This Month's Latest Tech News in Cleveland, OH - Wednesday April 30th 2025 Edition

Cleveland is experiencing a transformative AI and tech renaissance, driven by high-impact collaborations like Cleveland Clinic's partnership with Abu Dhabi-based tech leader G42 to accelerate global healthcare innovation through artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

As more than 73% of health systems boost their AI investments, these initiatives are reshaping patient care, clinical research, and operational efficiency, with Cleveland Clinic using advanced AI tools for clinical documentation and revenue cycle management to tackle physician burnout and reduce administrative workload.

Leaders emphasize the region's pivotal role:

“Artificial intelligence offers a tremendous opportunity to continue to advance and fulfill our mission of caring for life, researching for health and educating those who serve,”

said Cleveland Clinic CEO Tom Mihaljevic.

This collaborative effort leverages cutting-edge solutions - like the joint deployment of generative AI scribes to thousands of physicians - to deliver personalized, data-driven healthcare for millions of patients annually.

For a deeper dive on these groundbreaking partnerships and Cleveland's global healthcare reach, see the detailed coverage at CIO's report on AI-powered healthcare innovation, Healthcare Finance News on Cleveland Clinic and G42's global AI ambitions, and Becker's Hospital Review profile on Cleveland Clinic's generative AI adoption.

The synergy between medical giants and tech pioneers is establishing Cleveland as a national model for AI-driven healthcare advancement.

Cleveland Clinic has taken a major step toward modernizing healthcare administration by partnering with Akasa to deploy advanced AI tools for revenue cycle management, aiming to streamline and enhance the accuracy of medical coding and documentation across its U.S. locations.

Coders at the Clinic typically spend up to an hour reviewing more than 100 clinical documents per patient case and selecting from over 140,000 billing codes - a labor-intensive process now bolstered by Akasa's generative AI assistant, which processes similar workloads in under two minutes and learns from millions of real-world records to improve consistency and reduce errors.

The rollout includes a coding AI assistant and a pilot tool for clinical documentation integrity, with the ultimate goal of shifting staff focus from manual coding to oversight and quality assurance.

“AI can be transformational for healthcare - not only in patient care but in helping health system operations run more smoothly and efficiently,” said Rohit Chandra, PhD, Chief Digital Officer at Cleveland Clinic.

National trends highlight the significance of such technology: nearly half of U.S. hospitals now use AI in revenue cycle management, and about $9.8 billion in potential savings is projected through AI automation in this area.

The table below summarizes key improvements enabled by Cleveland Clinic's deployment:

Task	Traditional Time/Accuracy	With AI Assistant
Review documents per case	100+ documents/hour	100+ documents/1.5-2 minutes
Code selection	Manual, 140,000+ codes	AI-assisted, adaptive and consistent
Error correction	Human review, prone to fatigue	AI review, prompt discrepancy detection

To learn more about Cleveland Clinic and Akasa's initiative, see the official news release on their collaboration, in-depth coverage by Healthcare Finance News, and detailed local reporting at cleveland.com.

The Cleveland Clinic is making national headlines with its rollout of Ambience Healthcare's ambient AI documentation platform, now deployed to over 2,000 physicians with plans to reach more than 4,000 this year.

After an extensive five-way competition involving more than 80 specialties and months of clinical pilots, Ambience's solution was chosen for its adaptability across diverse medical disciplines and seamless workflow integration.

By capturing real-time provider-patient conversations and producing structured, ready-to-sign clinical notes, the technology aims to transform physician workflows, significantly lowering administrative burdens and improving care coordination.

Cleveland Clinic leaders noted a marked reduction in physician burnout and enhanced patient interaction during the early stages of implementation.

“Over time, we should be able to substantially reduce the documentation burden, enable providers to operate at the top of [their] license, improve their experience and satisfaction, improve the quality of the physician-patient interaction - and that is starting to happen today,” said Rohit Chandra, Chief Digital Officer.

The following table highlights Cleveland Clinic's AI scribe rollout metrics and key platform features:

Metric/Feature	Details
AI Scribe Rollout (2025)	4,000+ physicians targeted, 2,000+ trained to date
Specialty Coverage	80+ specialties and subspecialties
Documentation Speed	Real-time, structured, minimal cleanup
Integration	Seamless EHR and workflow fit

By focusing on healthcare-tailored technology and actively including clinicians and revenue cycle teams in the selection process, Cleveland Clinic ensures that AI tools not only boost efficiency but also resonate with those providing care.

Explore more about Cleveland Clinic's AI scribe journey in the AHA podcast on reducing physician burnout with ambient AI, learn why Ambience Healthcare was chosen in the Cleveland Clinic's AI Scribe Bake-Off report, and see how rigorous pilot evaluations shaped this decision at AHA's scribe pilot takeaways.

University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center is advancing the fight against lung cancer through a pioneering partnership with Qure.ai to deploy their FDA-cleared AI tool, qXR-LN, for early detection of lung nodules via chest X-rays - a move aiming to offset low national screening rates (only 16% of eligible individuals undergo recommended low-dose CT scans).

Acting as a “second read” alongside radiologists, the qXR AI algorithm is being evaluated in a clinical trial to compare its performance against human interpretation and measure improvements in early diagnoses and patient care.

According to Dr. Amit Gupta, Division Chief of Cardiothoracic Imaging at UH,

“AI serves as an additional set of eyes for radiologists, enhancing detection by flagging lung nodules that may require further evaluation.”

This collaboration seeks to identify subtle pulmonary nodules ranging from 6 to 30 mm, expand screening accessibility, and ultimately improve patient outcomes.

As summarized by Dr. Samir Shah, Chief Medical Officer at Qure.ai,

“Chest X-ray AI presents a valuable opportunity to cast a wider net, to identify suspected malignant pulmonary nodules... This can boost the fight against lung cancer and improve outcomes for patients.”

For more details, see how University Hospitals is activating AI for early lung cancer detection at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, learn about the FDA-cleared deployment and clinical trial from this official business announcement on AI lung cancer identification, and explore the impact of AI in cancer care in this in-depth oncology interview about AI-driven lung cancer detection.

Screening Modality	National Uptake (%)	Detectable Nodule Size (mm)
Low-dose CT (LDCT)	16	6–30
AI-assisted Chest X-ray	In trial	6–30

MetroHealth is rapidly advancing its operational efficiency and patient care capabilities by deploying the enterprise-wide Pieces AI platform, a move that integrates artificial intelligence directly into both inpatient and outpatient electronic health record (EHR) systems.

This initiative, in collaboration with Pieces Technologies, enables automated generation of progress notes, discharge summaries, and utilization-management reviews, with AI-powered tools reportedly saving case managers up to 60 minutes and physicians 40 to 50 minutes each day.

Dr. R. Douglas Bruce, Interim Executive VP and COO of MetroHealth, recognized the platform's impact, stating,

“Pieces' AI-powered solutions will help MetroHealth enhance patient care and improve access by reducing inefficiencies and eliminating time-consuming administrative tasks...”

The system also leverages a novel ambulatory platform that compiles comprehensive, lifetime patient summaries, significantly improving clinical context and continuity of care.

The partnership extends beyond workflow automation, as MetroHealth and Pieces are also conducting National Institutes of Health-funded research studying conversational AI to enhance cancer patient support.

For more in-depth context on MetroHealth's digital transformation, see the Becker's Hospital Review coverage of MetroHealth's AI platform rollout and the detailed announcement at Crain's Cleveland Business.

Additional technical and financial context on MetroHealth can be found on LeadIQ's analysis of the system's scale and partnerships.

Role	Daily Time Saved by AI
Case Manager	~60 minutes
Physician	40–50 minutes

Microsoft has announced a significant slowdown in its $1 billion data center expansion in Licking County, Ohio, marking a notable shift in the tech sector's rapid AI infrastructure buildout.

The company will pause early-stage construction across its planned sites in New Albany, Heath, and Hebron, reserving two for farmland and maintaining land ownership for future consideration.

This move reflects a broader strategic reassessment amidst rising costs, global supply chain pressures, and an evolving partnership with OpenAI, which is increasingly developing independent capacity.

Despite the local disappointment - given the anticipated hundreds of jobs and planned community investments - Microsoft's commitment to fund roadway and utility upgrades remains.

Industry analysts see such pauses as a temporary recalibration rather than a withdrawal, with Microsoft still planning to invest over $80 billion in global AI infrastructure this fiscal year.

The company's leadership emphasized adaptability and continued growth in the face of unprecedented demand:

“Any significant new endeavor at this size and scale requires agility and refinement as we learn and grow with our customers. What this means is that we are slowing or pausing some early-stage projects.”

This development aligns with a broader industry trend where big tech firms, including Amazon and Intel, are reassessing timelines for data center and semiconductor expansion.

The table below summarizes the status of the Ohio data center sites:

Site	Planned Investment	Status	Current Use
New Albany	$420 million	Paused	Owned by Microsoft
Heath	TBD	Paused	Farmland
Hebron	TBD	Paused	Farmland

For deeper coverage, review the industry analysis on Microsoft's AI data center project pause, explore regional impacts via ENR Midwest's report on Ohio data centers, and learn about the sector-wide recalibrations in CNBC's feature on the trending 'pause' in AI data center investments.

A landmark legal battle in Cleveland could set national precedent as the suppression of AI-powered facial recognition evidence threatens to derail a high-profile murder case.

In State v. Tolbert case involving AI facial recognition evidence, police relied on Clearview AI's facial recognition tool to obtain a search warrant without disclosing its use or acknowledging the company's own disclaimer warning that its results are not intended or permitted for court evidence.

The judge ruled this omission violated probable cause, likening the AI-based lead to information from an anonymous source and dismissing the physical evidence seized under the warrant.

Civil liberties advocates such as the ACLU highlight the risks: “Face recognition technology grants police unprecedented and dangerous power because it doesn't require the knowledge, consent, or participation of the individual and is often used in secretive ways without oversight,”

”When police hide their use of fundamentally unreliable face recognition technology from judges, it undermines the ability of courts to ensure protection of our constitutional rights.” - Nathan Freed Wessler, ACLU

The table below summarizes the key factors at issue in the case:

Factor	Details
Facial Recognition Software	Clearview AI (disclaimer: not for court use)
Police Policy	No formal training or disclosure standards
Evidence Status	Suppressed due to lack of independent verification

The case has sparked debate over racial bias, transparency, and the absence of local or statewide standards for law enforcement's deployment of AI, with even the prosecutors acknowledging the challenges of convicting without AI evidence that, without this evidence, convicting the defendant will be nearly impossible.

As the appeal proceeds, stakeholders across Ohio are closely watching whether the court will demand stricter oversight or allow secretive AI surveillance - a decision likely to influence future AI and law enforcement policy nationwide.

For more analysis on how this case could redefine the legal standards for police use of facial recognition, see this in-depth biometrics law article detailing Ohio court deliberations on AI facial recognition.

In a landmark move for digital ethics in healthcare, Stark County's Paisley Tuel, a 19-year-old pre-law student at Case Western Reserve University, is spearheading Ohio's efforts to regulate artificial intelligence in medical settings.

Alarmed by lawsuits alleging major insurers improperly denied patient claims using algorithms, Tuel and her research partner Sabrina Soto produced a comprehensive 50-page paper highlighting the absence of Ohio-specific laws on AI in healthcare - contrasting Ohio's lagging standards with those of states like Massachusetts and Illinois, which have explicit AI oversight in mental health and anti-bias protocols.

In February, their findings were presented to Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo, who invited them to help draft new legislation. The proposed bill aims to establish an Ohio AI Healthcare Regulatory Committee to certify and monitor AI tools, ensure transparency and safety, and uphold patients' rights to consent or refuse AI-driven health decisions.

As Tuel explained,

“We want AI tools to be tested and monitored for widespread use in Ohio hospitals because that has not happened yet. We want patients to know when AI is involved in their health care decisions.”

Allison Russo echoed the urgency, stating,

“AI is moving fast in health care and offers real promise, but we need thoughtful protections for the people it is meant to serve when AI doesn't work as planned.”

While the bill is still in the drafting phase and awaits a sponsor, Tuel's initiative highlights the critical need for regulatory frameworks as AI becomes more embedded in Ohio's healthcare landscape.

For a detailed overview of this effort and the legislative process, see CantonRep's story on Paisley Tuel's healthcare AI bill in CantonRep, a summary from the Cincinnati Enquirer on Ohio teen helping draft health care AI legislation, and legislative search tools at the official Ohio Legislature website for healthcare-related bills.

Ohio's law enforcement agencies are rapidly expanding their use of AI-powered surveillance tools, including drones and patrol robots, sparking vigorous public debate over privacy and civil liberties.

In Cleveland, the newly approved drone policy - one of the most restrictive in the nation - prohibits routine surveillance of protests or large gatherings except in cases of active crime or emergencies, following concerns over previous police drone deployments and their potential misuse against demonstrators.

As highlighted by Signal Cleveland's in-depth report on the Community Police Commission's decision, the policy is now under U.S. Department of Justice review as part of the city's federal consent decree.

Meanwhile, other Ohio cities are taking bolder steps: Dublin's police have launched a $492,000 autonomous “Drone First Responders” program capable of reaching any incident in 90 seconds, and several departments are fielding robots with 360-degree cameras and real-time communication features, as detailed in coverage by Ideastream Public Media.

These technological leaps are prompting advocacy groups like the ACLU of Ohio to call for “common sense regulation” such as warrant requirements, strict data retention limits, and bans on weaponized drones, according to their testimony on House Bill 149.

As surveillance technologies proliferate, the challenge for Ohio communities will be to strike a careful balance between effective policing and the preservation of fundamental civil rights.

The 2025 Cleveland Humanities Festival, led by Case Western Reserve University's Baker-Nord Institute for the Humanities, returns for its 10th anniversary by exploring the profound intersections of food, technology, and identity under the theme “Appetite.” The festival's public events stretch through May 28 and spotlight how AI innovations are reshaping gastronomy, with hands-on opportunities for attendees to taste AI-generated plant-based cheese alongside native Great Lakes delicacies.

Events such as “Food, Appetite, and Our Sense of Place” delve into the industrialization of flavor and examine ethical concerns around food production, touching on AI's expanding role in everything from supply chain optimization to sensory design.

At the event's core are wide-ranging conversations about immigrant foodways, cultural preservation, and new technologies that impact both what - and how - we eat, as explored in the immersive “Breaking Bread Together” VR film series.

The festival doesn't shy away from difficult questions: a dedicated panel launch addresses the ethical, legal, and societal implications of AI, reflecting on issues like environmental footprint, data privacy, and workplace disruption.

As festival director Michele Tracy Berger observes,

“Everyone understands the physical sensation of hunger, but the word also opens up deeper conversations about our emotions and desires.”

The transformative potential and challenges posed by AI in the culinary world are underscored by a series of free performances, workshops, and discussions that unite Northeast Ohio's scholarly and artistic communities.

For a detailed schedule of events spanning taste, technology, and tradition, visit the official Cleveland Humanities Festival announcement.

For more on food ethics, AI, and immigrant cuisine featured in this year's programming, see Forward Pathway's in-depth festival analysis on food ethics and AI.

Explore ongoing discussions and updates about the broader impact of artificial intelligence and cultural heritage at the festival's dedicated Cleveland Humanities Festival archive.

Cleveland Clinic and CAS have announced a pioneering partnership to accelerate medical research in Cleveland using advanced AI and quantum computing, with a particular focus on brain health and Alzheimer's disease.

By harnessing the power of the IBM Quantum System One - the world's first quantum computer dedicated entirely to healthcare research - alongside the CAS Content Collection™, the collaboration aims to create predictive disease models and expedite the lengthy “bench to bedside” process from scientific discovery to approved therapy.

As highlighted by Lara Jehi, M.D., Cleveland Clinic's Director of Research Information,

“By combining our strengths, we seek to generate high-quality medical data, validate scientific models, and integrate research to ultimately improve patient care and manage chronic diseases.”

Quantum computing, in particular, has shown promising results, reaching up to 25% higher accuracy in protein structure prediction compared to leading AI engines like AlphaFold.

The table below summarizes key comparative advantages:

Technology	Key Application	Advantage
Advanced AI (e.g., DeepMind's AlphaFold)	Protein structure prediction, drug candidate identification	Rapid digital modeling, high throughput
Quantum Computing (IBM Quantum System One)	Enhanced protein structure prediction, future docking simulations	20-25% higher accuracy, faster, suited for complex biological questions

This partnership not only promises to shorten research-to-treatment timelines, but also integrates education and workforce development initiatives, reinforcing Cleveland's emerging role as a global hub for AI and healthcare innovation.

Read more in the official Cleveland Clinic announcement on AI and quantum computing partnership, explore the technology partnerships and goals for medical research acceleration, and dive into the science behind AI and quantum computing in healthcare.

Cleveland stands at a pivotal intersection where cutting-edge AI innovation meets the need for responsible governance, with local health giants like Cleveland Clinic driving global collaborations to redefine patient care.

Recent partnerships with technology leaders such as Akasa and G42 are not only streamlining complex processes like medical coding and advancing medical research but are also making AI an integral part of the city's healthcare infrastructure.

As described in a detailed report on Cleveland Clinic's generative AI implementation, the promise of greater accuracy, efficiency, and improved outcomes is already visible, yet the future of roles for coding specialists remains to be clarified.

At the same time, Cleveland's leadership is echoed on the national stage, with over 550 AI-related bills introduced across 45 states addressing transparency, consumer protection, health, and labor concerns, as documented by the National Conference of State Legislatures' 2025 AI legislation summary.

This broader context highlights the delicate balance between embracing transformative potential and safeguarding public interest. As Cleveland Clinic's CEO Dr. Tom Mihaljevic puts it:

“Artificial intelligence offers a tremendous opportunity to continue to advance and fulfill our mission of caring for life, researching for health and educating those who serve.”

In this climate of rapid innovation and new ethical questions, Cleveland is not only leveraging AI to improve healthcare but also participating in critical debates shaping the national agenda.

For an expanded look at Cleveland Clinic's strategic global approach - including its collaboration with Abu Dhabi's G42 to accelerate AI and quantum computing breakthroughs - visit this news release on advanced research partnerships.