Patient First, Powered by Al and Technology: Building Capacity for Patient Care

Community pharmacists are stretched thin, and artificial intelligence (AI) could help them get back to what drew them to the profession, according to Nancy Lyons, BSPharm, MBA, CDCES, vice president and chief pharmacy officer at Health Mart for McKesson. She made the case at Total Pharmacy Solutions Summit Fall 2026, as long as pharmacies adopt the technology carefully.

Lyons started with a question that had nothing to do with technology: why did pharmacists choose the field? She said it wasn't to spend their days "reconciling inventory, completing patient care documentation, figuring out billing codes, answering routine questions." Instead, "We did it because we wanted to care for patients."

The complaint she hears most often is simple. "What I'm constantly hearing from pharmacists is I don't have the time," she said. "We can't change the clocks." The goal is "not technology for technology's sake," but using AI responsibly to rebuild connections with patients.

Pressure and Opportunity

Lyons described 3 forces shaping community pharmacy. The first is changing patient expectations, which have grown around convenience since COVID-19. The second is staffing shortages, administrative burden, and shrinking margins. The third is a growing set of clinical services, such as test-to-treat, which she hopes the Main Street Community Access Bill will advance. Pharmacies are within 5 miles of 95% of Americans, and she said that access matters even more as rural hospitals shrink or close.

A live poll found that about 60% of attendees had used AI in the past 30 days. About 14% said their pharmacies were evaluating it, and roughly a third felt the technology was moving faster than they could keep up with.

Automate the Routine, Protect the Human

Lyons offered a simple rule: tasks that are repeatable, rule-based, and trainable should be automated where possible. Clinical judgment, complex medication decisions, and ethical choices must stay with people.

She urged pharmacists to treat AI tools "the same way that you would your newest technician," with training and clear rules for when to escalate, "because our licenses are on the line."

She named 4 areas where AI can help: patient engagement, patient care, operations, and business insights. She recalled how much paperwork her early diabetes education sessions required and compared that with today's ambient scribes, which generate a SOAP note "in seconds after the session finishes." She said that "seemed like sci-fi at the beginning of my career."

A 90-Day Challenge

Lyons pushed back on the idea that adopting technology requires a sweeping overhaul. "Meaningful progress can really begin in an iterative way, solving one problem at a time," she said. She challenged attendees to spend the next 90 days picking one bottleneck, researching a solution, piloting it on a small scale, measuring the results, and deciding whether to stop, adjust, or expand.

She gave a warning example. One pharmacy owner's AI phone vendor got stuck when patients said they would pay right away, creating callback queues and hurting her cash collections. "Not everything we try may work out the best," Lyons said.

She advised looking for "benefits over features" and reminded attendees that "it's really about the people that make your technology work."

Asked where a beginner should start, Lyons said, “Seek your peers first," and ask how their tools are working. "Ask questions, go out, use AI to measure AI, and then do your research."

In the end, she said, AI "can never replace the trust that you have with your patients. It can't replace empathy, and it can't assume professional accountability."

Explore more of our coverage from the Total Pharmacy Solutions Summit Fall 2026: Patient First.