Qualtrics closes Press Ganey Forsta deal for $6.75bn

Qualtrics has completed its acquisition of Press Ganey Forsta, allowing those in patient experience (PX) to explore more predictive capabilities.  

Qualtrics, which claims the world's largest proprietary human Experience Management (XM) AI and data platform, acquired Press Ganey Forsta, which holds the world's largest healthcare experience dataset, for US$6.75 billion. 

Not only does the deal align two major players in their respective fields, it also paves the ways for artificial intelligence (AI) to be applied to heighten standards across healthcare systems, in line with the advances being seen across CX.

At present, Qualtrics CEO Jason Maynard says there is an "experience gap" between expectations and reality, with patients expecting the same standard of experience from their healthcare providers as they do the best "hospitality, travel, dining, concierge, and digital experiences they have anywhere in their lives". 

"AI permanently changed what people expect from every experience in their lives," said Maynard. "That's why the future will be won in the Experience Gap. Leaders want to deliver intelligent, responsive, and predictable human experiences. In the age of AI, experience is now the differentiator in every industry, and for the first time ever that problem can be solved in healthcare. The rich data and context intelligence we are building raises the standard for what experience management can do across every industry we serve."

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Two tech giants unite

More than 41,000 healthcare facilities rely on Press Ganey Forsta systems and, in its press statement, Qualtrics carried comments from a number of healthcare leaders who were positive about the experience enhancement the combined capabilities would support. 

David Entwistle, president and CEO of Stanford Health Care said: "The opportunity ahead for healthcare is not simply more data or more AI, it is the ability to turn insight into timely, human-centered action. 

"As the industry evolves, organizations that succeed will be those that pair proven technology with deep expertise in patient and care team experience to drive meaningful improvements in care delivery, trust, and outcomes," Entwistle added. 

John Couris, president and CEO of Tampa General Hospital said the deal would improve patient outcomes, as well as provide deep AI-powered analytic insights. 

He said: "This combination brings together two dynamic companies that provide deep AI-powered analytic insights and drive improvement, ultimately accelerating our goal to reach zero harm and build resiliency in the workforce, with the benefactors being our patients, families, clinicians and team members."

Meanwhile, Keith Kirkpatrick, VP & research director with The Futurum Group, said the acquisition "reflects a broader industry shift toward unifying experience and operational data to power AI-driven decision-making". 

Kirkpatrick added: "By combining healthcare-specific benchmarking and provider data with its XM platform, healthcare organizations will be well positioned to transition from relying solely on retrospective insights to leveraging real-time, outcome-oriented actions that improve both patient and provider experiences."

The power of (synthetic) data

As highlighted by Qualtrics, this acquisition combines the data held by two organizations that are both leaders in their fields, ultimately creating "the world's largest AI dataset for human experiential context ever assembled". 

While Qualtrics has pioneered experience management across multiple industries, Press Ganey Forsta holds decades of patient voice data and also has deep relationships with provider, payer, and post-acute leaders. Qualtrics said that together, the  data represents "the most robust and complete human experience set of experiential data in the world"  and that is .

The combined datasets position the combined company to train future LLMs and AI models, and build the predictive experiences Qualtrics said will meet the patient demand for excellence in PX. The press statement also said synthetic datasets would allow for broad testing and exploration of patient needs, behaviors, and reactions. 

While many in CX are embracing the potential of synthetic data and agentic twins to reinforce their voice of customer programs, others are cautious about depending too much on models that may not be able to update in real time and give accurate reactions to global and domestic events, such as market shocks, political developments or interest rates.

Qualtrics, however, has a positive outlook. The press statement explained: "This dataset creates the engine for a new generation of AI-driven synthetic experience intelligence systems capable of simulating outcomes, predicting human needs and behaviors, and orchestrating more personalized experiences at unprecedented scale."

Expectations are high. Maynard said the AI capabilities will be able to step in to assist patients with such tasks as appointment management or repeat prescription requests, as well as identifying and offering support to "a clinician showing signs of burnout".

The enhanced insights could also support organizations in financial services, public sector, technology, retail, hospitality, and beyond who use Qualtrics. 

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