Season 6 - Episode 7 - Wins with Tight Budgets - The Real Path to AI Capability in a Cash Strapped Sector"

Healthcare has some of the highest ambition and the tightest funding for AI of any sector. In this episode Lachlan MacBean walks through how his team built a ten person AI capability without a dedicated AI budget, the partnering model that made it possible, and why they made the call to shut down an early project despite strong results. **Key discussion points** - Joining three months before COVID and the operational chaos that followed, and how the crisis proved the value of the analytics function - The partnering strategy: using clinicians' grant funding and dual academic clinical roles to fund AI work that wouldn't otherwise get a business case - Structuring the team on a part revenue target model, operating internally like a consulting practice within the hospital - A handful of models now running in production, built on a mix of structured data and clinical notes - Why an early AI project got strong results but was shut down: a solution looking for a problem, and a pricing model that made it commercially unsustainable at the time - The "shark tank" process now used to pressure test new ideas before committing delivery resources - Keeping teams engaged through all hands meetings, a cross organisation community of practice, and tying work back to patient impact