How AI is slowly reshaping Florida businesses

Quietly, and often seamlessly, artificial intelligence (AI) is helping local business professionals make faster decisions and deliver better service. This technological shift is unfolding in places like Charlotte, Lee, Collier and Palm Beach counties as AI becomes a practical tool supporting businesses and entire communities.

Lee Health is redefining maternal care with the launch of Florida’s first AI-powered birth care 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, ensuring that even when a bedside nurse is assisting another patient, a second set of trained eyes remains on labor 24/7.

This technology extends across all Lee Health facilities, including hospitals without obstetrics units such as Gulf Coast Medical Center, Lee Memorial Hospital and Lee Health Coconut Point (say where??)  Last year, Lee Health monitored more than 22,000 patients and delivered roughly 8,000 babies at HealthPark Medical Center and Cape Coral Hospital.

“One of the biggest things it has affected is our bedside nurses. It gives them support and the knowledge that there is a second set of eyes on their patients.  AI picks up cues for early warning signs for us to be able to intervene quickly,” says Lee Health nursing director Jen Campbell.  “We still rely on the clinical judgement and the critical thinking of the bedside nurse; however, we have experienced labor nurses who are watching every single patient that’s on the monitor in the health system.  AI has been a tool for us, not our end-all-be-all; each patient still gets individualized care.”

According to Campbell, one of the most significant reasons for readmission after delivery is high blood pressure, which accounts for about 70% of readmissions in the Lee Health system. That need for stronger postpartum monitoring is shaping the next phase of the technology, which aims to catch dangerous changes in vital signs before they escalate.

“Part of our next phase is to be able to pull in vitals from our postpartum patients and have them be compared to normal vitals and have AI trigger who’s out of normal [ranges] so that we can ensure that patients are going home on the proper medications or proper treatments,” she says.

Beyond healthcare, AI’s expanding role is reshaping customer experiences across the region, offering new levels of efficiency across industries far beyond the medical sector. Imagine being a tenant at a local housing community, waiting to reach property staff, only for the phone to keep ringing with no immediate resolution in sight. With properties implementing AI, hold times or phone calls back are becoming less common.

Izzy is an AI-powered virtual assistant that operates via text, email, chat and voice and supports both prospective renters and current residents across all Incore Residential communities. Incore manages multiple properties across 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, regional manager for Incore Residential, calls Izzy “an extension of our onsite teams, who never sleeps, never misses a message, and always delivers accurate information, whether it’s about availability, scheduling, policies or general questions.”

“We were looking for a way to improve responsiveness, reduce missed opportunities and support our onsite teams without adding to payroll,” Saunders says.  “With lead volumes increasing and resident expectations growing, we needed technology that could keep up 24/7. Izzy offered a way to streamline communication, reduce bottlenecks during high-traffic periods and free our teams to focus on the human-centered parts of property management: building relationships, giving tours, resolving complex issues, instead of juggling repetitive tasks.”

Human connection is also critical for founder and CEO, Kevin Fleming of Writing.io, a Naples-based AI platform designed to help individuals, businesses and nonprofits.

“People are going to have to adapt to it, and so the way that everything’s been done is going to change. I hope that it gives us that face-to-face time,” Fleming says. “I think it made us all, or at least it made me, appreciate that a lot more and look for how we can make technology help us do more stuff together as humans.”

Recently, the organization pledged a $2 million educational commitment, marking the latest milestone in its effort 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 workflow. Its AI Companion helps users generate content quickly by leveraging advanced language models. At the same time, its Chat feature allows people to start conversations using popular systems like GPT-4o, DALL·E, and Claude.

Those looking to build more interactive experiences can use the platform to provide customizable interfaces that can be embedded across websites and apps. It also supports content-driven growth through its website builder, enabling users to create professional, subscriber-focused sites. In addition, contact management tools make it easy to organize audiences and capture new leads. Its email campaign feature allows creators to send newsletters or updates directly to subscribers with a single click.

“The most common issue people have with artificial intelligence, especially when implementing it with a business, is they are trying to solve things that are failing by using artificial intelligence,” Fleming says. “Rather than adding it to something that’s already been working and trying to make it work even better. The worst thing you can do is just drop it in and expect it to work, and then all a sudden, it doesn’t work and then the organization becomes hesitant to use it for future things and your organization will ultimately be left behind because at the rate that this is advancing — I know most people, most companies, and society in general is still totally unprepared for what’s happening here.”

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

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

In addition, ServiceNow University programming will provide AI-focused training and certification opportunities for employees, partners and the broader community.

In a press statement, Bill McDermott, chairman and CEO of ServiceNow, states, “West Palm Beach is the latest move in ServiceNow’s tradition of embracing bold economic developments across the country. This will be a compelling magnet for talent, a strong engine for growth and a dynamic hub for America’s AI leadership.”

Related Ross is a fully integrated real estate firm and has played a central role in reshaping West Palm Beach into one of the nation’s fastest-growing cities, with more than 2.8 million square feet of Class A office space built or under construction.

“We had a concentrated effort to think about who some of the top firms within the tech world are today, and particularly those at the forefront of AI and ServiceNow was a natural fit, given their global presence and growth trajectory, we felt they would fit in well to that ecosystem that we’re trying to develop,” says Jordan Rathlev, Related Ross executive vice president.

ServiceNow is expected to open at 10 City Place in downtown West Palm Beach at the end of 2027 or early 2028.

AI hopefully isn’t replacing people, but instead helping them do their best work, and do it quicker.

AI may be complex, but its role in business across Florida and the state’s rapidly growing economy is clear: it helps make work more efficient, communication more transparent, and service more human.