How AI is gradually reshaping Florida businesses

Artificial intelligence (AI) is quietly, and often seamlessly, helping local business professionals make faster decisions and provide better service. This technological shift is unfolding in Charlotte, Lee, Collier, Palm Beach counties and more as AI becomes a practical tool to support businesses and communities at large.

Lee Health is redefining maternal care with the launch of Florida's first AI-powered birthing center. This innovative remote fetal monitoring command hub is designed to enhance safety and provide clinicians with real-time insight into both mother and baby. AI continuously monitors vital signs, and a trained second set of eyes monitors labor 24/7, even when a bedside nurse is assisting another patient.

This technology has spread to all Lee Health facilities, including hospitals without maternity wards such as Gulf Coast Medical Center, Lee Memorial Hospital, and Lee Health Coconut Point (where are they located??). Last year, Lee Health monitored more than 22,000 patients and delivered approximately 8,000 babies at HealthPark Medical Center and Cape Coral Hospital.

“One of the biggest impacts of this has been our bedside nurses, who are now supported and have the knowledge that they are seeing their patients with a second set of eyes. AI has helped us catch early red flags so we can intervene quickly,” said Jen Campbell, director of nursing at Lee Health. “We still rely on the clinical judgment and critical thinking of nurses at the bedside, but experienced labor and delivery nurses monitor each patient on the health system's monitors. AI is a tool for us, not a last resort. Each patient still receives individualized care.”

According to Campbell, one of the top reasons for readmissions after giving birth is high blood pressure, accounting for about 70 percent of readmissions in the Lee Health system. The need for enhanced postpartum monitoring is shaping the next phase of technology aimed at catching dangerous changes in vital signs before they escalate.

“Part of our next step is to be able to take vital data from postpartum patients, compare them to normal vital data, and have the AI ​​trigger on who is outside of normal.” [ranges] “It’s about making sure the patient goes home with the right medication and the right treatment,” she says.

Beyond healthcare, the expanding role of AI is reshaping customer experiences across the region and delivering new levels of efficiency across industries far beyond the medical field. Imagine being a tenant in a local housing community waiting to get in touch with a real estate staff member, only to find that your phone keeps ringing with no immediate resolution in sight. Accommodations that have implemented AI are seeing fewer hold times and fewer callbacks.

Izzy is an AI-powered virtual assistant that works via text, email, chat, and voice to support both prospective renters and current residents in all Incore Residential communities. Incore manages multiple properties throughout Florida, including The Landings in Port Charlotte, The Club on Pine Island in Cape Coral, and Villas at Gulf Coast in Fort Myers.

Andrea Saunders, Incore Residential's regional manager, calls Izzy “an extension of our onsite team who never sleeps, never misses a message, and always provides accurate information on availability, schedules, policies, general questions, and more.”

“We were looking for a way to increase responsiveness, reduce opportunity costs, and support our field teams without increasing pay,” says Saunders. “With increasing lead volume and resident expectations, we needed technology that could be available 24/7. Izzy provided a way to streamline communications, reduce bottlenecks during high-traffic periods, and allow our team to focus on the human-centered parts of property management, like building relationships, conducting tours, and solving complex problems, rather than juggling repetitive tasks.”

Human connections are also very important to Kevin Fleming, founder and CEO of Writing.io, a Naples-based AI platform aimed at helping individuals, businesses, and nonprofits.

“People are going to have to adapt, so the way things have been done will change, and I hope that gives us time to face it,” Fleming says. “I think it has made all of us, or at least me, appreciate it more and look for ways to use technology to help us do more together as humans.”

The organization recently committed $2 million in education commitments, marking the latest milestone in its efforts to support local startups, small businesses and nonprofits across Collier, Lee and Charlotte counties.

Writing.io offers a suite of AI-powered tools designed to help creators, entrepreneurs, and businesses streamline their digital workflows. Its AI companion leverages advanced language models to help users generate content quickly. At the same time, the chat function allows you to start conversations using popular systems such as GPT-4o, DALL・E, Claude, etc.

Those looking to build more interactive experiences can use the platform to provide customizable interfaces that can be embedded throughout websites and apps. It also supports content-driven growth through its website builder, allowing users to create professional, subscriber-centric sites. Additionally, contact management tools make it easy to organize your audience and capture new leads. The email campaign feature allows creators to send newsletters and updates directly to their subscribers with one click.

“The most common problem people have with artificial intelligence, especially when implementing it in enterprises, is that they're trying to use it to solve things that don't work,” Fleming says. “You don't add it to something that's already working and try to make it work even better. The worst thing you can do is just introduce it and hope it works, and then all of a sudden it stops working, and the organization is hesitant to use it for future things, and the organization ends up being left behind. Because I know that at the rate this is going, most people, most companies, and society in general are still completely unprepared for what's going on here.”

Global technology giant ServiceNow refuses to be left in the dark as it scales AI and advances the industry. As a digital workflow and automation company, the company continues to prove that AI is the future.

The organization is expanding to West Palm Beach, introducing a regional innovation hub and AI lab. The expansion project is projected to generate $1.8 billion in economic impact and create more than 850 jobs over the next five years.

Additionally, ServiceNow University programming provides AI-focused training and certification opportunities for employees, partners, and the broader community.

“West Palm Beach is the latest move in ServiceNow's tradition of embracing bold economic development across the United States,” Bill McDermott, Chairman and CEO of ServiceNow, said in a press statement. “It will be an attractive magnet for talent, a powerful engine for growth, and a dynamic hub for American AI leadership.”

Associated Ross is a fully integrated real estate company that has played a central role in rebuilding West Palm Beach into one of the fastest growing cities in the nation, with more than 2.8 million square feet of Class A office space under construction or under construction.

“We took an intensive look at what the top companies in the technology industry are like today, particularly those at the forefront of AI. Given their global presence and growth trajectory, we felt ServiceNow was a natural fit and fits well into the ecosystem we are trying to develop,” said Jordan Raslev, executive vice president of Related Ross.

ServiceNow is scheduled to open in late 2027 or early 2028 at 10 City Place in downtown West Palm Beach.

We want AI to not replace humans, but help humans do their best work, faster.

AI may be complex, but its role in businesses across Florida and the state's rapidly growing economy is clear. AI can help you work more efficiently, communicate more transparently, and humanize your services.