🛑 AI Won’t Replace Healthcare Simulation Engineers...But It Will Redefine Them
If you work in Discrete Event Simulation (DES) in healthcare, you’ve probably wondered:
AI can write code.
AI can analyze data.
AI can optimize schedules.
So… are we next?
Short answer: No.
Long answer: Only if we define our value too narrowly.
💡 AI Replaces Tasks, Not Systems Thinkers
Yes, AI can:
- Generate simulation logic
- Clean data
- Run scenarios
- Automate documentation
- But healthcare simulation is not just about building models.
It’s about:
- Understanding messy hospital realities
- Identifying system constraints
- Framing the right operational question
- Translating results into decisions
AI doesn’t walk the Emergency Department at 2pm on a Monday in late January (i.e. RSV/Flu season).
It analyzes documented workflow.
It doesn’t observe real workflow (And those are often not the same).
It doesn’t interview nurses.
It doesn’t navigate organizational politics.
Healthcare is a social system wrapped in operational complexity.
🏗 Industrial Engineering Is the Foundation
Industrial engineering was built on systems thinking and operations research.
Long before AI, we were:
- Modeling queues
- Optimizing resources
- Managing variability
- Studying flow under uncertainty
- Designing systems, not just processes
Discrete event simulation is simply one expression of that foundation.
AI can assist with calculations.
But systems thinking, understanding interdependencies, constraints, tradeoffs, and unintended consequences is the core of industrial engineering. That foundation is not being automated.
If anything, AI increases the need for people who understand operations deeply enough to ask the right questions.
📈 The Real Risk: Staying Technical
The professionals most at risk are those who:
- Only know one software tool
- Only build what they’re asked to build
- Don’t influence decision-making
- Avoid learning AI
If your value is “I build models,” automation competes with you.
If your value is:
- Designing experiments
- Interpreting tradeoffs
- Communicating uncertainty
- Driving strategy
Then AI becomes leverage, not a threat.
🔄 The Shift: From Model Builder to Decision Architect
Healthcare systems are moving toward:
- Digital twins
- Predictive surge planning
- Real-time capacity optimization
Simulation is foundational to all of this.
The future role isn’t:
“I build Emergency Department models.”
It’s:
“I design healthcare capacity strategy using Simulation and AI.”
That’s a higher level of impact and it’s rooted in industrial engineering principles.
🧠 Final Word
AI will change our field.
It will reduce low-level technical work.
It will raise expectations.
But it will also increase demand for professionals grounded in systems thinking and operations research.
Industrial engineering was never about software.
It was about designing better systems.
The question isn’t: “Will AI replace me?”
It’s: “Am I operating at the level of system designer or just tool operator?”
Ironically, this article was collaboratively written with the help of artificial intelligence, with human oversight and editing to ensure accuracy and coherence.
Posted by Continuous Improvement Pal (Steven Suggs)
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