John Looney on Building an AI-Ready MarCom Culture

Takeaways

• Trust begins internally, and healthcare organizations are better equipped to earn the confidence of patients and communities when employees first trust their leaders and one another.
• A clearly defined purpose, vision, and set of values can unite a fragmented team and provide a consistent foundation for daily decisions.
• Healthcare marketing and communications teams create value by helping employees, leaders, patients, and community members receive the right information at the right time.
• Kindness and high performance can coexist; leaders do not have to sacrifice accountability or results to create a supportive culture.
• The RACI framework clarifies responsibilities, improves cross-functional collaboration, and helps teams use their marketing and communications channels more effectively.
• Internal and external communications should remain aligned so employees never learn important organizational news for the first time from an outside source.
• AI becomes more approachable when teams view it as a partner in problem-solving rather than simply as a new technology or potential replacement for people.
• Practices such as UMass Memorial Health’s weekly “Prompt and Tell” can normalize AI adoption by encouraging employees to share practical applications and learn from one another.