AI Resilience Report forOrderlies

If you're worried about robots taking over orderly jobs, take a breath — the reality today is much more limited than the hype suggests. Hospitals are mostly augmenting orderlies, not replacing them. The clearest example is Moxi, an AI-powered hospital robot built by Diligent Robotics that stands about 5 feet tall, ferries supplies, transports lab samples, and delivers snacks so nurses can spend more time with patients, and is now in use at about 25 hospitals nationwide, including Cedars-Sinai.

A newer pilot launched in April 2026 by BayCare Health System and the robotics startup Rovex ^[1] is testing autonomous stretcher movement at Morton Plant Hospital, though leaders stressed the technology "is designed to support — not replace — team members" and no patients are being moved by robots during the current pilot. Importantly, the most human parts of an orderly's job remain out of reach. As Cedars-Sinai's chief nursing executive told CBS News ^[2], "Robots touch things and people touch people.

They could never hold a patient's hand or wipe their brow or help them brush their teeth." Repositioning bedridden patients to prevent bedsores still requires human judgment and gentle handling.

Adoption is being pushed by serious staffing pressure. The American Hospital Association's 2026 Workforce Scan ^[3] reports that hospitals face rising labor costs, burnout, and growing demand from an aging population, and are "accelerating their use of AI-assisted documentation, clinical decision-support tools, digital scheduling and telehealth to reduce administrative burden and extend capacity without proportional staffing increases." But adoption is also being slowed by real-world limits. Nurses at hospitals using Moxi told the Washington State Nurses Association ^[4] the robots "were annoying and often got in the way," needed an escort between floors, and "never delivered meaningful time savings" — and MultiCare retired all 14 of its Moxi robots in 2025.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects ^[5] healthcare support occupations will grow 12.4% from 2024 to 2034 — one of the fastest-growing groups in the economy. Translation: human orderlies, with their warmth, judgment, and physical care skills, are still in high demand, and that's unlikely to change soon.