AI in healthcare marketing — Tips in Ten(ish) Minutes

0:00:01.4 Kirsten Lecky: Hi, Rebecca.

0:00:06.4 Rebecca Sims: Hi, Kirsten.

0:00:07.4 Kirsten Lecky: Welcome to our Tips in Ten Minutes. I know you’re very familiar with our Tips in Ten Minutes. I’m super excited to have your expertise with me today. I think most everyone knows who you are, but if you wanna introduce yourself just in case there’s a few people out there that don’t know you.

0:00:23.2 Rebecca Sims: I’m sure there’s one or two. Hi, I’m Rebecca Sims, Executive Vice President of Operations at WriterGirl.

0:00:30.1 Kirsten Lecky: Yes. And we’re so happy to have you. So you’ll notice probably that we have playgrounds in our background, which is on purpose. So we’ll get to that point very quickly. About a month or two ago, Rebecca and her team delivered some training here at WriterGirl about AI. What is it? How are we gonna use it? What is our stance with AI? How are we using it internally? How are we using it with clients? And she delivered this really creative, thoughtful lunch and learn with our entire team. And I was really inspired by one of the things that she said, and I wanna share that first to kick us off. And she said that curiosity is our playground. As a WriterGirl, core value curiosity is the park where bravery and vulnerability team up her pickup games with trends and innovations. Tell me more, as our coach, winning means facing discomfort, new opponents, and embracing new teammates. So I thought that was such a perfect analogy of what we’re entering into with this new tool and this new technology and just this new access that we have with AI.

0:01:36.2 Kirsten Lecky: So with that in mind, I thought Rebecca could share with us, if you could share with us what are some of the rules of the playground since a lot of us are just entering the playground for the first time, maybe spending a minute or two, or an hour or two, or a day or two or two here. What are some things that we should keep in mind as we, as we visit this playground of AI?

0:02:00.2 Rebecca Sims: Well, thank you, Kirsten. Thank you for having me, and thanks for asking that question. To go back to the teamwork, I have to give a shout out to Dama Ewbank and Hannah Barker on our team who did a tremendous amount of work pulling together and delivering part of that initial presentation. But when you ask about the rules of engagement for the playground I love that because I mean, almost no one’s talking about AI, right? Like there’s nothing out there about it.

0:02:28.3 Kirsten Lecky: Yeah. We’re really bringing some new information together.

0:02:33.1 Rebecca Sims: That’s right. So along with the bravery and the vulnerability, like… There’s a lot of stuff during this hype cycle about is it taking everybody’s job or are we all… Humans are useless or whatever. It’s important to keep an open mind and approach with curiosity and bravery, but I think you said something during a conversation that really resonated with me. And I would say as you explore AI, I am sure everybody’s starting to dip in and play around with it. Keep in mind that if it’s important to read the room, so to speak, AI can’t do that for you. It can mimic empathy, but it can’t draw naturally on real true human experiences like humans can. And I’m probably not the first to say that either. People have noticed it does a pretty good job at mimicking empathy, but you can kind of, right now you can kind of see that it’s not genuine.

0:03:33.3 Rebecca Sims: So on day one of the release of the free ChatGPT, my son emailed me a heartfelt letter to mom kind of thing, and it was beautiful and it was wonderful. And then I was like, hang on a second, you didn’t write this. [laughter] Like, you know, on some level I could see through that it wasn’t quite authentically his voice, although it’s really, really close. So I think that’s something to keep in mind that there’s a limitation there. It can do a fairly good job of falling when it prompts to be warm or to be genuine, but it can’t actually be those things in a way that a human being can’t.

0:04:11.4 Kirsten Lecky: So it’s almost like, if you need to read the playground or really understand kind of the dynamics that, that’s something too that AI can’t necessarily do ’cause it doesn’t really have that human experience. I’ve never been to a playground before. What am I gonna experience?

0:04:24.1 Rebecca Sims: Yeah, exactly. And to go on with the if, ands or buts, I would say, and [chuckle] be mindful of the accuracy or potential lack thereof, because what AI is doing, as a lot of us probably are learning, it’s curating everything from the internet and that could come from anywhere. And that is where you hear that AI can hallucinate or say things that aren’t true. It’s because there’s just so much information and it can gather from anywhere. So it’s really, really important if you are going to prompt it, to prompt it to use specific resources so that you can have some input there, or to make sure you’re checking it, fact checking it on the backend, because just because it’s on the internet doesn’t always make it true. So just be really mindful of getting the most accurate information and think about whether AI is going to be a time saver for you and a good partner. We like to think of it as a good brainstorming partner or assistant. But that it’s not going to replace the need for that fact checking, the need for accuracy, the need for an editor’s eye or a writer to smooth things out and polish and make sure everything is empathetic, on brand accurate and has been completely vetted, checked, etcetera.

0:05:58.7 Kirsten Lecky: So it’s almost like we hear that expression, there are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. And in the case of AI, there is only ifs, ands, or buts about it. And so if you need to read the room and if it needs to be accurate and the final one of but, also have some fun with it, right? Know that it’s a teammate and a companion in the work that you’re doing and I think it’s really important to remember, it’s not replacing anyone, but that it’s really a collaborative tool that supports everyone’s efforts and what they’re doing. So I think that’s great. Thank you for sharing that.

0:06:34.4 Rebecca Sims: Absolutely. Our team has had a tremendous amount of fun…

0:06:37.1 Kirsten Lecky: Yes.

0:06:38.6 Rebecca Sims: Exploring it and learning on our own. What could it be good at and what maybe not, what to use that for.

0:06:47.2 Kirsten Lecky: Yeah. Which I think kind of leads to the next question too like, what is it good at? And then what is it maybe not as useful for. And so I was curious to hear from you, like, as you think about our business and being our EVP over operations and thinking about, what sort of like trends or insights or behaviors are you looking for on this playground to help inform our business going forward? What are some of the things that you’re paying attention to?

0:07:14.9 Rebecca Sims: Oh, so much, Kirsten, because it changes. There’s so much new information and we’re all being inundated with it. As in regards to AI, for every one to five articles you read about how it’s coming for you next or replacing us, you’ll see the backlash of that where… There’s all kinds of content on social media about AI can write your resume, AI can do whatever you think, it can do it. On the other side. It’s like, okay, now corporations are making sure to check, to make sure resumes haven’t been written by AI or universities have been scanning papers to make sure they’re not produced by AI. So where do we meet in the middle? What is this middle ground? What is the adoption rate like for our industry? Since we’re specific to healthcare we might be a little bit more cautious because it is a nuanced area where there’s a real need for accuracy.

0:08:19.4 Rebecca Sims: So it doesn’t mean that there’s not a place for AI, it just might be different. It’s different in content that it applies to AI may be helping you schedule your emergency room staff. That might be tremendously helpful. But when it comes to content do we still have that time for the sensitivity, the fact checking, everything we’ve mentioned before. And we’re really curious to see how other industries are adapting it and adapting to it. And I think just getting to know each other. At WriterGirl, our values are empowered, curious, kind, and fun. So I would say be kind to each other on the playground. Be curious about what it can and can’t do and how that’s going to evolve over time. It’s not like, okay, this is it, this is not it. It changes every day. So to be adaptable and ready for that. And again, to be empowered to take learning into your own hands and experiment on your own and have fun with it.

0:09:19.8 Kirsten Lecky: Yeah. Yeah. I think those are really good. And I love how we’re seeing our values show up in so many parts of our business and now it’s showing up in how we’re adopting this really innovative tool. So I think that’s a really nice place to kind of end in terms of our conversation now. But one of the things I also wanted to share is this lunch and learn. So you put together, I don’t know, it was like 25 or 30 slides, and we’d like to give everyone the opportunity to use this information for their own teams. Of course we’ll modify it a little bit, but certainly if you would love to receive Rebecca’s slides that she put together for our own team, we won’t deliver it. You can use it as you need to. We’ll have a link in after this recording for you to sign up to receive them so you can use whatever content helps your team, pull out whatever slides might help for your own lunch and learns, your own training.

0:10:13.9 Kirsten Lecky: But again, I just think there’s some really good nuggets in there that are probably by now maybe some good reminders, but really good tools and references in terms of how to use it, especially for healthcare communicators and what it means in our particular space. So I look forward to continued playfulness on our playground with [chuckle] our own team and with all of our clients and within the industry. I think we’re in for a lot of fun. So thank you so much for sharing your experience and expertise.

0:10:45.8 Rebecca Sims: Thank you, Kirsten.