The week’s readings, in rough order of how much they should concern you.
Google is changing the rules again — and your distribution strategy didn’t get the memo
AI Overviews expansion and conversational ads mean pharma-funded content, medical publishers, and HCP-facing web properties will receive less organic traffic. This is not a future risk to model. It is a present condition to adapt to. If your content strategy was built around Google search, it needs rebuilding around something else.
Why the AI in your browser is not the AI you need
Harvard Business Review makes the case that healthcare’s specialised dialects sit beyond what generic large language models can reliably handle. Useful ammunition for the next time an IT director suggests rolling out a one-size-fits-all AI tool across the organisation. The argument is not that AI does not work in healthcare. It is that the wrong AI does not work — and the distinction matters.
The numbers say everyone has adopted AI. What the numbers don’t say
67–76% of organisations are already using or testing AI across health communications workflows, according to Pharmexec. What the headline figure does not capture is the governance gap behind it. Adoption is running ahead of the frameworks meant to contain it. That is not a technology problem.
AI is now screening your next hire. It shouldn’t be
Health communications directors using AI-assisted recruitment tools face concrete legal exposure. The EEOC four-fifths rule is the operative benchmark — not vendor assurances, not the promise that the model was trained on unbiased data. Worth knowing before the next hiring round.
What survives the AI cut, and what they pay those who do
ClickUp’s restructuring — seven-figure salaries for the people who remain post-AI transition — signals where job titles and compensation structures are heading in technology-adopting organisations. Health communications moves more slowly. But the direction of travel is the same.
That’s it for this edition. Back Monday.
— Ned
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