Healthcare leaders are no longer simply tinkering with AI as a support tool. They are pushing for it to deliver better, safer, and more efficient care.
Presenters for Upskilling and Future Roles for the Pharmacy Workforce: Incorporating AI Agents as Partners at the upcoming ASHP Pharmacy Futures 2026 meeting say that the pharmacy workforce must also evolve — and it’s on today’s leaders to prepare for future practice.
To learn more, ASHP News Center spoke with presenters Lisa Stump, chief digital information officer at Mount Sinai Health System; Kenny Yu, senior vice president and chief pharmacy officer at Mount Sinai; and Tara Behring Vlasimsky, system director for ambulatory pharmacy services at Intermountain Health.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What does it mean to upskill in the context of AI, and why is this conversation needed now?
Vlasimsky: The last five to 10 years have been all about the promise of AI to automate and streamline healthcare, and we’re starting to see use cases play out. But for some, it’s come with anxiety: Is AI going to replace me?
We’ve learned that healthcare technology doesn’t replace jobs so much as it changes them, and AI is no different. AI brings tremendous promise, but we need to help our teams accept and embrace the changes AI will bring. How do we ensure our workforce is comfortable with, understands, and can succeed with AI?
Stump: The level of AI and smart machines available today far surpasses any single human brain, and we have it in the palms of our hands. Our ability to bring it to bear on patient care puts us in an incredibly powerful position to do good, which is why we all came to healthcare in the first place. Leveraging AI as a highly informed, expert partner can enable pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to expand their roles and their impact.
What role should clinical pharmacists have in this AI transformation?
Yu: The pharmacy profession is in a pivotal spot because we have an opportunity to redefine what it means to practice at the top of our license. When AI first became a buzzword, people were having it perform tasks for us. We need to take that a step further, having AI not only perform the task, but also contribute to the thought process behind it. That way we can gain confidence in the solution, but also repurpose the time gained. Being proactive about AI means not waiting for anyone else to define what that new scope of work means.
Stump: We should also remember that patients are now empowered with the very same AI tools and far more informed. They will need guidance around using credible sources and validating AI suggestions. Pharmacists are in a unique position to help with that, serving as trusted partners who help patients use AI to their benefit and minimize potential risks.
What knowledge and skills will the pharmacy workforce need going forward?
Vlasimsky: Historically, pharmacists had to be good at looking through charts, finding nuggets of information to help make a better care plan. Now, AI can pull all that data together and give recommendations for us to act on. So our teams have to start thinking of themselves as not the doers, but as someone leading and overseeing a group of AI doers. We must become invested in the success of AI: to teach it, train it, and correct it so it can learn.
Yu: We need to embrace the power of AI, but we also must realize the potential risks or vulnerabilities that it may also cause. We must be accountable and responsible for using it the right way.
How can pharmacy leaders prepare their workforces for the AI era?
Yu: When I was in pharmacy school, you always said, “Start low and titrate up.” I think this is how we should approach technology and AI. Start by making one workflow more efficient, like prior authorizations. Then let AI be a little more independent, maybe helping to draft medical necessity forms. Start out slowly, validate, then keep layering on.
Stump: Start recognizing AI as a member of the team while putting appropriate boundaries around it, the same way you would a new intern or trainee. And lead by example by deploying and using AI in your own work.
Vlasimsky: Meet people where they are. Engage the early AI adopters and champions quickly and have them help bring people along. Change management looks different with AI because it's not simply training people to use new technology to do their current jobs differently. It’s upskilling them for jobs that don’t yet exist.
Also, any AI project must align with your strategic plan and what’s important to the organization. Treating AI as a side project is not going to help you be successful. For example, access is huge in ambulatory care, so any AI initiative that expands access to help patients get the care they need is welcome.
How have you implemented AI in your own health systems?
Stump: We are using AI to enrich the performance of the entire multidisciplinary care team, including pharmacy. We have deployed AI tools to support back-office functions like prior authorization, 340B audits, and compliance paperwork. We’ve also used it to expedite the identification of at-risk patients and tee them up for clinical intervention — for example, people who are appropriate for conversion from IV medications to oral or who are at high risk for delirium.
Vlasimsky: In our ambulatory care teams, we use an AI-powered ambient listening tool that generates clinical notes so pharmacists can focus on talking with patients. It’s amazing how much useful information AI can capture that otherwise would have never been documented. We’re also developing new AI rising risk score to help us focus on the right patients. AI is our clinical partner in making all this happen — but there’s always a human in the loop.
What else do you want Pharmacy Futures attendees to know about your session?
Stump: Come ready to participate! We really want to engage the audience as we shape this future.
Yu: As pharmacists, we have an opportunity to chart our path with AI. We need the whole profession to really think through what that path looks like. We hope our session will trigger some innovative thoughts about where we want to go with AI.
