting Mayo’s practice, research, and education “shields,” with insights forming the connective tissue between these domains.
• Goal: personalizing care “beyond traditional walls,” while maintaining the vital “human connection that we’re so used to and desire from any healthcare institution.”

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Leadership Evolution & Advice

• [08:29] Praneetha’s leadership journey began as a frontline manager.
• The most valuable advice from her mentors: “hone your craft.”
• No matter the setting—clinical, digital, AI—it’s crucial to develop your expertise “in service of those that you serve, which is your patients.”

“Hone your craft... in service of those that you serve, which is your patients.”
— Praneetha Elugunti [09:09]

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• “I initially wanted to be a physician, and now over a decade later at Mayo Clinic... I’m really proud of being able to translate those big ideas that everyone has into things that actually make someone’s day a little bit easier, whether that’s our patients or our staff.”
  — Praneetha Elugunti [01:36]

• “Agents or any technology for that matter is not a one and done right, like a product is a living product. You have to make enhancements.”
  — Praneetha Elugunti [06:45]

• “Healthcare is about the people, for the people. And certainly you can have digital or any other investments, but you’re still serving people at the end of the day.”
  — Praneetha Elugunti [08:36]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment Description | |-----------|----------------------------------------------------------| | 01:05 | Praneetha’s background & motivation for joining healthcare| | 02:52 | AI’s opportunities and responsible implementation | | 03:50 | Clinician engagement in AI adoption | | 04:30 | Defining growth and value in the organization | | 05:31 | The importance of investing in people versus just tech | | 06:42 | Continuous evolution of technology, not a “one and done” | | 07:13 | Vision for people-centered, connected care delivery | | 08:29 | Leadership evolution and advice (“hone your craft”) |

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Tone & Takeaways

Throughout the episode, Praneetha maintains a thoughtful, people-first approach, balancing a clear excitement for emerging tech with humility and respect for the humans at the heart of healthcare. Leadership is framed as a proactive craft, technology as an evolving tool, and AI as a means to empower rather than replace clinicians.

Listeners leave with a sense that the best future for healthcare is one where technology and human empathy work hand in hand, guided by ethical leadership and ongoing investment in people.

Transcript

[A]

This is where healthcare leadership comes together. Becker's 16th annual meeting brings more than 3,500 hospital and health system executives and nearly 800 speakers to Chicago, April 13th through the 16th. This year's event includes keynote conversations with Dallas Cowboys legend Troy Aikman and former President George W. Bush. For the agenda and event details, visit Beckershospitalreview.com and click on the Events tab in the upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you in Chicago.

[B]

Hello, everyone.

[A]

Welcome to Becker's Healthcare Podcast. I'm Scott King, thrilled today to be joined by a very special guest, Praneetha Eleganti, administrator and assistant professor of healthcare administration over at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. Pranitha, thank you so much for doing this. Appreciate it. How are you?

[B]

Hi. Thanks, Scott. Thanks for the opportunity to be here. And I'm really excited to chat with you.

[A]

Excited to have you. We have a lot of big topics and trends in healthcare to get to. Really gonna lean on your expertise for those, but before we get to those, I was wondering if you could please just tell us a little bit about your background and your experience in healthcare.

[B]

Certainly. So, I'm Praneetha Laginty. I work as an administrator at Mayo Clinic in Arizona, where my responsibilities include supporting our advanced AI and innovation hub as well as our Arizona enablement hub. My world really lives at the intersection of healthcare operations, digital transformation, and AI. As far as sort of coming into this work, honestly, Scott, I didn't really come into healthcare because of technology. I came into it because of the people. Very early on, I was a volunteer at a safety net hospital and got to see some realities of healthcare. I was able to see and witness how powerful healthcare can be when systems work for patients, and also how it can be painful when things don't work. And that really fueled sort of my experience. I initially wanted to be a physician, and now over a decade later at Mayo Clinic as an administrator, I've had the chance to work across clinical practice. So really our operational front research as well as enterprise initiatives. And today I'm really proud that I get to lead the work around digital health and advanced AI. And I'm really proud of being able to translate those big ideas that everyone has into things that actually make someone's day a little bit easier, whether that's our patients or our staff.

[A]

Well, thanks so much, Bernice. Great to hear about all that, that background info you shared and great to hear about your people first focus. You know, even dealing with all this emerging tech we have now in Healthcare. So the first topic I wanted to ask you about, the first question I have for you is what opportunities and headwinds do you have your eye on right now in healthcare?

[B]

Yeah, I think one of the biggest opportunities we have right now is really having more honest conversations about how AI should show up in healthcare. At Mayo Clinic, our approach is very intentional. It's decentralized, staff led and clinician driven with a focus on governance, equity, ethics and transparency. And quite honestly, we're implementing AI to enhance that clinical decision making, empowering our patient outcomes and streamlining care. Really emphasizing how AI empowers, not replaces our people, but really taking the friction out of the system by reducing burden, improving our workflows, personalizing care for our patients and expanding access to high quality care.

[A]

Well, let me ask you a follow up there Pranita. How involved should the clinician be then? What do you have them doing with the different AI uses?

[B]

Yeah, I think that's very dependent on the use case of the technology. If we're thinking about technology like ambient listening and documentation, which was a huge trend last year, we certainly want them to be at the table because at the end of the day it's their workflow that's impacted. So you want them to be engaged in both from a product development and design perspective, but also from an implementation. And where is the right opportunity for us to engage this within the workflow?

[A]

Absolutely. And I also wanted to ask you, how are you thinking about growth and adding value to your organization right now?

[B]

So I personally think about growth less, is doing more and more so of doing the things better and being more connected. And certainly Mayo Clinic differentiates itself through discovery, delivery and diffusion. And my role often sits right in the middle of that. Right. A lot of my work is focused on translation and how do you take something that's cutting edge technology, whether it's a care enabling AI model that can predict your likelihood of a disease or a digital care capability and make it usable, make it trusted and scalable within our clinical environments. Right. And when that growth is done right, I think really innovation stops feeling more of a project and really starts to feel about how we're shifting the paradigm of care being delivered.

[A]

What's one risk or investment that you think is worth making this year in 2026 here?

[B]

I think certainly the investment can never be wrong when you invest in new people, not just technology or platform. And I know it's always tempting. We love and we want to focus on the technology itself, but you also have to make sure that your workforce is ready for that. And that includes things like educating your workforce, having governance structures in place, and bringing your staff and care teams along in that process. And certainly, I think, you know, the trend for 2026 is with a lot of conversation around agentic AI. And agentic AI will only be successful when the people are used to help shape that solution and can then grow in the adoption of an agent. So if I was just to comment on the investment, I think the investment is people.

[A]

Yeah, I think that's a good point too because once, you know, once you, you procure an agent or use it, somehow you don't just have it, there's a lot more work to be done, you know, to, to foster these agents and set them up in a way to help your system business. Is that, is that kind of what you're getting to?

[B]

Absolutely. I mean, agents or any technology for that matter is not a one and done right like a product is a living product. You have to make enhancements. You have to continue to, to grow and evolve as your needs of your end user, your customer, your organization change. So I still, I would strongly say that we need to be able to be nimble to meet the needs of healthcare today, but also be prepared for the healthcare of tomorrow.

[A]

And where do you see the best opportunities for growth in the future?

[B]

So I'm really excited about care delivery that's very human centric in design and I think you could probably appreciate that from my previous responses as well. And we're really focused on building capabilities that span our physical, digital and virtual care, but really touching everything from our three shielded approach of an institution as practice, research and education. And again, my personal belief is that the real opportunity is when we have insights that form that connective tissue between all of those shields and between all of those capabilities. And so I think a part of that growth and the opportunity is really learning fast on how we can personalize care better and really extend our expertise beyond traditional walls while still providing that hug and human connection that we're so used to and desire from any healthcare institution.

[A]

You know, since you mentioned that, you know that people first focus you have and investing in people, I wanted to get your take on how you think you've evolved as a leader and maybe any great leadership advice that someone shared with you in your career so far.

[B]

Yeah, that's a great question. I would say I started off more as that frontline leader, as a manager of a clinical practice early in my career and at some point in your career journey, as every leader will tell you, is healthcare is about the people, for the people. And certainly you can have digital or any other investments, but you're still serving people at the end of the day. But I will share a quick quote from one of my wonderful mentors that I've had on the leadership journey, which is hone your craft. And that has really rung true to who I am. And my leadership style is irrespective of whether you're in a clinical practice, whether you're leading digital, whether you're working with an AI team, I think it's really important to hone your craft in that moment in service of those that you serve, which is your patients.

[A]

I think that's some great advice. Great quote. Thank you so much for sharing, Pradeep, and thank you for joining us on the podcast and for a great discussion. Look forward to working with you again soon.

[B]

Thanks, Scott.