By Lisiane Pruinelli, PhD, MSc, RN, FAMIA, FAAN
Welcome to 2026!
At FloGatorAI, we’re starting the new year with gratitude and, most importantly, momentum. As AI adoption accelerates across education, practice and policy, this moment represents a critical inflection point for nursing leadership. Since launching in October 2024, this blog has become a space where nurses, data scientists, educators and innovators come together to shape the future of AI in nursing.
In 2025, each monthly post reflected a different facet of that work: grounded in real practice, infused with nursing values and always looking forward. Together, these conversations reinforced a central idea: Nursing should actively lead, not simply adapt to, the AI transformation.
2025 in Review: Milestones that Moved Us
Over the past year, coverage ranged from curriculum reform to environmental health, advancing nursing’s role as a designer, evaluator and steward of AI-enabled care. Standout moments included:
- Education and Workforce Innovation: We explored how faculty, such as Dr. Michael Bumbach demonstrated how AI-powered scenarios are transforming simulation training, while collaborations including NAILCollab and AINurse25 highlighted the development of AI-inclusive curricula.
- Ethics, Empathy and Limits: We examined the risks of mistaking artificial intelligence for emotional presence and reinforced why simulated care should never replace genuine human connection.
- Precision Environmental Health: We spotlighted the need for connected systems that respond to real-world exposures, from air quality concerns to climate-related events such as hurricanes, particularly in Florida.
- Practice-ReadyGguardrails: We brought insights from the AMIA 2026 Nursing Informatics Working Group to highlight AI risk assessment, implementation strategies and the evolving role of nurses in shaping FDA-aligned governance.
Across these themes, one message remained constant: Nurses are not just AI users — we are leaders.
What’s Coming in 2026
As AI adoption accelerates, FloGatorAI will continue to serve as a bridge between the frontlines of care and the frontier of technology. Building on the foundation laid in 2025, the focus in 2026 will shift from exploration to application and impact. Highlights for the year ahead include:
- Faculty Spotlights: Real-world examples of nurse educators designing AI-infused assignments, simulations and research projects.
- Frameworks in Action: In-depth looks at how AI competencies are being integrated into curricula and clinical tools.
- Ethics and Policy Watch: Key updates on emerging federal regulatory guidance, algorithmic accountability and bias mitigation.
- New Frontiers: Explorations of AI’s role in aging, mental health, humanitarian response and planetary health.
- Tools You Can Use: Practical resources, including the FloGatorAI Prompt Engineering Cookbooks, to support faculty and student engagement.
FloGatorAI will also continue to feature voices from partners across the UF AI ecosystem, NAILCollab and national and global leaders shaping the future of nursing and technology. These collaborations will expand as we co-create solutions that are innovative and grounded in nursing practice.
Join Us
Whether you are a nurse educator, clinician, student, informatician or policymaker, there’s a place for you in this conversation. Let’s make 2026 the year we move from conversation to impact! Read, share and apply these ideas in your classrooms, clinics and communities. Follow the blog. Share the posts. Use them to spark change where you are. Let’s build the AI-ready, equity-driven future of nursing, TOGETHER.