Now that it has completed its $6.75 billion acquisition of Press Ganey Forsta, Qualtrics plans to further its human-experience-management platform, continuing to build it out with what it touts as the world's largest HX dataset.By combining the AI platform with this data, Qualtrics says it can shift experience management from reactive measurement to predictive action across all industries. In healthcare, anticipating human needs could help bridge the gap between healthcare delivery and consumer expectations.WHY IT MATTERSWith the Press Ganey acquisition, first announced this past October, Qualtrics said it plans to use the massive trove of proprietary healthcare data to change how organizations understand and respond to human experiences. The combined platform will connect patient-experience data with data-based operational insights to help health systems improve trust, safety and workforce resilience, the company said in the announcement on Tuesday.Press Ganey Forsta has access to information, from patient voice data to regulatory system insights, for more than 41,000 healthcare facilities, including most major U.S. hospitals.Traditionally, experience management is retrospective, looking at data after consumer and patient interactions. But patients no longer compare their healthcare experiences to other hospitals or providers, but rather, to the hospitality, dining and digital experiences they have."AI permanently changed what people expect from every experience in their lives," Jason Maynard, Qualtrics' CEO, said in the statement. "That’s why the future will be won in the experience gap."The company said its combined platform can simulate scenarios and predict human needs and behaviors before they happen for the benefit all industries Qualtrics serves.By pairing its large language model platform with access to the real-world human context in Press Ganey's specialized data, healthcare organizations can anticipate patient friction points and better personalize care at scale, the company said."The opportunity ahead for healthcare is not simply more data or more AI; it is the ability to turn insight into timely, human-centered action," David Entwistle, president and CEO of Stanford Healthcare, said in the statement.THE LARGER TRENDPress Ganey, driven by national safety culture benchmarking data showing more than a million healthcare workers reporting persistent gaps between leadership intent and frontline experiences, asked healthcare leaders to join a safety initiative to help drive improvements in transparency and culture. The Zero Harm 24/7 project aims to establish a standardized patient and staff safety framework.While a lofty goal, "Zero Harm 24/7 puts that expectation on the table and reflects our commitment to do the hard, sustained work, together with our partners in healthcare – work that demands discipline, innovation and shared accountability," Patrick Ryan, Press Ganey's chairman and CEO, said in a statement earlier this year.That work will continue with Qualtrics' acquisition now complete.It's "accelerating our goal to reach zero harm and build resiliency in the workforce, with the benefactors being our patients, families, clinicians and team members," John Couris, Tampa General Hospital's president and CEO, said in today's announcement.ON THE RECORD"Leaders want to deliver intelligent, responsive and predictable human experiences," Maynard said in a statement. "In the age of AI, experience is now the differentiator in every industry.""To meet evolving community needs, health systems need to understand what patients and caregivers are experiencing in real time and respond thoughtfully," added Steve Arner, Carilion Clinic, president and CEO. "The combination of Qualtrics and Press Ganey Forsta will help identify timely insights to support informed decisions, stronger connections and, ultimately, a better care experience for our team and the patients who depend on us."Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.Email: [email protected]Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.