NEW ORLEANS – As artificial intelligence becomes more common in healthcare, New Orleans-based healthcare AI firm BENZAIT is helping health systems put safeguards around how the technology is selected, used and monitored, with an emphasis on patient safety, accountability and whether the technology delivers results.
That work recently helped a large multihospital BENZAIT client with hundreds of patient-care locations become the first U.S. health system to earn The Joint Commission’s new certification for the responsible use of AI in healthcare. The health system received the certification in July.
The Joint Commission, an independent nonprofit that evaluates more than 23,000 healthcare organizations and programs nationwide, launched the voluntary Responsible Use of AI in Healthcare Certification on June 1. The new standards grew out of AI guidance developed in 2025 after the organization consulted with more than 20 healthcare and technology groups. The certification evaluates how healthcare organizations deploy and govern AI rather than certifying individual AI products.
“It turns AI governance from an internal claim into something an outside body has verified,” said Ralph Whalen, founder and CEO of BENZAIT. “For every other health system, the question has changed. It used to be ‘do you have AI governance?’ Now it is ‘can you prove it?’”
BENZAIT has worked with the newly certified health system since 2021, helping develop the framework it uses to evaluate AI tools before purchase. The process requires each proposed tool to align with the health system’s strategy, have an executive sponsor and a value case, and undergo a weighted risk assessment across 12 areas.
BENZAIT also helps operate the program, including conducting risk assessments, managing vendors and tracking returns on deployed AI tools. Ahead of the certification review, the firm worked with the health system to bring its existing procedures in line with The Joint Commission’s standards, assembled evidence for each standard and helped prepare the health system for the review.
That work meant adding specific safeguards around how AI is used after it enters the health system. The updated procedures address what patients should be told about the use of AI, how patient data can be used, how AI tools are monitored and how safety problems are reported. They also establish training and reporting requirements for staff and the board, as well as separate review processes for generative AI and agentic AI, which can take actions autonomously.
“The work also cannot be rushed,” Whalen said. “Our client’s certification process took three weeks. The framework behind it had been in use for four years.”
The certification comes as AI governance has become a larger part of BENZAIT’s business. Founded in New Orleans in 2020, the company has grown from two employees to 14 and now works with four clients, all in healthcare. BENZAIT began with a focus on data strategy, analytics and custom software, but its work has increasingly shifted toward putting AI into use within health systems and governing how the technology is deployed.
Whalen said that shift reflects not only concerns about using AI responsibly but also the growing financial stakes as health systems decide which tools warrant investment and whether those investments ultimately pay off.
“The business case matters as much as the risk case,” Whalen said. “Governance is how a health system decides which AI tools are worth buying and shows they paid off. Without it, AI spending is hard to defend.”
BENZAIT: Turning Governance Into Software
BENZAIT is now betting that the growing need for AI oversight can become a software business of its own. The company plans to launch Vantage, an AI governance platform for health systems, in the fourth quarter of 2026. The idea is to give health systems one place to evaluate AI tools, document their decisions and keep track of what happens after those tools are put to use.
“Vantage replaces the email threads and spreadsheets many health systems use to govern AI,” Whalen said. “It runs the program from first request to final audit.”
When a new AI tool is proposed, Vantage can assess its potential risks and use that assessment to determine the level of scrutiny required before it can be approved. The platform can also account for AI capabilities already embedded in software a health system uses, an increasingly important consideration as AI becomes part of existing technology rather than something purchased as a stand-alone product.
During the review, Vantage can draft a governance memo laying out what the tool would be used for, the risks involved, the evidence considered and any recommended conditions on its use. Human reviewers still make the decision.
“AI drafts, people decide,” Whalen said. “AI-written text is always labeled.”
If the tool is approved, Vantage keeps the decision and the reasoning behind it on record while tracking who is responsible for the tool and any requirements governing its use. That gives health systems documentation they can later provide to boards, auditors or certifying organizations rather than reconstructing how a decision was made.
For BENZAIT, Vantage is a way to turn the governance work it has been doing with individual health systems into a repeatable product as AI oversight becomes a more formal part of the healthcare business. The larger question is shifting from whether a health system uses AI to whether it can show why a tool was chosen, how its risks are being managed and whether the investment is delivering results.
