Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform how health workers spend their time, helping streamline administrative tasks and clinical workflows so they can focus on their patients. Yet for health workers serving rural communities in the United States, constrained resources and competing demands on their time mean they often do not have the training and support they need to integrate AI into everyday practice, limiting the impact of new tools to improve care.
To help address this challenge, the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Foundation and Google.org have selected Sostento and the American Nurses Foundation (ANF) as grantees under a coordinated $10 million initiative to support the adoption of AI tools among health workers serving rural communities. Over the next three years, the grants will equip more than 250,000 nurses and health workers with the tools and training needed to build practical AI skills so they can focus on what matters most: their patients.
Sostento: designing AI solutions for rural care settings
For technology to work for patients and health workers, it must be designed around the realities of care delivery.
Through this national initiative, Sostento, a New Jersey-based nonprofit, will work directly with rural serving clinics to identify where administrative burden and care coordination gaps create the biggest obstacles for patients and health workers. Rather than introducing a one-size-fits-all solution, Sostento will work with clinics to build AI readiness across their workforce and co-design, test and refine AI-enabled approaches that fit existing workflows to fill those gaps.
With these tools, administrative staff, community health workers and care navigators can spend less time on routine tasks and more time supporting patients through appointments, referrals and follow-up care.
American Nurses Foundation: building nurses’ skills and confidence
Beyond the technology itself, health workers need the skills and confidence to evaluate new tools, understand their limitations and determine where they can best support patient care.
ANF, the philanthropic arm of the American Nurses Enterprise, will develop a national program designed to help nurses build the knowledge, skills and confidence needed to use AI responsibly and effectively in practice. The initiative will combine education, peer learning and practical training, guided in part by a Rural Nursing and AI Advisory Group made up of nurses themselves.
By putting nurses at the center of designing and teaching the program, the training will reflect the realities of care delivery and prepare the workforce for an increasingly technology-enabled future.
Turning AI’s potential into practice
Through these coordinated investments, the J&J Foundation and Google.org are helping build the skills and systems the rural health workforce needs to make AI work for them. Sostento is focused on helping clinics create and implement practical solutions that address day-to-day operational challenges. ANF is helping nurses build the skills and confidence needed to engage with emerging technologies and shape how they are used in practice.
The initiative builds on J&J CareCommunity, a social impact platform that champions nurses and community health workers and advances access to quality care. By investing in workforce readiness and practical implementation, the J&J Foundation aims to help ensure that the potential of AI translates into meaningful support for health workers and the patients they serve.