In the past five months, I have given over 25 presentations across the United States, ranging from formal to informal events. These have included keynotes, panel discussions, workshops, webinars, podcasts, and online discourses. My audiences have spanned regional practitioners and professional associations to national groups and leadership. While my traditional talks in the past focused on the wider area of digital health, these have predominantly centered on the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) in pharmacy. As I've mentioned before, AI has always been a background topic for me—it's been a component of the majority of digital health technologies (DHTs) I've worked on—but the current emphasis is demanding more attention. Coming down from this speaking surge, I've spent a lot of time thinking about the ongoing AI conversations and what people want to hear.

With that in mind, I wanted to share several of my observations and key takeaway points based on my experience presenting to multiple pharmacy groups:

There is too much focus on Generative AI and not AI overall. This makes sense to me but really limits the conversation. Most pharmacists (and people) are reeling from the news about what AI can do and the issues becoming apparent. Given that, much of the focus is on Generative AI. So, a lot of the audience knows what ChatGPT is but has little experience with other AI examples. I think those other AI developments need more discussion at large.

Very few people currently want to know how AI works. When I started giving the first few presentations on AI, I had a larger segment of my decks dedicated to explaining how AI works, with a strong focus on terminology and technical background. I quickly realized no one really wanted to talk about it. The only groups that seemed to have a high interest were those with a technical background, which were few and far between. In general, I stuck with the historical context of AI and case examples within society to introduce the topic broadly. I think in the coming years this may change, but for now the topic is just too "new" for the vast majority of pharmacists.

Most pharmacists want to know how AI may impact them. This has been the ultimate demand at this time. How will AI affect their work, their jobs, and their current and future practices? Who is doing what? What are the rules and regulations? Which companies are creating or expanding AI capabilities? What does it mean for their business practices? How can they future-proof their careers, what should they invest in, how do they evaluate AI tools, and more.

AI means very different things for different groups. Each group I've spoken to has different concerns related to AI, reflective of their own goals and operations. For instance, health educators want to know two things: how to use AI for their personal work and in the classroom, and what to teach students for their future. For practicing pharmacists, it depends on their duties—is it focused on operations, dispensing, or clinical roles? For pharma, how does it impact current medical and commercial opportunities? I've come away from these experiences realizing that, ultimately, at this time, there is no central message that can be delivered to the pharmacy profession; rather, it will vary across each organization depending on their cultural stance, current concerns, and potential impact on future operations.

Pharmacists are both scared and excited about AI. The questions I receive in different groups reflect current fears, trepidations, and excitement brewing. Those whose roles are closer to dispensing currently have the largest amount of trepidation, worried about ongoing trends in the community pharmacy space and the looming role of automation. For these groups, there is some variation based on their current roles and what they want from the presentation in terms of how to stay ahead or what technology to take advantage of right now. Those in operations or the clinical side tend to be less concerned, though they regard it as a potential issue in the coming years. They lean more towards wanting to know the literature, use cases, and possible workflow issues or pathways. This group also seems to be the most excited overall, as they see AI helping with issues on data interpretation and the escalation of better clinical practices.

This conversation is going to take years. There is no way one session on AI is going to be enough to educate an audience about how AI works, what it means to them, and what to do next. Rather, I feel the best that can be done is to introduce the topic and get them up to speed on current developments. The majority of audiences come to these presentations with little background or very topical knowledge on the subject but are loaded with many personal questions they want answered or a large amount of curiosity.

Suggestions for event organizers and speakers:

• What are your members' needs and concerns? If you are an organizer, think hard about what you want the AI session to address, and the speaker should work closely to align those needs with their objectives. I think this is probably the biggest thing that can be done for the next couple of years regarding AI in pharmacy as things rapidly develop.

• What are your current association/organization initiatives on AI? See if there are ongoing AI projects across the organization to help a speaker understand if there are any initiatives or developments they can leverage in their talks to spread more of the organization's ongoing work.

• Who are your experts? This will vary. I have seen several speakers in front of a pharmacy audience trying to explain AI to a profession they have no idea about. This has included telling the audience that AI will help them develop drugs faster and better, leaving me to wonder if they think we are pharma. I would advise that speakers be guided to ensure that, if it's inspirational, it at least has a health angle, and if the speaker is going to talk about pharmacy implications, they have some idea about the profession aside from just dispensing medications. It may also be worth looking internally in your organization to see who is doing what—you may be surprised at how fast some members are using novel tech.

• Who are your partners? Whether vendors or stakeholders, they may be worth consulting to find new speakers or advisors on what AI may mean for you, and how to consider your members' needs or educational growth.

• What do you want these presentations to accomplish? This, I think, will be key. I tend to present in a more informational and thought-provoking style, but some others are much more futuristic or inspirational. I think organizers should closely consider what they want out of these talks and what their members can take away at the end.

What do I think should happen next?

• Continuing Education (CE) and related presentations should be segmented based on core issues for the future. I think in the next 2–3 years we'll need more intermediate and expert-level content depending on the organization and members' needs. I don't think an intro or overview presentation is going to be worth much, and attendees will be wanting more—whether updates on the field, case examples, guidelines, best practices, more technical insight, etc.

• Guidance for self-guided education and more resources. I think that speakers need to help guide attendees to more resources—whether trade journals, publications, websites, tech pieces—to help them understand AI and related tech advances, and encourage more learning outside of these presentations. If the organization has an internal resource, then I definitely think it's worth referencing that.

• Definitions and set standards might be needed. This might be asking for a bit much, but I do think it is worth (within pharmacy) having a set list of definitions or resources to refer to as a best practice. Otherwise, I could see many different interpretations and takes that may be an issue in the coming years as one organization or another promotes possibly competing visions.

• We are a very fragmented profession. The lasting conversations around tech and AI have really emphasized to me the different concerns and initiatives for each pharmacy group. I think this issue will come to light in a few years, depending on how fast some organizations empower or promote certain stances.

So there it is, a summary of some of my observations. I hope if you are a speaker, organizer, or just curious, it was an interesting read!