Here is the most fundamental fact in the eye care industry. Eye care providers are completely dependent on the eye care companies that make products and provide services to continually innovate if the care delivery continues to evolve. This journal and all others focus primarily on the providers and care delivery. Our focus should be equally focused on our vision industry partners (VIP’s) that control the future trajectory of this industry.
This two-part series is meant to serve as a comprehensive guide to help our VIPs successfully adopt and integrate AI into their business models and our industry. In this part, we’ll detail how VIPs can integrate current AI tools to strengthen their infrastructure, data assets, internal workflow processes, personnel, and strategies. The second part, Your Roadmap to Successful AI Integration, offers a step-by-step guide on how to integrate AI into your organization. Think of this as a VIP playbook of how to change the future of eye care.
Mindset is Key
First, let’s get in the right mindset. Regardless of what part of the eye care industry you are in, you are a tech company. Simply put, you have to be, or you will be left behind. The world is now digital, and to survive, we all need to think differently about two important concepts.
Eye care has traditionally been slow to adapt to new technology, new ways of doing things, and anything that moves the status quo from slow to GO. Second, the information we collect is much more than a byproduct of providing care. It is a treasure trove of untapped data that, when digitized, will change how the practice of medicine works, how care is delivered, and where and to whom it is delivered. Data is the new currency, and we all need to start thinking of it that way.
Fighting the Status Quo
In the past, the powers that controlled the status quo also controlled the pace of change. Let this article serve as a notice that the old guard is going to face some tough challenges. The changes that AI brings to eye care are not going to be a linear, easily controlled line of progress. Growth and changes will be exponential and three dimensional. The coming health revolution will leverage AI to provide products and services across all touchpoints, experiences, and channels. This is a new territory for everyone.
Right now, AI progress is slow. It will continue to be slow for a few more years, which will lull the old guard into denial. Then, everything will start to connect and integrate. The proverbial train will leave the station, and it will be moving fast. AI and its related technologies will change everything about how care is delivered, what products are built, and how both occur. There will be clear winners in this evolution. There will be losers. Where your company ends up will be your decision. The time to act is now! Let’s dig in.
The Parts of a Successful Organization
Adopting AI into a health care company is a complex, yet potentially transformative process. Regardless of what others may tell you, this process will not be easy! It takes time, costs money, and comes with its own unique set of challenges. If you don’t adopt, you will be left behind by those who do. This section is going to give you a game plan of what to do NOW, as well as some strategies to think about in the future.
Before I lay out a roadmap of how to incorporate AI into your business (part 2), let’s break down your business into its components: your people, the workflow processes they endure every day, current technological infrastructure, your data, your strategic decision-making process, and your profit model.
Your People
Undoubtedly, the most important part of every business is your people. AI will make this distinction even clearer. Though AI can process more than even the smartest human on earth, it lacks creativity, insight, and global understanding to create the innovations that will change the world. It is your people, augmented with the amazing power of AI, who ultimately affect the success — or failure — of the business.
A key concept here is that AI will not replace people. AI will, however, free up people to be creative, find new products, dream up new services or new ways to provide those services, and improve job satisfaction. People are a critical part of the success formula, and AI will remove many of the mundane and time-consuming processes that are hindering the innovation and creativity necessary to take your business to the next level.
Your Processes
As mentioned earlier, AI will change the way we do business. It will allow us to reimagine how our business works. Whether we talk about the entire health care delivery system or tasks like building sales reports, marketing campaigns, or sales calls, our current system is antiquated at best — and just plain broken at worst.
One of the most exciting opportunities that we will see with AI is a “rethinking” of how our business works. AI will be one of the tools that helps us to remove the obstacles and challenges of many of the monotonous and mundane tasks of today. To fix these processes, we need to get out of our status quo “shell” and take time to rethink the possibilities. Consider how things would be different if reporting was automated, if personalized marketing to hundreds of individual groups only took a few prompts, or if sales calls, and the training provided during these calls, could be automated and tracked. Thanks to the AI revolution, these capabilities either currently exist or will exist in a few short years.
Your Infrastructure
Across multiple industries we are already seeing the dramatic decrease in infrastructure costs as AI, combined with cloud computing, will change the physical attributes of doing business. Without the need for onsite servers, everything from decreasing the physical hardware you need, to the web and computing necessities, are all changing. As remote work becomes easier, we may not need as much physical office space.
Your Data
Throughout the eye care field, there is vast amounts of collected and unused data. We will call this your “data estate,” and after your people, it is the most valuable asset a company has. Data is the new currency, and we have a lot of it. We just need to capture it, clean it, curate it, and use it correctly. When we feed this data into AI, its predictive analytics highlight business we have never been able to imagine — much less see or act on.
Your Strategic Decision-Making
Imagine if you had valid, real-time data about marketing opportunities, market size for a new product, and the ability to evaluate utilization. What if you had transparency on reimbursement issues as it relates to increased utilization of a product or service? These are all things that AI is about to bring to the world of strategic decision-making. We are about to have data delivered to us in ways never imagined because the one thing AI is most amazing at is recognizing patterns that are hidden in the noise, or patterns that we did not even know what to look for. Those who curate and cultivate that data will make better decisions, faster. In our competitive marketplace, that is a definite strategic advantage.
Profit and Productivity
When planning the ways to incorporate AI into your practice, think long term. The companies willing to embrace the initial obstacles of AI will likely see exponential shifts in productivity and profitability.
Excited about the opportunities, yet? Part two of this guide features a roadmap of strategies and considerations to be successful. It also highlights how to avoid the pitfalls of those selling promises and “shiny objects.” Check it out here.
Author
