Rock Health has retired 'AI' as a separate funding category

TL;DR

AI is dead. Well not really obviously, just as a separate reporting category. Rock Health, in their latest digital health funding report, just quietly retired the “AI deal category.” $4B across 110 deals in Q1 2026. Average deal size at $36.7M, highest since Q4 2021. 59% of all capital concentrated in just 12 mega rounds. AI is table stakes. The companies pulling in nine-figure checks all share something else: OpenEvidence is embedded in EHRs at 40%+ of US physicians; Doctronic is running an AI prescribing pilot in Utah’s regulatory sandbox; Qualified Health supports 400,000 users with an AI governance platform. The AI is the engine. The workflow integration is the moat. Same pattern in drug discovery — Anthropic acquired Coefficient Bio for the lab-in-the-loop team. The feedback loop between prediction and experiment is where the value sits, not the model. 2026 is the year “AI company” stops meaning anything in healthcare. The only question that matters: where does the AI sit in the workflow, and how deep does the integration go.

AI is dead. Well not really obviously, just as a separate reporting category. Rock Health, in their latest digital health funding report, just quietly retired the “AI deal category.”

Their Q1 2026 digital health funding report landed this week. $4B across 110 deals. Average deal size at $36.7M, highest since Q4 2021. 59% of all capital concentrated in just 12 mega rounds.

But Rock Health also stopped distinguishing between AI-enabled and non-AI digital health companies. The reason is simple: the distinction no longer holds.

AI is table stakes. When every startup has “AI”, the technology disappears as a differentiator. The companies pulling in nine-figure checks this quarter all share something else. OpenEvidence is embedded inside health system EHRs, used daily by over 40% of US physicians. Doctronic is running an AI prescribing pilot inside Utah’s regulatory sandbox. Qualified Health supports 400,000 users with an AI governance platform across health systems.

They raised because they are operationally embedded in clinical workflows that are hard to rip out. The AI is the engine. The workflow integration is the moat.

Same pattern in drug discovery. As I just wrote about earlier this week, Anthropic acquired Coefficient Bio for the team that built lab-in-the-loop experimental design systems at Genentech. The feedback loop between prediction and experiment is where the value sits, not the model.

2026 is the year “AI company” stops meaning anything in healthcare. The only question that matters: where does the AI sit in the workflow, and how deep does the integration go.

Key takeaways

• Rock Health retired “AI” as a standalone deal category in Q1 2026. The label no longer differentiates anything.
• Q1 2026 digital health funding: $4B across 110 deals. Average deal size $36.7M, highest since Q4 2021. 59% of capital in just 12 mega rounds.
• AI is table stakes. The companies attracting nine-figure rounds aren’t winning on AI — they’re winning on workflow integration depth.
• OpenEvidence is in EHRs at 40%+ of US physicians. Doctronic runs an AI prescribing pilot in Utah’s regulatory sandbox. Qualified Health supports 400,000 users with an AI governance platform.
• The AI is the engine. The workflow integration is the moat. Hard to rip out is the new defensibility.
• The same pattern holds in drug discovery: Anthropic acquired Coefficient Bio for lab-in-the-loop. The feedback loop between prediction and experiment is where the value sits, not the model.
• 2026 is the year “AI company” stops meaning anything in healthcare. The only question that matters: where does the AI sit in the workflow, and how deep does the integration go.