Nearly 26 million people in the U.S. struggle to access quality healthcare due to language barriers.
For these limited English proficient (LEP) patients, a routine appointment can be filled with miscommunication, missed diagnoses, and inadequate care.
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) promises to change that reality. While AI is expected to be “transformative” across a wide range of healthcare applications, its near-term impact is expected to be particularly compelling for limited-English-speaking patients. For this community, which frequently struggles to understand and be understood, AI promises to vastly improve translation and interpreting access, going beyond today’s limited capacity to connect the entire patient journey.
More than just a matter of convenience, broader coverage using AI encompasses many touchpoints and promises a much-needed lifeline to quality care for millions of LEP patients.
Filling Gaps Along the Patient Journey
Struggling with the challenges of serving their growing multilingual patient population, Affinia Healthcare partnered with us to pilot the industry’s first medically trained AI interpreter, GLOBO KAI™.
KAI, available to over 3,000+ healthcare facilities nationwide, puts AI interpretation support at the fingertips of clinicians and administrative staff. Accessible from the GLOBO Connect app, KAI increases interpreter access points throughout a patient’s healthcare journey. With KAI, users can instantly access a medically trained interpreter whenever they need it most.
As a trusted language service provider with almost two decades of supporting health systems and hospitals, we’ve been on a mission to gain a better understanding of how AI technology can benefit language access and empower the healthcare organizations we serve. Between January and April 2025, we piloted our AI interpreter technology to evaluate accuracy, receptivity, and improved clinician and patient satisfaction.
While live interpreters are essential for most medical interpreting interactions, we have identified opportunities along the patient journey for AI to enhance accessibility, reduce administrative burden, and lower costs for health systems.
Insights from Affinia Healthcare
KAI was first tested at the front desk of Affinia’s Convenient Care Services, formerly known as Urgent Care, where walk-in patients are initially registered. During the pilot, KAI provided instant access, reducing wait times and helping to:
- Streamline intake and patient flow beyond the front desk
- Identify communication gaps across multiple encounters with ancillary services, and
- Support Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) compliance
“We found that it was really beneficial for our front desk staff, who were previously struggling to efficiently connect patients with interpreters,” said Jennifer Winters, assistant vice president of Value Based Care at Affinia Healthcare. “With KAI, we could direct patients through registration, pharmacy, and back to Convenient Care much faster.”
Along with streamlining the registration process, David A. Miller, M.D., the clinical director at Affinia Healthcare, explained that having an on-demand AI interpreting tool also improves patient-provider communications, which he emphasized is integral to delivering quality care.
“Effective communication is very important in medicine. If we’re not talking about the same thing, it’s difficult to help the patient. Having KAI at my fingertips gives me the ability to instantly connect to an interpreter and know what the patient is saying so I can get to the right diagnosis,” he said, adding “I would say, ‘effective communication is paramount to effective healthcare.”
Leveraging AI as a Superpower
Ultimately, AI will transform patient communication for hospitals and healthcare organizations. There are several touchpoints where AI can and should be used to ensure patients get the information they need, in their language of choice, throughout their healthcare journey.
Healthcare organizations embracing AI-enabled language services will likely find themselves at the forefront of transforming healthcare, leveraging the technology as a “superpower” to reduce barriers for limited-English-speaking patients.
By adding an AI interpreter to your language access resources, healthcare organizations can significantly enhance communication and engagement for LEP patients, leading to better health outcomes and a more efficient healthcare system overall.
Want to learn more about GLOBO KAI™? Request a briefing session with one of our language access experts here.
Dipak Patel is CEO of GLOBO Language Solutions, a B2B provider of translation, interpretation, and technology services for multiple industries. Prior to GLOBO, Patel spent 20-plus years in corporate healthcare leadership roles. The son of immigrants, he understands the significance of eliminating language barriers to improve healthcare equity.