What happens when a CEO tells their entire company to use AI—or explain why they can’t?

On April 7, Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke laid out six clear directives on how AI must be embedded into every aspect of the business. One stood out: "Before asking for more headcount or resources, teams must demonstrate why they cannot get what they want done without AI."

Some saw this as a stealth hiring freeze. I see it as a bold, forward-thinking move—and a sign of what’s coming for all of us.

If you're in the pharmacy and healthcare services industry, you're already seeing the pressure to do more with less. Lütke’s message isn’t just for tech companies—it’s a call to every leader managing teams, budgets, and operations:

• What can AI handle—and what must remain human?

• Are we training our teams to explore, test, and share what they’re learning?

• Are we prepared to raise the bar instead of simply adding headcount?

I share my take in this issue’s post, including why I think this is the start of a much larger shift. Would you implement something like this in your team? Let me know what you think.

Cheers,
Harry

AMCP Pre-Conference Recap

Home run at the AMCP Pre-Con

(Photo credit: Linea Wilson)

Kudos to Susan Cantrell, Mitzi Wasik and the entire AMCP team for seizing the moment and leading six hours of stimulating presentations, panels discussions, company presentations and most importantly networking on the most important topic of the day—AI and its impact on managed care pharmacy.

Watch for AMCP's next moves to provide pharmacists with the forum for insightful and provocative discussion on this crucial topic.

Coming up: Asembia 2025!

AI invades specialty pharmacy’s “Spring Prom.”

Raise you AI IQ at Asembia by attending my session at 1PM in the Lafite-2 meeting room at the Wynn & Encore Las Vegas. Stay for the 2PM session with my good friends Shannon Wiley and Jeff Mesaros for an insightful panel discussion on the regulatory challenges facing AI in the pharmacy space.

Connect with your specialty pharmacy colleagues

Many RxRoundtable Members and RxR Briefings subscribers will be attending AXS25. An easy way to connect at the conference is to search #AXS25 on LinkedIn, drop them a DM, and coordinate a meet-and-greet.

All April & May Industry Conferences

• NACDS Annual—April 26-29, 2025, The Breakers, Palm Beach, FL

• Asembia AXS25 Summit—April 27 to May 1, 2025, Las Vegas, NV

• NCPDP’s Annual Technology & Business Conference—May 5-7, 2025, Scottsdale, AZ

• NABP Annual Meeting—May 13-16, 2025, Fort Lauderdale, FL

• ISPOR 2025—May 13-16, 2025, Montreal, QC, Canada

Members are adding the conferences they’ll be attending to their bio pages inside the RxRoundtable Member Directory, which will enable other Members to filter on a conference to quickly see who will also be attending. Members can then connect—another reason to have your bio page listed in the Member Directory.

RxRoundtable Member Updates

Just a reminder, our new Member Resource Library is live!

The brand new (and growing) Resource Library for all RxRoundtable Members promises to provide helpful resources, training, and discounted professional services including:

• Harry’s “Best of” Picks

• Branding and Communications Refresh with Terry Pappy

• Past Event Recordings and Downloads

• RxRoundtable Member Best Practices Guide

• RxRoundtable Glossary of Industry Terms and Acronyms

• Advisory Board Guidance with RxRoundtable Member Chris Dimos

We are working on compiling draft documents for Members to use in consulting and advisory engagements they can customize to their individual needs, and so much more yet to come.

Our goal is to continue to add a steady stream of fresh and helpful value for all RxRoundtable Members to enjoy, making the RxRoundtable a must-have resource for executives in our growing industry.

Upcoming RxRoundtable Member Events

Grab your seat for our upcoming RxRoundtable Member-only events.

• Thursday RxRoundtable Session April 17, 2025 4-5PM EST—Jake Nichols, co-founder of Ignite Biomedical, will present his company's plans to use pharmacogenomics to revolutionize high-cost immunotherapy.

• Tuesday RxRoundtable Session May 6, 2025 4-5PM EST—Dan Zelem with Esperhealth will be providing an overview of Esperhealth, their AI value proposition, as well as select use cases.

• RxRoundtable Hot Topic 🔥 May 14, 2025 4-5PM EST—NCPA’s Mark Ey and Jeff Harrell will discuss the state of independent community pharmacies.

Past Member Event Recordings

Past event recordings you may have missed

We know you sometimes have competing priorities and miss attending a live RxRoundtable Member event. The good news is we record every event for all Members to view at any time.

To access past event recordings, log into the RxRoundtable Member area and click on any past event to find the recording in the event detail page, or, visit the new Past Recordings in the Resource Library.

Join the RxRoundtable!

Refer the RxRoundtable and RxR Briefings

Our network of Professional Members is growing daily, and if you are eligible to join, we would love to have you. It’s a great opportunity to network, learn industry trends, and discover opportunities that will grow your professional skills and career.

We also invite (and thank you) for sharing and referring fellow colleagues to subscribe to the RxR Briefings. It’s a great way for us all to stay in touch and share valuable industry information, especially during a rapidly-changing economy and healthcare marketplace.

We hope you enjoyed this issue of RxR Briefings