What challenges did Hero AI face before AI implementation?

Long emergency room wait times for patients, especially those in mental health crisis. Hospitals faced bottlenecks due to inefficient and non-adaptive patient triage and care workflows. Limited hospital capacity and human resources to meet rising patient volumes. Need for data privacy, security, and compliance in clinical AI deployments.

What was the impact of the AI solution?

Reduced emergency mental health wait times by 55%. Unlocked 200 extra hours of emergency room capacity within six months. Enabled care to reach patients faster, improving health outcomes. Platform and impact are scaling nationally and internationally.

Source

Microsoft

Hero AI Reduces Hospital Patient Wait Times and Improves Emergency Care

Use case typePatient engagementUpdated Jun 13, 2026

Hero AI, a Canadian healthcare technology startup, partnered with Microsoft Azure AI to tackle operational inefficiencies in hospitals, focusing on emergency care delivery. Their customizable platform leverages Azure AI Foundry and Azure OpenAI to offer AI-driven insights tailored to hospital workflows. One flagship deployment at SickKids Toronto uses real-time machine learning to triage emergency mental health patients, reducing the time needed for psychiatric consultations. Security, compliance, and responsible AI ethics are core to their software, ensuring hospitals can use advanced AI tools without jeopardizing data privacy. The solution is designed to easily scale, with current plans for expansion across Canada, the US, and the UK. Microsoft Copilot integration is anticipated to bring patient- and staff-facing AI agents for greater support in care delivery. Results include major reductions in patient wait times and hundreds of additional emergency room hours unlocked for care. Founded in 2020 in Toronto, Hero AI partnered with Microsoft to make hospital emergency rooms more efficient with AI-powered platforms. The solution is highly customizable and adapts to unique workflows in each hospital, driving automation and operational improvement. Hero AI leverages Azure AI Foundry and Azure OpenAI for AI model experimentation and rapid production deployment. A flagship deployment at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto cut mental health patient wait times by 55%. Microsoft Copilot is being integrated for future patient- and staff-facing automations. Hero AI is scaling the platform to hospitals across Canada, the US, and the UK.

Organization: Hero AI
Industry: Healthcare
Location: Canada

Reported outcomes

−55%

timeTime & speed

Strategic outcomes

Customer experience & trustImproved emergency mental health care accessScale & capacityUnlocked additional emergency room capacitySpeed & agilityAccelerated emergency mental health triageMarket & geographic expansionScaling across multiple countries

Catalog median for time & speed deployments: −60% across 727 reported metrics. Compare benchmarks →

Primary read

Use case focus

Showing 3 of 3

1Emergency Room Wait Time Prediction and Automation
2AI-driven Emergency Mental Health Patient Triage
3Integrating AI Copilot Agents for Clinical Workflows

Long emergency room wait times for patients, especially those in mental health crisis.
Hospitals faced bottlenecks due to inefficient and non-adaptive patient triage and care workflows.
Limited hospital capacity and human resources to meet rising patient volumes.
Need for data privacy, security, and compliance in clinical AI deployments.

Customizable hospital automation platform leveraging Azure AI Foundry and Azure OpenAI.
Integrated real-time machine learning models to accelerate triage of mental health patients.
Close collaboration with Microsoft for security, compliance, and AI best practice integration.
Planning to implement Microsoft Copilot for interactive, patient- and staff-facing AI agents.

Technologies

Azure AI Foundry Azure OpenAI Microsoft Copilot