If you’re wondering whether you should adopt AI, you’re asking the wrong question
The majority of Australians believe that AI will improve healthcare quality.
But leading systems engineer Professor Rashina Hoda says nearly half feel anxious about it, and they want transparency, accountability and regulation
360Edge has just returned to the office after a team offsite on AI. The conversations we had over those two days reinforced the importance of thoughtful implementation over either rapid adoption or a wait and see approach.
Here’s what we took away.
The pace of change is extraordinary
And it’s accelerating rapidly. AI is no longer something happening ‘somewhere in the future’. It is already embedded in everyday workflows across health and human services, from administration and note taking through to data analysis, content development and decision support.
That creates enormous opportunity. But it also creates understandable uncertainty. For many people, including alcohol and other drug workers, AI can feel exciting and unsettling at the same time.
We’ve been here before
Some of the current debate around AI feels familiar. When computers became mainstream in workplaces, many feared they would eliminate jobs, reduce human connection and fundamentally change the way we worked. Similar concerns emerged with email, the internet and smartphones.
Those technologies absolutely did change work and society. But they also created entirely new ways of connecting, learning and delivering services.
The question is not whether AI will influence healthcare and human services. It already is. The more important question is how organisations implement it responsibly.
Implementation matters more than the technology itself
One of the strongest themes from our offsite was this: Deploying a tool is not the same as implementing change.
Like any major workplace change, effective implementation requires clear governance, staff training and support, opportunities to practise safely, ongoing evaluation and transparency around risks, limitations and where human judgement remains essential.
How can AI support alcohol and other drug work?
In a sector that is chronically and severely underfunded, AI has the potential to ease service pressure by automating parts of administrative work. Session notes, assessment summaries, support for formulation and personalised treatment planning are all opportunities to save time and improve outcomes through AI – with practitioner oversight.
Chatbots and AI assistants can even deliver basic support between sessions or after discharge when relapse risk is often highest. Just a quick piece of advice or encouragement is often all that is needed to stay on track.
These AI tools can also be built within controlled environments and trained on evidence informed content.
Where are the risks?
In healthcare and human services, ‘human in the loop’ thinking is critical. Some tasks may be appropriate for AI automation. Others may require human review and oversight. Some work should remain entirely human led. Those boundaries will look different in every workplace, and working them out thoughtfully matters.
The 360Edge team has walked away from our team day with a framework to think through what AI can do on its own, what needs human checking, what should be created by a human and reviewed with AI assistance and what can only be done by a human.
Automating basic administrative work can free up our Masters and PhD level consultants to focus on the areas that most require their expertise, interpretation and clinical judgement.
Many of the specific risks are already well understood – hallucinations, biased outputs, privacy and confidentiality and data security. They are all important considerations, but taking a broad strategic approach to implementation can help organisations manage these risks and, perhaps more importantly, future risks that we are not even aware of yet.
AI is here to stay. The question is not whether we adopt it, but how.
(PS, in the spirit of this article, this piece was written by a human and refined with AI support for spelling, grammar and expression.)
Service and workforce improvement can be challenging. The real world is messy, and working on the frontline you need clear practical solutions that work.
We provide practical tailored solutions for any service who works with people who use drugs. We support better responses to alcohol and other drug issues in mental health, primary care, welfare, justice and education sectors, as well as the specialist alcohol and other drug sector. Learn more about how 360Edge can help your service.
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