Ongoing Traversing Boundaries Dance: AI Strategizing and Real-World Deployment in Healthcare Experts Dynamics

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) is integrated into healthcare, aligning implementation with evolving regulatory strategies of those working on as well as those working with AI is critical. However, limited research explores the link between AI regulatory strategizing and in situ deployment, as well as the impact on healthcare professionals. Our study addresses this gap by analyzing policy reports and conducting 78 in-depth interviews (2022-2024) with managers, expert users, and policymakers professionals. We first explore how Israeli government bodies deliberate the ‘sandbox regulation’ of AI in healthcare. Next, we conduct an inductive field study on the bottom-up boundary work involved in AI deployment within a public healthcare organization. Our findings highlight the “sandbox” use of AI as manifested by collaborative and configurational boundary work by middle managers professionals confronting challenges of flexing the boundaries, disrupted knowledge transfer, and selective integration as dynamic boundary work for strategizing and deployment of AI in healthcare settings. We conclude by discussing the gap between AI strategy regulations and real-world implementation and the role of healthcare professionals as shaping and potentially bridging this disparity.