HIMSS 2026: How Agentic AI Is Reshaping the Patient Experience

Attendees streaming toward the HIMSS 2026 Exhibit Hall entrance at the Venetian Convention & Expo Center in Las Vegas under the HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition banner.

HIMSS 2026 made one thing clear: the conversation in healthcare technology has moved on from AI as a concept to AI as infrastructure. Across the show floor in Las Vegas, the most compelling activations weren’t showcasing what artificial intelligence could theoretically do. They were demonstrating what it is already doing — inside clinical workflows, patient engagement systems, and the everyday tools care teams rely on.

Sparks supported a number of leading brands at HIMSS 2026, designing and delivering activations that brought some of the industry’s most forward-thinking platforms to life. Four stood out for the clarity of their vision and the relevance of their message.

Salesforce booth at HIMSS 2026 featuring the signature cloud-logo halo ring with 'Welcome to the Agentic Enterprise,' Agentforce branded cube signage, 'Build your own AI agent for health' messaging, and a Self-Care Station activation — Sparks-designed environment at the Venetian Convention & Expo Center in Las Vegas.

Salesforce Health Cloud

Salesforce used HIMSS 2026 to advance its case for AI-driven patient engagement at scale. The activation centered on Health Cloud‘s ability to unify CRM, data analytics, and care coordination, positioning AI not as a back-end tool but as a direct driver of better patient outcomes and lower costs.

AWS 'Built for healthcare' booth at HIMSS 2026 featuring an 'AI-ready data infrastructure' halo, 'Agentic AI for patient engagement' vertical signage, and a wooden welcome desk — Sparks-designed environment at the Venetian Convention & Expo Center in Las Vegas.

Amazon Web Services

AWS brought its vision of an AI-ready healthcare infrastructure to the show floor, with a focus on agentic AI — systems capable of acting autonomously across clinical workflows and patient engagement touchpoints. The activation made the case that the foundation for intelligent healthcare isn’t just about individual applications. It’s about the underlying data infrastructure that makes them possible.

Altera Digital Health booth at HIMSS 2026 featuring a wood-slat pergola, purple LED-lit walls with 'Real talk. Real outcomes.' messaging, a mountain video wall, white lounge seating, and a manicured green hedge — Sparks-designed environment at the Venetian Convention & Expo Center in Las Vegas.

Altera Digital Health

Altera Digital Health took a human-centered approach, focusing on how AI can enhance rather than replace the clinical experience. The activation highlighted practical improvements to EHR workflows, making the case that the best technology doesn’t demand attention — it disappears into the process and makes everything around it work better.


What HIMSS 2026 Revealed

Taken together, these activations pointed to a broader shift defining healthcare technology in 2026. The industry has moved past the question of whether AI belongs in clinical settings. The conversation now is about how it integrates — into workflows, into data systems, into the human relationships at the center of care.

The brands that resonated most at HIMSS 2026 weren’t the loudest on the floor. They were the ones that made complex technology feel intuitive, relevant, and within reach. Smarter workflows. Deeper interoperability. Tech that brings care teams closer to what matters.

That’s the standard the industry is setting. And it’s only getting higher.

Kristin Castelli headshot, Sparks' VP or Strategic Accounts for Healthcare.

Frequently Asked Questions About HIMSS

What is HIMSS?

HIMSS 2026 was the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society’s annual global conference and exhibition, held March 9–13, 2026 at the Venetian Convention & Expo Center in Las Vegas. It’s the industry’s largest gathering of health IT professionals.

What is agentic AI in healthcare?

Agentic AI describes AI systems that take autonomous action within a workflow, from scheduling and pre-visit intake to triage and follow-up, rather than only answering prompts.

How does agentic AI differ from generative AI?

Generative AI produces content in response to a prompt like text, images, code, or answers. Agentic AI takes autonomous action inside a workflow: it decides what to do next, executes multi-step tasks, and hands off results to systems or people. A generative model can write a draft discharge summary when asked; an agentic system can pull the visit notes, draft the summary, route it to the physician for approval, update the EHR, and schedule the follow-up on its own. In healthcare, that shift matters because most of the work isn’t answering questions. It’s the sequence of small tasks between them. At HIMSS 2026, the platforms Sparks worked with: Salesforce Agentforce, AWS agentic infrastructure, Altera Digital Health, and Microsoft Dragon Copilot. Each demonstrated the same underlying idea: AI that doesn’t just respond, but acts.

Which brands showcased agentic AI at HIMSS 2026?

Sparks worked with brands including Salesforce (Agentforce for Health), AWS Health, Altera Digital Health, and Microsoft, each demonstrating a different application of autonomous AI in clinical workflows.

How is agentic AI changing the patient experience?

By handling routine administrative tasks in real time, agentic AI is shifting clinician time back to direct patient care and giving patients faster, more personalized touchpoints across their care journey.

Where and when will HIMSS 2027 be held?

HIMSS 2027 is scheduled for March 8–12, 2027 at the Venetian Convention & Expo Center in Las Vegas.

Sparks | Your Global Brand Experience Agency
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