The use of artificial intelligence (AI) has been growing over the past few years in many industries, including the healthcare sector. Hyro, a health tech startup, began in 2018 to address the increasing demand for a better patient experience through voice AI agents. It aims to help out healthcare workers in scheduling patient appointments, refilling prescriptions, and providing billing assistance.
AI assistance in healthcare
Staffing shortages on top of increasing patient demand and wait times are just some of the issues that the healthcare system has to deal with. To address these issues, Hyro automates conversations with patients, providing AI assistance to patients looking for practitioners, scheduling or rescheduling appointments, as well as maintaining medical charts and histories in the database. It also resolves routine cases and reroutes complex cases to agents.
Hyro’s AI assistant also gives options to view health charts and provides data analytics to the healthcare organizations about CTAs, engagement metrics, and satisfaction scores. It also has a feature called Proactive Px, which runs campaigns to activate patients, close care gaps, and drive revenue.
The healthcare market
Of course, Hyro isn’t the only company that utilizes AI. Abridge, Heidi Health, Suki, and Ambience Healthcare are just some of the names in the field. However, each platform is different from another as the merging of healthcare and AI has yet to fill all the gaps in the industry.
Take, for instance, Abridge, which offers features like Clinical AI notes that can also be easily integrated into the Electronic Health Record workflows. It also converts every conversation between the physician and patient into an audit-ready, billable AI document. Suki, another AI healthcare company, also provides physicians with high-quality notes, patient instructions, and orders, as well as assists the revenue cycle. It also provides critical patient-related information that a health expert can refer back to. Another company, Paratus Health, is an AI company that focuses on scheduling patient appointments. Despite the presence of companies doing similar work in the healthcare industry, Hyro stands out as one of the few startups that promises to offer a complete package.
How Hyro began
Founded by Israel Krush and Rom Cohen, Hyro stemmed from their vision of AI as being available everywhere. The deeper they dived into healthcare, the more they saw an opportunity to create an impact. Currently, the company has 45 organizations as clients, including Baptist Health System, Intermountain Health, and Bon Secours Mercy Health.
In December 2025, the startup received $45 million in funding, and to date, it has raised a total of $95 million. Its investors include Healthier Capital, healthcare clients, and VCs Norwest, Define Ventures, and Black Opal Ventures. Krush said it will use the funds to develop AI agents that can help patients with specialist care.
YouTube: Hyro Explainer
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Photo credit: The feature image is symbolic and has been taken by Vitaly Gariev.
Source: Carina Storrs (Cornell Tech)
