Lessons From Google I/O 2025 To Cut $20B In Healthcare Waste

U.S. health systems waste about $20 billion annually on manual administrative tasks that automation could eliminate. At Google I/O 2025, the headline announcement centered on Search with AI Mode powered by Gemini 2.5. Google positioned AI as the operating system for everything. This shift presents tangible opportunities for healthcare organizations to enhance operational efficiency, improve the patient experience, and support better clinical outcomes. The following breakdown outlines what’s new in Search and how it can enhance healthcare operations.

AI Mode Rollout

Google announced that AI Mode is rolling out to all U.S. users, offering a reimagined search experience that utilizes Gemini 2.5’s advanced reasoning, multimodal capabilities, and contextual understanding to handle complex, longer queries (twice to three times longer than traditional searches) and follow-up questions. It provides conversational answers instead of traditional link-based results, featuring personalized results based on Gmail data (e.g., tailored Smart Replies) and the ability to create custom charts for sports or finance queries.

Gemini 2.5 Enhancements

Gemini 2.5 Pro powers AI Mode with upgraded reasoning, multimodal input, and code generation capabilities. AI mode can also generate graphs or synthesize complex financial and sports data. The vision here is shifting from search as a query-response to search as a problem-solving approach.

Google also introduced Deep Think, an experimental feature designed to enhance the model’s ability to produce more refined, well-reasoned output by considering multiple answers to a question and applying more complex logic. While still in limited testing, Deep Think reflects Google’s broader effort to embed higher-order reasoning into its AI systems. Gemini 2.5 Flash, a faster and more efficient variant, also supports AI Mode and is optimized for performance and responsiveness.

Vertex AI Search integrates with AI Mode, allowing clinicians to query and retrieve relevant information from electronic health records (EHRs), medical white papers, third-party systems such as radiology or pathology, and clinical guidelines in real-time. It will be interesting to see the partnerships among point solutions and whether they are choosing to partner with disparate AI solutions.

Deep Search

This is the search-side capability where the system breaks down queries, performs web exploration, iteratively browses, and synthesizes information into structured responses or reports. AI Mode incorporates Deep Search, a feature similar to Gemini’s Deep Research. It analyzes hundreds of sources in real time to generate comprehensive research reports, enhancing its utility for in-depth queries.

Healthcare organizations can utilize Deep Search to aid physicians in summarizing a patient’s medical history across multiple providers, analyzing lab results and other tests, and generating a comprehensive overview to support informed clinical decision-making.

Project Mariner

AI Mode leverages Project Mariner’s agentic capabilities, allowing users to delegate tasks like finding and purchasing event tickets (e.g., “Find two affordable tickets for this Saturday’s Reds game in the lower level”) or making reservations, with user approval. Agentic capabilities make Search more action-oriented and proactive.

Healthcare organizations can use Project Mariner to automate scheduling for patient appointments, staff shifts, and third-party referrals, such as booking a colonoscopy with a specialist. A scheduler or even the patient might prompt the system with, “Book a follow-up for me with Dr. Jones next week and check if Dr. Smith is available for a colonoscopy.” The system can then cross-reference availability across multiple, and potentially disparate, EHR systems to coordinate the request.

Healthcare organizations can utilize Project Mariner to verify patient insurance eligibility or assist patients in obtaining coverage through Medicaid. Project Mariner will reduce administrative errors and processing time for the staff.

AI Mode marks the next phase of Google Search, focusing on speed, personalization, and conversation search. For Google healthcare customers, it offers a practical way to enhance access to information and streamline interactions by integrating with tools they already use.