Incredible Health has released its seventh Annual State of Nursing Report, AI Adoption Trends and Future Implications for Retention, examining artificial intelligence adoption across the U.S. nursing workforce and its implications for workforce retention. Based on a national survey of 2,240 nurses and proprietary marketplace data covering 1.5 million U.S. healthcare professionals, the report finds that nurses are adopting AI at a significantly faster pace than the organizations employing them.
According to the report, regular AI use among nurses increased from approximately 15% to 44% over the past year. However, only 8% of respondents said their employer has communicated a clear AI strategy for their role, while 46% reported receiving no AI-related training during the previous 12 months. In addition, only 8% said frontline staff are involved in selecting AI tools used within their organizations.
The report also found that AI has yet to deliver consistent productivity improvements. Nearly half of nurses using AI reported that the technology has saved them little or no time. Among regular AI users who received training, 24% said AI saves them more than one hour each day, compared with 16% of regular users who had not received training. Trust in AI also varied, with only 16% of regular AI users believing AI will negatively affect the healthcare workforce, compared with 38% of nurses who do not regularly use AI.
Beyond AI, the findings point to continuing workforce retention concerns. Incredible Health's 2026 Healthcare Executive Report found that 67% of healthcare leaders identified retention as their highest workforce priority. However, only 20% of nurses cited pay as the primary reason they remain in their current positions, while three in four nurses reported applying for or seriously considering another role within the past three years. Just 41% expect to still be working at the bedside in five years.
The report also identified workplace conditions contributing to retention challenges. More than half (52%) of nurses experienced workplace violence during the previous year, with 69% saying those experiences influence their decision to stay or leave. Additionally, 43% described experiencing moral injury rather than burnout, and 55% of job-seeking nurses believed factors beyond their clinical skills, including appearance, background, or communication style, affected interviewer evaluations.
Commenting on the findings, Iman Abuzeid, MD, CEO and Co-founder of Incredible Health, said, “AI is one of the most powerful technologies of our era. Software engineers at tech companies are seeing 10X productivity gains by using AI coding solutions. Yet in healthcare, almost half of workers using AI report almost zero ROI. No time saved whatsoever. There is a massive gap and massive opportunity for organizations to lead their workforces into the future with coherent AI roadmaps and training. Until that happens, we’ll continue to see lower impact from AI, and workforce retention problems across healthcare.”
The report concludes by recommending that healthcare organizations modernize hiring practices, provide structured AI training alongside implementation, and focus retention efforts on role fit, manageable workloads, effective management, and career development opportunities.
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