Empowering Strategic and Safe AI Adoption for Brisbane North PHN

Challenge

Brisbane North PHN (BNPHN) is a Primary Health Network committed to improving health outcomes across the Brisbane north region. As AI technologies rapidly reshape the healthcare landscape, BNPHN recognised the urgent need to adopt AI strategically, safely, and responsibly. With approximately 100 staff across 15program areas, varying levels of AI awareness, and significant governance and compliance requirements, BNPHN needed a structured approach to assess organisational readiness, surface high-value use cases, and co-design a sustainable AI adoption roadmap — one that reflects both the promise and the risk of AI in a sensitive healthcare environment.

Approach

Assessing AI readiness across people, process, data and technology

1. AI Awareness & Engagement: Facilitated a project kick-off and stakeholder mapping session, followed by tailored AI education workshops for executives and managers, building AI literacy and aligning expectations across the organisation.

2. AI Readiness Assessment & Use Case Discovery: Surveyed~100 staff and conducted 16 interviews and workshops across 15 program areas. Assessed AI readiness across 8 dimensions and identified priority use cases using a Value-Risk-Feasibility scoring model.

3. Governance & Risk FrameworkDesign: Co-designed a tailored AI governance model, risk assessment framework, and compliance alignment approach to support safe and ethical AI adoption across the organisation.

4. AI Roadmap & KPI Development: Facilitated an executive co-design workshop to develop a phased AI adoption roadmap with defined success metrics and a KPI framework to guide implementation over time.

Outcomes

Delivering a Strategic and Safe AI Adoption Framework for Healthcare

Following the AI Readiness Assessment, a comprehensive set of co-designed deliverables was produced to equip BNPHN with the knowledge, frameworks, and roadmap needed to adopt AI with confidence, strategic intent, and appropriate safeguards. The final deliverables included:

• AI Readiness Report: A comprehensive assessment across 8 readiness dimensions — strategy, governance, risk, culture, skills, capability, technology, and cybersecurity — with prioritised improvement areas and healthcare-specific recommendations.

• UseCase Portfolio: 25-30 AI use cases identified across population health, service planning, operational efficiency, and workforce domains, with 3-5 prioritised using a Value-Risk-Feasibility scoring model.

• AI Governance & Risk Framework: Tailored governance structures including oversight roles, ethical protocols, and a risk assessment framework aligned to legislative and healthcare compliance requirements.

• AI Adoption Roadmap: A phased roadmap covering quick wins, medium-term, and long-term initiatives, supported by a KPI framework for tracking benefits realisation and AI maturity over time.