The Opportunity
Healthcare revenue cycle management is at an inflection point. Payers have deployed AI systems capable of denying claims within seconds of submission. The industry loses more than $262 billion annually to denials. The $740 billion administrative burden that has historically been served by manual labor is now actively converting to intelligent automation — faster than any prior projection.
The Revenue Command Center™ (RCC™) is Firstsource's answer: a fully integrated, AI-first RCM platform spanning front-end patient access (RCC Access™), mid-cycle revenue integrity (RCC Integrity™), and back-end AR, denials, and collections (RCC Resolve™). The RCC™ already differentiates through proprietary omnichannel collections intelligence, Real-Time Speech AI for global delivery, and a performance-guaranteed service model built for the AI era.
The Chief AI Officer (CAIO) for the Provider Healthcare Business Unit is a newly established executive role created to lead and accelerate the AI transformation of the RCC™ platform. This is not a staff advisory position. It is an operational leadership mandate — responsible for translating AI strategy into deployed product, measurable client outcomes, and sustained competitive differentiation.
Position Overview
The Chief AI Officer owns the end-to-end AI agenda for the Provider BU — from technology roadmap and vendor strategy through delivery integration and commercial positioning. Reporting to the President, Provider Healthcare Business Unit, this leader will partner with operations, product, sales, and technology to accelerate the rapid transformation of the RCC™ platform from a technology-enabled services model to a fully AI-native, agent-first operating system.
This role sits at the intersection of three imperatives:
- Market urgency — Healthcare AI spending has nearly tripled year-over-year to $1.4 billion in 2025, and the buying window is compressing. Health systems are cutting procurement cycles by 18–22%. Firstsource must lead these conversations, not follow them.
- Product depth — The highest-growth AI categories — prior authorization automation, AI-assisted coding, and intelligent denials management — map precisely to RCC™'s three operational layers. The CAIO must operationalize these advantages.
- Competitive positioning — EHR incumbents, ambient scribing platforms, and payer-side AI are all expanding into RCM. The CAIO ensures the RCC™ platform stays structurally ahead of each threat vector.
Core Responsibilities
AI Strategy & Roadmap
- Define and own the multi-year AI roadmap for the RCC™ platform across all three product families — Access™, Integrity™, and Resolve™.
- Prioritize AI applications by market urgency, client ROI, and Firstsource's existing operational depth — converting service delivery expertise into platform intelligence.
- Establish clear build vs. buy vs. partner frameworks for each capability domain, covering prior authorization AI, coding automation, payer intelligence, speech AI, and agentic collections workflows.
- Maintain the RCC™ technology agility advantage: ensure the platform is never locked into yesterday's best tool and can absorb new AI capabilities as they emerge without architectural disruption.
RCC™ Product Acceleration
- RCC Access™ — Drive deployment of Prior Authorization AI (EHR data extraction, medical necessity logic, payer-format submission), reducing authorization cycle times from days to minutes in a $98B market with 3% software penetration.
- RCC Integrity™ — Mature AI-assisted coding capabilities with full audit-trail defensibility; develop CDI tools that close documentation gaps pre-claim-submission; build compliance guardrails in anticipation of increased payer audit activity.
- RCC Resolve™ — Build payer-intelligence infrastructure that predicts denial likelihood by payer and claim type, auto-generates appeal language mapped to denial reason codes, and tracks payer behavior patterns across the client portfolio.
- Extend the RCC™ Omnichannel AI Collections platform and Real-Time Speech AI — maintaining and extending current benchmarks of 16% lift in payments collected and QA scores of 92–95%.
Technology Partnerships & Ecosystem
- Lead vendor assessment and strategic partnership development across the RCC™ AI technology ecosystem, including current partners (Celonis, Artiva) and emerging AI infrastructure providers.
- Oversee integration of AI capabilities across EHR platforms, payer APIs, and Firstsource's global delivery centers.
- Ensure appropriate data governance, BAA compliance, and AI risk frameworks are embedded across all technology deployments.
- Position Firstsource ahead of EHR-native tool expansion and payer AI counter-measures through proactive intelligence gathering and competitive response planning.
Commercial & Client Engagement
- Partner with sales and client success teams to build AI-forward positioning narratives for RCC™ in healthcare executive conversations at the CFO, CIO, VP Revenue Cycle, and VP Patient Access levels.
- Develop and maintain performance benchmarks and proof points that quantify AI impact across the RCC™ platform — including denial avoidance rates, coding accuracy lifts, collections uplift, and cost-to-collect reductions.
- Represent Firstsource as a thought leader in healthcare AI at industry forums, client advisory boards, and in published market perspectives.
- Support pricing strategy evolution as the RCC™ model transitions from input-based contracts toward outcome-guaranteed, AI-enabled commercial structures.
Organizational Leadership
- Build and lead a high-performing AI center of excellence within the Provider BU — including data science, AI engineering, and AI operations functions.
- Establish AI talent strategy aligned to the Provider BU's growth trajectory, including upskilling existing operational teams and recruiting specialist AI capabilities.
- Drive a culture of continuous improvement and experimentation — aligned with Firstsource's operating covenants of iteration, outcome accountability, and technology agility.
- Collaborate with Firstsource corporate technology leadership and peer BUs to leverage shared capabilities while protecting the Provider BU's specific AI competitive advantages.
Qualifications & Experience
Required
- 15+ years of progressive leadership experience in technology, AI, and operations — with a significant portion in provider healthcare.
- Demonstrated executive leadership of large-scale AI or technology transformation programs — from strategy through implementation to measurable business outcomes.
- Deep expertise in revenue cycle management, healthcare administrative workflows, or health information technology — with an operational rather than purely advisory perspective.
- Proven track record of building and leading high-performing technical and cross-functional teams.
- Strong commercial acumen — experience translating AI capabilities into client ROI narratives, pricing models, and sales-enabling content.
- Executive communication skills — ability to operate fluently at the Board, C-suite, and operational leader level, both internally and with clients.
Preferred
- Direct experience with AI application development or deployment in prior authorization, medical coding, denials management, or patient engagement workflows.
- Familiarity with EHR platforms (Epic, Cerner/Oracle).