Long before Vanessa Riley became a nationally recognized nurse practitioner, healthcare technology leader and President of the Global Nursing AI Alliance, she thought her future would look very different.
As a teenager, Riley attended a technical high school, where she was on track to become an engineer. She earned a spot in a competitive apprenticeship program, preparing for a career in tech before life intervened and forced her to step into the role of caregiver.
“Everything shifted when I helped care for my grandmother during her illness,” Riley tells HealthStack. “That experience grounded me in something deeper. It moved me from building systems to caring for people.”
Although Riley shifted to nursing, she never quite left behind her technology roots. She began her journey as a licensed practical nurse and went on to build a career that combines clinical care with technical innovation. Riley used her passion and love for tech to walk a path that serves as an inspiration to her fellow nurses.
Building A New Path For Nurses
Riley says her journey brought her to where she is now. She explains that her position as a licensed practical nurse set the foundation for “everything I do today.”
“Nurses are often the first to recognize risk, the first to notice subtle clinical changes, and the first to translate complex systems into human-centered care,” Riley says, adding that education and growth has always been the focus for her career. “As I progressed from LPN to RN to Family Nurse Practitioner, and now into doctoral work focused on nursing, artificial intelligence, and health equity, I gained a layered understanding of healthcare from every level: bedside care, advanced practice, leadership and research.”
Working at every level of nursing changed more than her credentials. It changed her perspective. Riley saw firsthand the invisible labor nurses perform, motivating her to advocate for nurses at every stage of their careers.
Putting Nurses At The Center Of AI Decisions
As health systems continue to implement AI, many nurses feel decision makers are leaving them out of key decisions.
Concerns over AI use in healthcare surfaced during various labor disputes. Nurses at Kaiser Permanente banded together to protest the use of AI in patient care and workflow. The New York State Nurses Association also voiced concerns about how the industry is implementing tools in different practices.
One study found that 41% of nurses reported feeling excluded from AI implementation decisions, saying their views are rarely or never reflected in AI decision-making. These conversations became the catalyst for Riley founding the Global Nursing AI Alliance.
“I founded the Global Nursing AI Alliance to ensure that nurses are not just handed AI tools after decisions are made, but are leading the design, governance, and implementation of those systems,” she shares.
Riley says her nonprofit is working to place nurses at the center of AI decisions. The organization works to advance ethical and equitable AI implementation across nursing practice, education, leadership and workforce transformation. To Riley, AI must support nurses without replacing the clinical judgment and human connection that define the profession.
“AI should reduce nurses’ cognitive load and administrative burden, not replace their clinical judgment or human connection,” she explains. “AI is most needed in the places where nurses carry invisible cognitive labor. It should protect time, strengthen situational awareness and allow nurses to spend more energy on human care.”
Training The Next Generation Of Nursing Leaders
As Riley worked with nurses across the country, she noticed another growing gap. Many of her colleagues didn’t have equitable opportunities to learn how to use AI tools safely and effectively.
She quickly recognized that nurses also needed training to understand, evaluate and apply emerging technologies. In response, she developed her nonprofit to bridge that gap through education and workforce development. The training programs prepare nurses to understand how AI works, evaluate emerging technologies and apply them responsibly in clinical practice.
The nonprofit also advocates for nurses to have a role throughout the entire AI development process.
“Nurses must be involved before the product is built,” Riley says. “Too often, nursing input is requested after the workflow has already been designed. That is too late.”
For Riley, meaningful involvement is essential to building technology that serves all patients.
“Nurses need seats in product development, data governance, procurement, implementation, and evaluation,” she says. “If nurses are not at the table, especially those serving vulnerable populations, we risk building technology that reinforces disparities instead of reducing them.”
According to Riley, the Alliance is working towards building a global infrastructure where nurses serve as architects of healthcare technology rather than passive end users.
“Nursing will no longer be seen only as the workforce that adapts to technology. Nursing will be recognized as a discipline that shapes technology,” Riley shares. “My hope is that five years from now, every major healthcare AI decision includes nurses from the start because patient care is not complete without nursing intelligence.”
The Future Needs To Include Equity in AI
Riley envisions a future where nurses retain the authority to question AI outputs, override algorithms and escalate concerns. For her, technology must support clinical judgment, not replace it.
“In high stakes care, AI should never become the final authority,” she says. “Nursing intuition is not guesswork. It is pattern recognition built through experience, observation, patient proximity, and clinical reasoning. Nurses often notice deterioration before it fully appears in the chart. They hear the change in a patient’s voice, see the shift in behavior or sense that the story does not match the numbers.”
A central focus of Riley’s work is ensuring AI does not automate existing health disparities. She warns that algorithms can perform well on average while still failing many underserved populations.
Looking ahead, Riley sees AI transforming nursing in three major ways: ambient technology and automation, decision support and new career pathways. Ambient technology and automation will reduce documentation burdens and return time to patient care. Decision support tools will help nurses identify risks earlier, and new career pathways will position nurses to lead AI governance, safety evaluation, data stewardship and implementation science.
“AI can help reduce documentation burden, surface risk earlier, identify missed follow up, support antimicrobial stewardship, and bring the most relevant patient information forward at the right moment,” she explains, before adding, “But it should not replace the nurse’s clinical reasoning.”
