Worki, a healthcare workforce infrastructure company, announced it has raised $2.75 million in pre-seed funding to support the development of its AI-driven platform designed to modernize workforce and HR operations across health systems. The round was led by Redesign Health and Healthliant Ventures, signaling strong early validation of the company’s approach.
The company is building a connective infrastructure layer that integrates fragmented workforce systems into a unified data and job architecture, enabling health systems to deploy AI across real roles and workflows while maintaining human oversight. The platform incorporates AI agents throughout the data standardization process and is designed to support initiatives such as ERP readiness, post-merger system integration, and administrative cost reduction.
Worki’s core innovation lies in its task-role architecture, which maps how work is performed at a granular level across healthcare organizations. This approach provides leaders with visibility into operational workflows, identifies where AI can augment or automate tasks, and creates a structured roadmap for implementation. Early health system partners have projected millions in first-year savings, with further efficiencies expected as adoption scales.
The platform addresses a key challenge in healthcare, as organizations move from AI experimentation to real-world implementation while balancing cost pressures and workforce concerns. By grounding AI deployment in actual workflows rather than abstract job structures, Worki aims to reduce uncertainty and improve operational clarity for healthcare leaders.
The founding team brings experience across healthcare operations, commercial strategy, and artificial intelligence. CEO Craig Allan Ahrens has expertise in workforce operations and scaling healthcare startups, while CCO Michael Biggs focuses on commercial strategy and go-to-market execution. CTO Harvey Hongwei Li, PhD, previously led AI and machine learning initiatives at Uber and Airbnb.
Worki is currently working with health systems including Tanner Health and BJC Healthcare, with plans to expand its platform to additional organizations and increasingly complex workforce environments. While initially focused on healthcare, the company intends to extend its model to other regulated industries facing similar operational challenges.
KEY QUOTES:
“Worki is building the infrastructure that healthcare organizations need to operationalize AI across their workforce, connecting fragmented systems and giving leaders clarity on where AI can augment and automate work. The founding team’s combination of advanced AI expertise and hands-on healthcare operating experience is exactly why we backed them.”
Neil Patel, Head Of Ventures, Redesign Health
“As the venture arm for Tanner Health, we’re constantly evaluating new technologies based on how they perform inside real health system environments, not just how they’re positioned. What stood out about Worki is that it’s built to operate within the complexity of workforce operations, not around it. That’s critical for any organization trying to move from AI experimentation to something that actually works in practice.”
Steve West, Managing Director, Healthliant Ventures
“Health systems are being asked to adopt AI while reducing costs, and their workforce is feeling that pressure. Leaders don’t have a clear roadmap for how to do that without making the wrong cuts or creating more uncertainty. What we’re building is the task level AI infrastructure that brings clarity to that process, connecting systems, mapping how work is performed, and giving organizations a way to introduce AI that supports and reassures their teams while driving real operational change.”
Craig Allan Ahrens, CEO, Worki
