AI in Pharmacy: The Marathon Mindset for Meaningful Change

Reflections from Becker’s Chief Pharmacy Officer Summit and the session “AI in Pharmacy: What's Already Driving Results?” hosted on April 30, 2025

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In an era where AI headlines dominate the healthcare innovation narrative, it’s easy to get swept up in promises of radical transformation. But at last week’s Becker’s Chief Pharmacy Officer Summit in Chicago, the tone was refreshingly grounded.

Our Founder & CEO, Joy Liu, spoke on Wednesday’s panel "AI in Pharmacy: What’s Already Driving Results?", alongside pharmacy leaders from MetroHealth, Yale New Haven Health, and Ballad Health. The group shared their experiences with AI to date, and the message was clear: meaningful change doesn’t come from chasing shiny technology—it comes from partnering with those who understand your pain points, the technical complexity of your workflows, and who respect and prioritize delivery of steady, measurable value.

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Start with the problem, not the technology

Across all panelists, a common theme emerged: real success with AI starts by identifying specific, well-understood pain points.

At Plenful, this principle is foundational. Joy spoke to this in the panel, sharing that “it’s critical to ensure the problem statements are clear for your team—and that early use cases reflect real areas of operational opportunity.”

Rather than attempting to overhaul entire departments overnight, organizations like MetroHealth and Ballad Health are starting with tightly scoped, high-impact areas. 

Prior authorization is ripe for AI experimentation, and is a focus for many of the speakers on the panel. At Plenful, we’re building workflow automation for pharmacy PAs to increase team capacity by 4x, as measured by prior authorization throughput. This means pharmacy technicians will spend less time buried in paperwork and more time operating at the top of their license.

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Transparency builds trust, and trust drives adoption

Trish Tanner, Vice President, Pharmacy Services and Chief Pharmacy Officer at Ballad Health, emphasized transparency as key to AI success. Staff want to know: Is this technology here to replace me, or support me? The answer, when communicated clearly, can be deeply empowering.

Trish is rethinking how pharmacists are trained, partnering with local colleges to shape a “mini-residency” focused on tech fluency in the clinical setting. This enables new grads to come into their roles with a greater understanding of the potential for AI, its capabilities and limitations, and first-hand experience seeing how AI is being adopted across health systems. Trish is creating AI champions to shape the future of the industry.

At Plenful, our platform includes customizable dashboards and enterprise-level reporting features that surface real-time insights to signal where AI is making an impact, informing future business decisions. We summarize the number of claims audited, dollars saved through 340B missed opportunities, number of PAs processed, and other top KPIs. We believe transparency creates trust, and with trust, continued adoption across your organization. 

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Unlocking capacity, not cutting headcount

Healthcare has always been a people-powered industry. But too often, those people are buried under tasks that siphon their expertise. AI offers a solution—but only if it’s implemented thoughtfully and with your people top of mind.

As Joy shared on the panel, “It’s not about removing headcount. It’s about unlocking capacity.” This means giving pharmacists, analysts, and support teams time back to focus on what matters most—clinical care and patient engagement–leaning on AI technology to reduce manual work and capture revenue. 

“It’s not about removing headcount. It’s about unlocking capacity.” Joy Liu, Founder & CEO at Plenful

Plenful’s automation platform is designed to identify and address low-hanging fruit first—whether running a continuous, 100% audit of 340B claims, reducing manual work behind prior authorizations, or streamlining order and referral data entry workflows. These early wins have helped our 60+ customers build momentum and trust, setting the stage for broader adoption over time.

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Change requires champions—and alignment

Ryan Mezinger, Senior Vice President and Chief Pharmacy Officer at MetroHealth shared that one of their most successful strategies was engaging frontline staff as champions. These team members offer invaluable feedback, shape how the technology fits into daily workflows, and foster continued organizational buy-in.

At Yale New Haven Health, LeeAnn Miller, Vice President and Chief Pharmacy Officer, shared that change is approached with a combination of enthusiasm and caution. While some team members are early adopters, others need more support. She also cautioned the importance of using technology with a strong security posture, given the sensitivity of PHI and stringent compliance requirements with HIPAA privacy rules.

"When exploring AI technology, start with discrete, repeatable use cases and align them with organizational priorities.” LeeAnn Miller, Vice President and Chief Pharmacy Officer at Yale New Haven Health

LeeAnn’s insight was a reflection of how we partner at Plenful: collaboratively and intentionally. We don’t build in a vacuum—we build alongside your team who knows your problems first-hand.

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AI strategy should be systemic, not siloed

One of the most thought-provoking takeaways from the panel came from Trish at Ballad Health:

“If there’s a solid AI solution, don’t be afraid to act on it—but you also need to ask yourself, ‘Then what?’” Trish Tanner, Vice President, Pharmacy Services and Chief Pharmacy Officer at Ballad Health

Orgs need a global vision for AI and how it fits in. Trish shared her love for the “5 Whys”–a problem-solving technique where you repeatedly ask "why?" five times to uncover the root cause of a problem. When evaluating how AI can add value at Ballad, Trish uses the “5 Whys” to drill down to the fundamental issues that underlie a situation.

“Then what?” is a timely question. AI is not a one-off initiative, it’s a systemic shift that should tie into enterprise-level goals. Whether you're improving workforce efficiency, protecting your 340B program, or uncovering missed revenue, your AI strategy needs to ladder up to your health system’s strategic priorities.

At Plenful, we believe that a successful AI journey is a long-term partnership. Our recent Series B announcement reflects our commitment to building an enduring, mission-aligned company. We’re here to co-create lasting value for our customers.

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The future is measured, not rushed

Healthcare doesn’t need more moonshot promises. It needs durable solutions that work in the real world–with real teams, real workflows, and real stakes.

The leaders on stage last week echoed this sentiment. From sharing metrics on clinic time gains, to investing in tech education, to surfacing frontline feedback, these leaders are playing the long game.

And so are we. At Plenful, we’re proud to be a partner that gets it—we come from healthcare operations. Our platform reflects that lived experience and is solving for real pain points. We’re here to build with transparency, unlock incremental value, and help pharmacy teams meet today’s challenges, while preparing for tomorrow’s possibilities.

This isn’t a sprint. It’s an AI marathon. And we’re in it together.