How Philips is scaling AI literacy across 70,000 employees

Philips operates across personal health, diagnostics, image-guided therapy, and patient monitoring.

AI is not new to Philips—specialised AI and machine learning systems have been embedded in products for years. What’s new is the scale.

To fully realise the value of AI in healthcare, Philips is now working to make AI a capability that every employee can confidently use—not just specialised teams.

We sat down with Patrick Mans, Head of Data Science & AI Engineering, to hear how Philips is elevating AI literacy across the organisation, reinforcing its commitment to responsible AI, and advancing the age of intelligence to enable better care for more people.

“You start playing with it, then you start working with it—and from there, you start innovating with it.”

Patrick Mans, Head of Data Science & AI Engineering, Philips

Inside the rollout

Philips already had strong, specialised AI teams working on traditional machine learning inside products.

But broad transformation required something different: AI literacy across everyone — not just experts.

OpenAI helps make that possible because the familiarity is already there.

“People were already using OpenAI tools privately—so the curiosity was there. We just needed to channel it into real work.”

Patrick Mans, Head of Data Science & AI Engineering, Philips

Philips is intentionally moving employees along a curve: Toy → Tool → Transformation

And channelling curiosity into capability:

• Executives trained hands-on first to lead by example

• A company-wide challenge invited employees to propose use cases

• Access to ChatGPT Enterprise increased demand and momentum

This created momentum from both directions: leadership endorsement + grassroots pull.

As a 134-year-old healthcare technology company, Philips operates under strict safety, privacy, and regulatory expectations. Trust and responsible use of AI are foundational. “You can’t just implement AI as technology. You have to shift the culture—how people think, and how they trust,” says Patrick.