Coalition for Health AI (CHAI), a nonprofit organization founded by clinicians to advance responsible health AI, announced the launch of PULSE (Public health Use case and Learning Scaling Engine), a national initiative designed to help state, tribal, local, and territorial public health agencies responsibly evaluate, implement and scale generative AI. As part of this initiative, OpenAI and Anthropic have donated 10 enterprise licenses, with up to 2,000 seats available for public health practitioners. CHAI's leadership council – made up of 17 cross-sector collaborators – will select participating entities, assign individuals to their preferred use-case communities of practice, and work with Accenture's AI and public health experts to manage onboarding and develop playbooks across five key use cases. The playbooks will serve as best practices for other jurisdictions to utilize, systematizing the pockets of excellence at the frontlines in public health.

"Every major technological transformation succeeds or fails based on trust, governance and execution. Public institutions have the added responsibility of doing so while maintaining transparency and accountability," said Dr. David Lakey, former Texas Health Commissioner. "PULSE will support agencies in this endeavor, and is specifically designed for practical implementation – working hand in hand with the professionals that are actively using the generative AI tools."

According to NACCHO, nearly 40% of local health departments are not currently using AI and are interested in integrating it in the future. As public health agencies are under increased pressure to respond faster, analyze more data and communicate more effectively – with limited resources – AI has the potential to transform workflows and efficiencies. PULSE's goal is to accelerate the adoption of generative AI in public health by piloting the most impactful use cases in 10 select jurisdictions, and then translating learnings into playbooks at a national scale.

"The COVID-19 pandemic showed just how critical our public health infrastructure is – years of underinvestment in technology left many agencies without the tools or experience they needed to respond as effectively as they could, and we're seeing the same thing with AI today," said Brian Anderson, MD, CEO of CHAI. "PULSE is designed to help public health agencies build trust, practical experience, and a path to responsible implementation of this powerful technology. We're proud to provide a vehicle for these organizations to share what they learn using leading AI tools in real-world settings, facilitating adoption and helping accelerate responsible innovation that strengthens public health nationwide."

Today, CHAI opened a national call for jurisdiction applications. Participants will then be selected representing diverse geographies, political contexts, and organizational scales. These jurisdictions could include: a state of territorial health department, a local or county health department, a tribal authority or Indian health organization, or a large city health department. Pilots with these 10 jurisdictions will begin this fall. The public launch of the playbooks is expected next year. The use cases are as follows:

• Biosurveillance: Drug Wave Prediction
• Social Determinants of Health (SDoH): SDoH Mapping
• Operations and Efficiency: Community Feedback Analysis
• Public Communications: Multilingual Translation Hub
• Automated Clinical Data Retrieval: FHIR Query Engine

"We know AI is going to reshape how we deliver public health — the question is whether we do it thoughtfully or not," said Dr. Ashish Jha, Former White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator. "PULSE is our best shot at getting this right: testing what actually works, learning fast and making sure the benefits reach the communities that need them most."

"We believe AI should be useful, safe and accessible to the people tackling society's most important challenges," said Felipe Millon, Head of Government Go to Market at OpenAI. "By participating in this initiative through our licenses, we're helping public health organizations evaluate these tools in a structured, responsible way – with the hope that these pilots can guide broader adoption."

"Public health teams are being asked to do more with less, and AI can help — as long as it's brought in with care and the right guardrails," said Elizabeth Kelly, Head of Beneficial Deployments at Anthropic. "That's why PULSE matters: it lets practitioners test these tools in their own environments, with privacy, governance, and responsible use built in from the start. We're glad to contribute the licenses that make that possible."