Nearly 80% of Health Plans Now Prefer Vendor-Built AI Over In-House, Innovaccer Survey Finds

Survey data from C-suite executives across 63 major health plans reveals high AI adoption intent alongside significant readiness gaps — and a decisive shift towards platform partnerships over point solutions

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Innovaccer Inc., a leading Healthcare AI company, today published The AI-Powered Payer: Leaders' Perspectives for 2026, a survey-based research report examining how health insurance executives are approaching AI investment, deployment, and organizational readiness heading into the next phase of healthcare autonomy. The findings draw on responses from C-suite and senior leaders across 63 major health insurers, ranging from regional health plans to national carriers.

Nearly 78% of payers report using AI for member care navigation in some measure, with three-quarters describing their organizations as aggressively pursuing or actively experimenting with AI in the context of care innovation. Financial commitments are substantial: 75% of respondents plan to spend an average of more than $10 million on AI over the next three to five years, rising to $50 million or more among a quarter of national health plans.

The findings mark a significant shift from prior industry surveys, which found a majority of payers building AI capabilities internally. Today, nearly 80% state a preference for working with vendors, with nearly 60% favoring co-development over off-the-shelf solutions. Not a single national health plan surveyed expressed a preference for plug-and-play deployment. The shift reflects a growing recognition that building effective payer AI in-house is no longer a viable pace strategy.

Despite significant investment intent, 86% of payers report they are not fully ready to operationalize AI at scale. Interoperability tops the list of infrastructure barriers, cited by 46% of respondents, followed by real-time data access limitations and inadequate cloud architecture, all symptoms of payer data remaining heavily siloed across legacy systems.

Benjamin Cassity, Director of Research and Strategy for Value-Based Care and AI, KLAS Research, said, “The question organizations should honestly confront is not just 'Are we ready for AI?' but rather 'What is the cost of moving slow/not moving?' At some point, the risk of standing still will exceed the risk of taking deliberate, informed steps forward. That calculus is shifting faster than most realize.”

Surveyed payers have a clear view of where AI will matter most. Risk stratification and predictive analytics lead near-term priorities, cited by 60% of respondents, followed by care navigation at 54%. Longer term, 67% see population health management as the most transformative opportunity, while 62% name personalized member navigation as the single most critical AI use case over the next three to five years.

“The data reflects what we hear consistently from health plan leaders. The question is no longer whether to invest in AI, but how to build it in a way that scales,” said Abhinav Shashank, CEO and Co-Founder of Innovaccer. “The shift towards co-development partnerships, and away from point solutions, signals that payers understand the infrastructure has to come first. Those that get the data foundation right will be positioned to move quickly across risk adjustment, quality, and member engagement simultaneously.”

The findings come as payers face converging operational pressures. Rising medical loss ratios, the full implementation of HCC V28 in Medicare Advantage, and the expansion of alternative payment models, which now account for at least 45% of healthcare payments across commercial, Medicare, and Medicaid programs, have substantially compressed the timeline for building durable AI capabilities. New CMS incentives tied to technology-supported care options are adding further urgency.

The full report, including detailed survey findings, infrastructure analysis, and Innovaccer's perspective on the path to an AI-enabled payer enterprise, is available here.

About Innovaccer

Innovaccer is the AI infrastructure for autonomous healthcare operations, delivering better clinical and financial outcomes across health systems, payers, governments, and life sciences. Powered by the Healthcare Intelligence Platform, Innovaccer unifies enterprise data and applies AI to automate administrative work, strengthen operational performance, and drive measurable margin expansion. Organizations such as Orlando Health, Adventist HealthCare, and Banner Health trust Innovaccer to integrate intelligence into their existing infrastructure and elevate the quality of care. For more information, visit www.innovaccer.com.