This article is authored by Brittany Trafis, Executive Vice President of AI Innovation at Fathom. Brittany leads Fathom’s adoption of marketing AI technology, solving complex challenges and driving measurable results for its clients. 

The transformational potential of AI is extraordinary. And in many ways, healthcare is on the cutting edge of AI innovation with enhancements already made to diagnosis, treatment, and operations. And yet many of the marketers I speak with are unsure where to start or struggling to gain traction.

If that’s you, consider a strategic framework:

Before what, define why. Before you begin implementing new AI tools into your stack, I would strongly encourage you to clearly define why first. As you consider goals, ensure they’re aligned with creating value. If they’re not, go back to the drawing board.

Upskill your team. AI disruption is inevitable. I believe the economist Richard Baldwin got it right when he said, “AI won’t take your job, it’s somebody using AI that will take your job.” To futureproof and empower your team:

1. Establish a cross-functional AI council to define and champion a vision.
2. Gain leadership support.
3. Develop a strategy with a clear purpose, benefits, and objectives.
4. Implement learning and development programs, relying on internal and external resources.
5. Initiate pilot programs, focusing on areas with high enthusiasm, potential for impact, and minimal process disruption.

Unlock data. Healthcare marketers have the datasets to empower better, smarter, and more effective strategies. However, this data is often inaccessible, messy, or, at the very least, underutilized. These are all challenges AI can solve. As soon as possible, gather the various data stewards at your organization to create a unified data warehouse. Remember, you don’t need access to PHI to optimize marketing campaign performance.

Enhance creative and content strategy. 74% of marketers already use AI tools for content generation. But the real value of AI lies beyond the basics. Create rich personas, discover new value propositions, and conduct competitive intelligence to fuel differentiation. Or take the content you’ve already created and use AI to multiply your assets.

Create efficiency. To be clear, you won’t see efficiency right away. It takes time to learn new tools and develop mastery. As a result, we rarely encourage clients to prioritize efficiency in their AI adoption journey. However, you can use AI to replace mundane tasks like notetaking in meetings, conducting research, and sending recaps.

Interested in learning more? Learn from the experts at Fathom and hear real use cases from leading health systems at the Annual Healthcare Internet Conference (HCIC). Brittany Trafis, Executive Vice President of AI Innovation at Fathom, Elise Horst, Director of AI Solutions at Fathom, and Liz McGonigal, Manager of Digital Strategy at Penn Medicine, will present on November 11 at 2:10 PM CT. The session, “Artificial Intelligence in Action: Leveraging AI for Enhanced Patient Engagement,” will dive into strategic uses and actionable insights to help you integrate AI into your healthcare marketing efforts.