In this episode of the Future Proof HR podcast, Jim sits down with Tammy Sergie, CHRO and Privacy Officer at Edgewood Health Network in Canada, to talk about what AI adoption looks like inside a healthcare environment facing funding pressure, staffing shortages, and constant change. Tammy explains why AI is not just a cost-control tool for healthcare teams. It can help people spend less time on repetitive work and more time on the human moments that matter most.

Tammy shares how mental health and addiction care creates a unique talent challenge. The work is deeply human, often emotionally demanding, and difficult to scale when clinicians and nurses are in short supply. Against that backdrop, she explains how her organization is testing AI in call center triage, clinical note-taking, patient data analysis, and an HR support bot named Eva.

A major theme of the conversation is trust. Tammy talks about why AI initiatives need human oversight, clear guardrails, visible feedback loops, and communication that connects every change back to the employee experience and the patient experience. She also explains why frontline champions matter more than top-down announcements when organizations want AI to actually stick.

The episode is a practical look at how HR can lead AI adoption without losing sight of the people doing the work. For Tammy, productivity only matters when it gives time and focus back to employees and improves the care experience for patients.

Topics Discussed:

• Why Canadian healthcare funding creates pressure for HR and workforce planning
• How mental health and addiction care face different staffing realities than public healthcare
• Why do private healthcare organizations compete differently for clinicians and nurses?
• How employee experience becomes a talent strategy when compensation has limits
• Where AI is being used in call center triage, clinical note-taking, and HR support
• Why an HR bot can support employees in a 24/7 healthcare environment
• How change fatigue affects AI adoption on the front line
• Why executive alignment is not enough without frontline champions
• How feedback loops, pulse checks, and town halls make AI rollouts more visible
• Why guardrails and human oversight need to evolve as AI usage grows
• How to prioritize AI work around patient experience, employee experience, and productivity

If you are an HR leader trying to introduce AI in a high-touch, high-trust environment, this episode offers a grounded look at how to balance innovation, care, employee experience, and responsible adoption.

Additional Resources:

• Cleary's AI-powered HR Chatbot
• Future Proof HR Community
• Connect with Tammy Sergie on LinkedIn

when you're thinking about an AI initiative and implementing AI within

2

an organization, you wouldn't think

about doing that in an organization

3

where you're dealing with massive levels

of funding issues and in an employee

4

landscape and an employee population

that's retiring and exiting the field.

5

No one would fault you for thinking

that you have bigger fish to fry.

6

And what's even more challenging

about this environment is that you're

7

dealing with a healthcare environment.

8

So when you think about a sector that's

heavily people-focused and requires

9

a lot of frontline labor to execute,

where does AI fit into that equation?

10

That's the question that we're

gonna tackle today, and we're gonna

11

tackle it in a way where you're not

looking at solving these problems

12

through a cost control issue.

13

You're looking at solving these problems

through the lens of leveraging what

14

your people are best at and putting

them in a position to be successful

15

and that's the conversation that we're

gonna get into today with Tammy Sergi.

16

So joining us today is Tammy Sergi.

17

She's currently the CHRO at the

Edgewood Health Network in Canada.

18

Over the course of her career, Tammy's

worked in several HR leadership roles

19

with known industry leaders like Telus,

Grand & Toy, OfficeMax, and OpenText

20

In addition to her current leadership

role at the Edgewood Health Network, Tammy

21

also holds board positions at several

not-for-profit community organizations and

22

is also serving as the president of one

of Ontario's oldest figure skating clubs.

23

Tammy brings a people first and

people focused approach to her

24

leadership, and that will shine

through in this conversation

25

that we're having with her today.

26

Tammy, welcome to the show

27

Tammy: Thanks for having me

28

Jim: Yeah, I'm looking forward to

this conversation on a couple of

29

different fronts because one from a

geography perspective, you're based

30

out in Canada, so that's gonna be an

interesting perspective when we're talking

31

about the intersection of HR and AI.

32

We haven't had many Canadians

on the show, so that's gonna

33

be an interesting perspective.

34

And the other part that's gonna be

interesting about this conversation is

35

that not only do we have that geographical

perspective that you're gonna share

36

with us, but you're also in healthcare,

where we haven't had a lot of folks in

37

the healthcare space on the show either.

38

So it's gonna be a doubly

interesting conversation for me

39

as well as our listeners as well.

40

I think a great place for us to get

started is for you to give us a little

41

bit of a landscape of the Canadian

healthcare system and kinda how you

42

operate as an HR leader within that system

43

Tammy: Yeah.

44

Canadian healthcare

system is quite complex.

45

There is a lot going on,

within the system itself.

46

What I would say generally is it's

heavily underfunded at the moment.

47

And it's experiencing very heavy changes

on the people side, and so being an HR

48

leader in healthcare in Canada is quite

exciting and there's never a dull moment.

49

We have high level of baby

boomers retiring and exiting the

50

career that began in waves during

COVID and never really stopped.

51

We have very serious shortage of

clinicians and nurses in the country.

52

I work in mental health and addiction,

and, despite immigration filling in the

53

gaps and there are some really exciting

activity happening in bringing talent

54

externally into the country, in mental

health and addiction, it's a little more

55

difficult to assimilate talent quickly.

56

And technology and AI is almost not an

option for us at the moment resolving

57

the challenges that we have in terms

of the availability of the talent and

58

optimizing our humans on the ground

59

Jim: There's a couple things

that I wanna dig into.

60

One in particular is your comment about

Canadian healthcare being underfunded.

61

What I'd be curious about is getting

a little bit more detail about how

62

that underfunded or how that financial

situation shows up, because for those

63

who aren't aware Canada's healthcare

system is funded at the provincial

64

level more so than the federal level.

65

So understanding how that shows

up on a province by province

66

basis would be interesting.

67

And then adding a little bit more

detail around what you've seen from

68

a people perspective and how those

changes are impacting the staffing

69

levels would be interesting as well.

70

So can you tell us a

little bit more about that?

71

Tammy: Yeah, for sure.

72

Canadian Healthcare Act

73

And I think the medical atmosphere

the country was very different

74

in 1985 than it is today.

75

there is a lot of things that have been

excluded from the act and mental health

76

and addiction is one of those examples.

77

PharmaCare was excluded.

78

It is not funded by provincial

or federal government.

79

dental care was excluded as well.

80

And so when we think about healthcare

in general, there is a lot of

81

things that the tax system does

not cover for an average Canadian.

82

speaking of the funding itself

and where it generates and flows

83

through the system, is roughly 41

million Canadians in the country.

84

Only 45% of working age

Canadians are actually working.

85

So 45% of Canadians pay taxes and

fund the system the 55% that are not

86

contributing towards that system.

87

25% of that population is employed

by federal and public system, right?

88

So essentially the government is

the major employer in the country.

89

And so when you look at the funding

and where it comes from, and the

90

number of individuals contributing

towards the system, you could see

91

that there's just simply not enough

Canadians paying taxes to cover the cost.

92

And even if there were, there's

a lot of things in the healthcare

93

system that are simply not covered.

94

Mental health, for example,

is not a right to Canadians.

95

it's a privilege.

96

And so there's no funding

available for that.

97

And i- if it is it's very minimal.

98

And so an average Canadian struggling

with mental health where they're

99

requiring clinical support and treatment

are left to fend for themselves

100

in terms of securing that funding

101

Jim: So when you look at a couple of

these factors, so Canadian healthcare

102

overall is underfunded based on

the information that you shared.

103

Mental health and addiction treatment

is not funded at all, and you tie that

104

into the employment landscape for,

you and others like you in this space.

105

How does that show up from an employee

employment perspective and staffing

106

perspective within organizations

that are in the addiction and

107

treatment and mental health space?

108

Tammy: I, it's a very interesting space

where of people that go into mental health

109

as medical and clinical practitioners, go

in there for a very deep personal reason.

110

And so there is a lot of passion in

this particular aspect of healthcare.

111

So I think we don't have an

issue of finding interest in this

112

particular segment in healthcare.

113

but we are competing with the public

healthcare system and ER emergency rooms

114

across the country that are very short

on nursing and are paying extra premiums,

115

to make sure that they don't have to shut

down the emergency departments in the

116

hospitals across the country because they

don't have nurses to service the public.

117

Have experienced quite a shortage a few

years ago, and a number of provincial

118

governments stepped out of the way

and put together retention bonuses

119

for nurses and other more appealing

strategies around how to retain nurses

120

within the public healthcare system.

121

And that makes it more difficult

on private healthcare like mental

122

health in, in retaining the same

talent and attracting them out

123

of that public healthcare system.

124

Jim: So it's interesting that you're

describing a scenario where the

125

public sector or public healthcare

entities can outbid for talent

126

compared to the private space.

127

So when you look at that inability to

compete on, a monetary compensation

128

perspective, how has that shaped your

talent strategy within your space?

129

Tammy: There's a lot of things

that we can do and we have been

130

doing over the last few years.

131

And essentially the short answer to

that is, is building an employment

132

place of choice and culture that

is appealing enough beyond money.

133

People don't come to work just because of

money, although we all have bills to pay.

134

really looking at talent

infrastructure as the core operating

135

infrastructure and building around it.

136

There's a lot of different strategies

employers may put into play to curb

137

the turnover to really focus on the

employee experience and invest into the

138

programs like recognition paid time off

programs offering it's a primarily female

139

profession and women go out and have

children and a program like a top-up, a

140

maternity top-up is a very popular one

and may be very appealing and may not

141

exist in the public healthcare system,

that the individual is considering.

142

And so we're really working around

the employee experience and creating

143

an environment where our nurses and

our clinicians are choosing to stay

144

with us or come and work for us.

145

It's an environment where there's

a lot more innovation than within

146

the public healthcare system.

147

The hierarchy is typically s- flatter.

148

There is a lot more growth

available to professionals.

149

And being a national player also

very much helps because we can offer

150

individuals an opportunity to travel

across the country and relocate as

151

their life changes and their families

grow and it, may or may not be of an

152

interest to them as professionals.

153

Jim: So there's a few things

that you mentioned that I

154

thought were pretty interesting.

155

You have to appeal to the employee value

proposition and outside of compensation,

156

create an environment that offers a

lot of value to somebody working in.

157

You have to get creative as far

as what your benefits or your

158

total compensation looks like

beyond just monetary compensation.

159

But there's something that you mentioned

that I thought was interesting, which

160

was your point about innovation.

161

There's more innovation within

your space than you would

162

typically find in the public space.

163

Tell me a little bit more about what

that innovation looks like and how that

164

shows up in a meaningful way to somebody

that's working within the organization

165

Tammy: AI and experimenting with

technology and moving through That

166

part of it a lot quicker than I would

imagine somebody would experience in a

167

public healthcare system where majority

of the population is unionized and

168

there is a lot more rules and a lot

of things within the structure and

169

the workflow are more black and white.

170

We are able to experiment with AI

in our call centers so that when an

171

individual calls in and initiates the

first interactions with the company

172

they may have an opportunity of

going through the triage process with

173

an AI bot to triage the needs and

point them in the right direction.

174

That saves a lot of time and costs.

175

Costs that we can then reinvest

back into the patient experience

176

and the employee experience, unlike

a more structured environment.

177

We're experimenting with

clinical AI note-taking.

178

Again, a lot of our clinicians have

regulatory requirements in terms of

179

the documentation they produce after

they have a session with a client.

180

and so the amount of time we save

with initiatives like this, we're

181

able to redeploy our clinicians to

spend more time, doing wonderful

182

things with the patients instead of

sitting at their desks taking notes.

183

We're doing an excellent job in

measurement-based care and really

184

collecting a lot of data on our

patients and treatment and what

185

helps them and their entire journey

throughout the treatment and beyond.

186

we're using AI to analyze that.

187

And in the future we'll be able

to support our clinicians with

188

recommendations in terms of treatment,

post-treatment pre-treatment,

189

et cetera for their patients.

190

we are considering and that's an

interesting one democratizing access

191

to mental health through AI therapy.

192

Now it's not for everybody.

193

Not every generation is going

to accept therapy by a bot.

194

but it is something that younger

generation is a lot more open to.

195

They're open to having a conversation

with artificial intelligence the

196

form of a human on a screen versus a

human that they feel will judge them.

197

And so it's an interesting

space for us to explore.

198

while we may have a shortage of

professionals within the profession we may

199

invest into this area a little bit more

extensively than you would experience in

200

a public healthcare hospital type setting.

201

There's a lot more bureaucratic

process around innovation.

202

And that's not to suggest that

innovation doesn't happen in

203

public healthcare not at all.

204

There's a lot of wonderful stuff

that happens there as well.

205

It just moves a lot

206

slower and there's a much larger cost

associated with innovation than I find in

207

the pl smaller private healthcare players

208

Jim: So when we're talking about the

innovation that's happening within your

209

organization, you mentioned three things.

210

You mentioned implementing AI in the

call center space implementing AI from

211

a clinical note-taking perspective,

and then starting to innovate when

212

it comes to providing mental health

services via AI, the, through

213

the use of a bot or an AI avatar.

214

When you look at those three things

that you mentioned, which one of

215

those three is the most mature

initiative within your organization?

216

And what were the big things that

you learned once you deployed

217

that out into your marketplace?

218

Tammy: I would say the AI bot in call

center is quite mature and there's many

219

stages and elements of that initiative

that are still to be unlocked but

220

progressing very nicely And then clinical

221

AI note-taking is another one.

222

what I didn't mention is some of the

innovation that obviously within the

223

HR organization HR I feel very strongly

has to be m- on the, at the forefront

224

of technology development in any

business because it's an opportunity

225

for HR professionals to optimize

the humans in the most human way.

226

And so we, on the HR side as well,

are just recently launched an

227

A- AI bot, and her name is Eva.

228

And she's in place to support

our employees in terms of

229

their employee experience.

230

Tier one support to the employees 24/7.

231

It is a 24/7 organization.

232

Our employees work at night.

233

My humans don't, and so Eva is there

to support them with basic questions

234

around how much time do I have to

take next month, and where do I

235

find my paycheck, and what does this

policy say for me in this scenario?

236

So she can help folks

navigate through that.

237

To your second question, are we finding?

238

What we're finding is not everybody's

ready at the same level to change,

239

and that's really funny because change

has been around us, and especially

240

post-COVID, quite extensively.

241

Change is one thing that's never

left, and it's compounded, and

242

it's always around us, and it's

one thing that's never going away.

243

And yet there's a little bit of

that resilience that's lacking

244

navigating through that change.

245

And so maybe it's the change exhaustion

among the employees because right now I

246

find, you open up your phone, and you look

at the articles and things are changing

247

by the minute it seems like, right?

248

There's a lot going on in the world

and a lot going on with AI development

249

and just it- the speed is picking up.

250

And so we noticed is our people are very

excited big picture-wise about the change,

251

and when it comes to actually using it

and living it, we're seeing a little bit

252

more hesitation from our clinicians, from

our nurses from our employees in general

253

Jim: So when you-- what

you're hinting at two things.

254

You're hinting at, the pace of adoption

i-in terms of these AI initiatives and

255

the willingness to for people to dive in.

256

But there's another component that

might exist there that we haven't

257

talked about, which is fear at the

employee level that by adopting

258

these things at a greater level, it's

gonna mean elimination of their jobs.

259

There's a couple things in your

answer that stood out to me and,

260

the big thing that stands out to me

is you referenced change fatigue.

261

I look at it as an adoption issue

and I wanna zoom out and look at

262

the implementation of these various

AI initiatives that you have and

263

understand a little bit more about how

those initiatives were communicated

264

to the employee population and

what you did to maximize adoption

265

in the face of some of this change

fatigue that you might be seeing

266

Tammy: It's a great question,

and I think there's a number

267

of ways of answering that.

268

One is y- you need an executive team

that's obsessed with change a- and is

269

obsessed with the initiative itself.

270

They have to be very passionate

and very much i- in line with

271

with what is being rolled out.

272

The other, however, is change

actually has a natural timeline.

273

It, it navigates through several layers,

and the executive tim- team typically

274

gets the first one to get in- to, to get

introduced to high-level initiatives,

275

and they get more comfortable with it and

the change travels through the layers.

276

And by the time it gets to the frontline

employees, the executive team has

277

already experienced the change for

much, much longer, and the comfort

278

level is much, much higher, right?

279

We need level of comfort, repetitiveness,

for the new news to become the old news.

280

That process needs to

happen at the front line.

281

And so the time I- in my

opinion, will never go away.

282

It is just a natural way

of adopting something.

283

But what works very

nicely is repetitiveness.

284

It's connecting the dots at all

layers really thinking about different

285

perspectives of the change and

really looking at the perspective

286

of the change and what's in it for

me from the frontline perspective.

287

And a lot of change and a lot of projects

and initiatives in, in, in businesses

288

don't actually follow that formula.

289

They start with the big picture,

and only towards the end of that

290

change initiative convert into what's

in it for me, for the individual.

291

And so what we what we find works better

there's different ways of approaching

292

change, of course having the right people

from the very beginning of the journey

293

when it comes to this change, and the

right people are the people from the front

294

line and those very clinicians and nurses

and medical staff that can actually when

295

they buy into the change and they absorb

the change for a lot longer, they're able

296

to then represent the process of being

the champion of a change at the front line

297

and speak the language of the front line

staff that will essentially go through

298

that process of adopting that change

299

Thomas Kunjappu: This has been

a fantastic conversation so far.

300

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make sure to join our community.

301

We are building a network of the

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302

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303

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304

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305

You can find it at go cleary.com/cleary

306

community.

307

Now back to the show.

308

Jim: So I-- what I really like

about what you mentioned is how

309

you framed the change initiative

in terms of a internal philosophy.

310

You started with making sure that

the communication plan had a strong

311

pillar in communicating what's in

it for the frontline employee, and

312

then working almost from a bottom-up

perspective to build your evangelists

313

and your champions from the front lines

versus having a top-down approach.

314

So I like that part of it, but there's

something that you mentioned that

315

could be potentially problematic, and

that was when you mentioned that the

316

exec- you have to have an executive

team that's obsessed with change.

317

When I hear something like that, as

a frontline employee, I've been in

318

organizations where the executives

are rolling out an initiative every

319

other week, and you have a bunch

of half-baked stuff that's sitting

320

around to the point where, you

talked about change fatigue earlier.

321

If you do it too quickly, too often, have

everything half-baked and nothing actually

322

comes to fruition, you wear out your team.

323

So that points to an execution issue

and a discipline and focus issue that's

324

lacking in those sorts of environments.

325

So what I'd like for you to do is share

with us how you controlled to make sure

326

that execution was being delivered and

discipline was there to make sure that

327

these things are being seen towards

the end before you start a new thing.

328

How did that work out

within your environment?

329

Tammy: And I'm not gonna say that

we don't have an execution issue as

330

an organization, and we don't have a

halo effect of, change after change

331

and not necessarily implementing

it in the most efficient way.

332

I think every organization

has a little bit of that.

333

And to defend it in a way, I

would say, what other choice

334

do organizations really have?

335

they do need to adopt, they do need

to innovate, and they do need to try a

336

variety of different things to be able

to survive in an everlasting, changing

337

environment and i- fluctuations that

we have in trade trades and political

338

atmosphere and the economical ins-

instability that happens, right?

339

And here I'm describing a little bit

of a situation here in, in locally in,

340

in Canada as you probably have heard.

341

so on the one hand, the

executives and the businesses,

342

they really don't have a choice.

343

They need to continue

to try different things.

344

On the other hand, you've got employees

that m- may not necessarily have this

345

change resonate very clearly with them

right away, and they may experience

346

change after change and like I said,

change fatigue as a result of it.

347

How do you balance all of that?

348

I think you use every avenue of

communication available to you.

349

Repetition is key.

350

connecting dots on behalf of

your employees is very important.

351

Finding ways to collect

feedback from employees and

352

have the loop of that feedback.

353

engagement pulse checks and surveys are

very useful, I find, in, in measuring

354

the overall across the organization.

355

And it's not necessarily the specific

questions that are being asked but to

356

me, what I look at is the deviation

from one quarter to another as those

357

initiatives hit the floor, right?

358

That to me is a very good way of measuring

the temperature at the ground level.

359

And then engaging in the dialogue with

the employees, having an open box as

360

a part of that survey so people can

the specific feedback that they have

361

that maybe the questions didn't cover.

362

And then going out and using tools

like town hall on-site visits getting

363

folks together in groups, using your

frontline managers to gather feedback.

364

If an organization produces

newsletters, that's another

365

way of repeating information.

366

And again, put a QR code

there and encourage people

367

to give feedback differently.

368

And the most important thing is to stay

on top of it and w-within my specific

369

organization within HR, we've done

a much better job at executing our

370

initiatives, and I think it's because

we don't treat them like initiatives.

371

They are employee experience, and the

way we measure success of our change or

372

initiative is the longevity and how well

it sticks, and becomes a part of that

373

culture engagement experience second

nature to our managers something that our

374

employees will continue to experience on

the ground when we're not in the room.

375

And annual revamp communications on all of

your initiatives, having a list of those

376

change, changes that you've rolled out the

previous year and coming back to those and

377

checking on validity and alive they are

and utilized oh, is a way of checking the

378

adoption right and making

sure that something that you

379

rolled out actually stuck

380

Jim: So I think one of the, one of

the underrated things that you're

381

doing is creating a robust feedback

loop within your organization.

382

So when you're talking about, making

sure that you're driving execution

383

and discipline around focus around

these initiatives so that these

384

things are seen through creating a

feedback loop to, to measure it from

385

the front lines I think is important.

386

And I think it's something that

organizations should do more of.

387

And I'm sure you know what's coming

next when I'm about to ask it.

388

Oftentimes what happens is that

organizations will set up these elaborate

389

feedback loops and have all these

channels to gather the information,

390

and they don't do anything with it.

391

They just sit on it.

392

And that's usually one of the big

failures within employee experience

393

practices, is that you have a

robust feedback engine there, but

394

moving that feedback into action so

that it's visible and communicated

395

and meaningful is often lacking.

396

So how did you set up that bias

for action that's informed by

397

the feedback in your environment?

398

What did you do, what did you put

into place to help make sure that the

399

actions that you were taking in response

to that feedback was visible and

400

meaningful to the employee population?

401

Tammy: Transparency I think is key.

402

And making sure that you ask yourselves

as a, as an HR organization honest

403

question around an initiative that

you may be working on, and how that

404

contributes towards the employee

experience, and a response to the

405

feedback that we have received previously.

406

And so we go through a pretty robust

process of developing a pretty

407

comprehensive people plan, which is

essentially a fancy way of saying a

408

human capital strategy for the year.

409

on that piece of paper we actually

outline our commitment to the

410

organization for that year.

411

And not to say that things will not

come up that we're not gonna address.

412

Certainly you can't predict the entire

12-month cycle in any business today.

413

But we do and we do a pretty

decent job in our commitment.

414

And I find that once you put

something in writing, and you go

415

out to the organization, and you

communicate your commitment, they're

416

gonna hold you accountable to it.

417

And in a very sort of religious

way we make sure we revisit our

418

people plan and how we're executing

against it on a quarterly basis.

419

And we're report back to the organization

both on, here is what we heard from

420

you through the listening strategy

and an engagement survey results.

421

And then here's what we've done this

quarter to execute and implement the

422

commitments that we've made at the

beginning of the year in the people plan.

423

And again, opening up the lines of

communication to continue to i- g-

424

welcome the feedback and just being

very transparent and culturally.

425

One thing that my employees hear

during the town hall from the executive

426

team, a- and myself being a member of

that team is feedback is a blessing.

427

And we wanna continue getting the

feedback because we're here to

428

work on your employee experience.

429

And the job itself is very tough.

430

In healthcare, I can't- I can't even

begin to explain how difficult the nature

431

of the job is especially when it comes

to individuals suffering for many years

432

with mental health and maybe addiction,

and the individuals taking the burden

433

to support them through that journey.

434

And so can't change the nature of their

job but myself and my organization a

435

wonderful group of HR professionals, are

working really hard sure that we envelope

436

with as much positive employee experience.

437

Their experience at work is very deeply

important to myself and the HR folks

438

that are a part of the team

439

the commitment is public it's

documented the feedback is welcome.

440

And the very final thing I find very

useful is when we communicate with

441

our employees and report out on, on i-

initiatives or changes or things that

442

are happening within the organization,

begin our communications by saying,

443

"You asked, and we responded," right?

444

on the feedback we received through

the engagement survey or based on the

445

feedback that we received from our

employees, we have done X, Y, and Z.

446

So I think knowing that many people can

connect the dots on their own, yes, but

447

I think helping very busy professionals

see those dots connected is very important

448

for a leadership communication

449

HR

450

organization putting

451

it all together.

452

when we go out and do something

453

we say we've done it

because you've asked for it

454

Jim: I like that.

455

I like the emphasis on visibility

of responses that you've put in.

456

But that had me thinking about some of

the other things that you've mentioned.

457

So right now, when I take inventory of

what we've talked about so far, you have

458

three major AI components or initiatives

that are active within your organization.

459

You have the call center bot, you

have the clinical AI note-taking, you

460

have the AI bot in HR that's supposed

to help with employee questions.

461

So those are three initiatives,

and you have what seems to be a

462

robust feedback engine that's built.

463

The problem that I see when you do

that, when you have big initiatives

464

in place and then you're soliciting

feedback from those initiatives, you're

465

likely to get a flood of questions

coming from the employee population.

466

So that creates a prioritization issue.

467

What do you prioritize in terms

of what you're gonna respond to,

468

and how does that prioritization

stack ranking work i-internally?

469

So tell me about how you put

guardrails around making sure that

470

you're taking action on the right,

quote-unquote, "right things."

471

How did you determine that

472

Tammy: Yeah

473

I think what's important for us as an

organization is to focus on two things.

474

Honestly, there's really only

two reasons why we exist.

475

One is the patient experience, and the

other one is the employee experience.

476

We're not a commodities business.

477

Healthcare is not a commodities business.

478

It's all about a human providing

a service to another human.

479

And so there's nothing more important

than the human in need of treatment

480

and a human providing that service.

481

And to me, that's the employee

experience and the patient experience.

482

All of our funding gets

reinvested into these two areas.

483

And all of our effort, all of our

projects, in my opinion, as a member

484

of the executive team should resonate

with these two areas as a business.

485

How do we prioritize?

486

I think productivity.

487

And productivity is important

because we're able to give time

488

and ability to focus on clinical

activity, servicing the patient.

489

So I think productivity is

something that is important and

490

is helpful to our employees.

491

But it's also an area that kind of

touches at what we discussed at the

492

beginning of the conversation, which is

we need to optimize our humans because

493

there's not enough humans in the sector.

494

The bi- the reality is the

workloads have been rising.

495

There's less and less humans to do

multitude of different jobs, and so we

496

need to augment that with op- optimizing

technology, that helps us speed up our

497

humans to help us cover more ground.

498

Because the reality is we're

already doing too much, right?

499

And so I think productivity is

critical because when we help our

500

humans optimize, we are improving

their employee experience, and we

501

are adding more value back to the

502

patient so I think that's what we kind

of use to gauge a lot of our decisions

503

Jim: There's two things that you said

that I think are really critical to

504

pull out, and that's when it comes to

the prioritization question, everything

505

revolves around the patient experience

and the employee experience and product-

506

and how that shapes productivity.

507

And the reason why that stood out to

me when we're thinking about, what

508

should we tackle first the productivity

question is certainly what everybody is

509

chasing across all sorts of industries.

510

But I don't think people are doing a

good job of how to communicate that

511

effectively because when I hear about

what you've put into place, you're

512

dealing with an employee landscape

where there isn't enough talent to

513

fill all the hours of activities

that exist within your organization.

514

So philosophically, what a leader

needs to think about is: Where

515

are my people best utilized or

optimized when it comes to employee

516

experience and patient experience?

517

That means you need to put them into

positions where they're doing higher

518

leverage work, more meaningful work,

versus just sitting within a task wheel.

519

And when I look at the three initiatives

that you already have in place, the

520

call center AI bot that helps triage,

the AI note-taking bot that takes

521

notes so that your clinicians aren't

spending hours documenting things, you

522

have a bot that takes care of that.

523

And then the HR bot that helps on the

employee experience side versus HR as a

524

function playing the firefighting role,

that's another triage function too.

525

Those three things line up

with what you're describing in

526

terms of how you prioritize.

527

First things first is patient experience,

and then employee experience, and then

528

when you're looking at how you roll out

an AI initiative with a productivity lens,

529

that's how all of that fits together.

530

So I like-- I don't know if all of

that was intentional when it was rolled

531

out, but it certainly fits together

in a way it fits together really

532

nicely when you're talking about how

do you prioritize what you respond to.

533

Have a productivity eye first, and

then make sure that you're indexing

534

or over-indexing for the patient

experience and employee experience.

535

So continuing on that thread, you have

three major AI initiatives that have

536

been rolled out, and you're innovating

as part of this when you roll out.

537

But when something like this is so new,

how did you set up guardrails to define

538

what's inbounds and out of bounds when

it comes to how these AI agents or these

539

AI initiatives are supposed to behave

within the environment, and also when it's

540

patient or client-facing, what are the

guardrails that were put into place to

541

make sure that it's playing by the rules?

542

Tammy: Yeah.

543

So I think it's super critical for any

AI-related initiative human oversight.

544

As the bots learn and as technology

evolves, and as the organizations figure

545

out how this particular initiative

actually is going to take on a life

546

of its own within the organization,

within the framework, 'cause every

547

organization is very different, has to

be a human buddy that moves along with

548

that AI initiative or in the form of a

bot alongside that journey so that we

549

can certainly and we certainly do roll

out more black and white, very red zone

550

guardrails at the beginning of things

that are very obvious it shouldn't touch,

551

or it shouldn't address, or it shouldn't

go to because it, there is regulatory

552

requirements or maybe whatever that limit

may be for the bot or the AI capability.

553

other piece is recognizing that

the guardrails will have to evolve.

554

As the adoption picks up, as

the utilization evolves within

555

the organization, the guardrails

will need to follow, right?

556

We can't imagine that we're gonna roll

out perfect guardrails and let it be.

557

Humans evolve we'll call it experience.

558

If you remember yourself at the beginning

of your career, there was many things that

559

seemed very scary and would take you a

lot longer, things that you execute today

560

flawlessly without even thinking twice.

561

And so the same thing is gonna happen

with AI and how it's gonna be adopted

562

and utilized and the life it's

gonna pick up of its own within the

563

organization and that environment.

564

The third piece I would

say is being very clear.

565

A liability clause you

go live with a product.

566

So for example, Eva, our HR bot

comes with a little liability

567

clause saying, "I'm still learning.

568

I make mistakes.

569

So if I'm giving you an answer

that doesn't make sense,

570

please check with a human."

571

And it allows you to navigate

to initiating an email.

572

And we're looking to, in the future,

actually have a generated ticket if

573

it didn't produce the result that, w-

we'll spot check the conversations.

574

But if it didn't produce the

outcome that the employee expected

575

or, we've all heard about AI

hallucinating, for example, right?

576

We don't know if our bots are

gonna develop something like that.

577

If an employee goes into it knowing

that my AI bot in this interaction may

578

not yield the results that I expect

or it's looking a little odd it's

579

very clear to the user in terms of the

warnings and the steps to take if they

580

do experience something like that, and

I think that piece is very important.

581

Now of course it can have a counter

582

effect of an individual not wanting to

use it as a result of that liability

583

clause, but, we certainly wanna make sure

that communication around that initiative

584

and innovation supplements that fear

585

Jim: What's so since you've

rolled this out, what's been the

586

response to the three different AI

initiatives that you've rolled out?

587

What's been the response from the

employee slash patient perspective?

588

Tammy: Mixed feedback.

589

And I think it, it depends on how well a

project is being executed, what phase of

590

the project it's in, how well it has been

supplemented with communication and also

591

how well we're collecting the feedback.

592

I'll speak to the one that

I'm closest to the AI bot.

593

We've got some very positive

feedback from the employees.

594

I think one thing they love

is it's available 24 hours.

595

It's available in the middle of the night.

596

It's there when the humans are not.

597

They don't need to wait for a response

because the team is overwhelmed, busy,

598

burnt out people are on vacation.

599

It is able to provide them with

basic responses to tier one type

600

questions any time of the day.

601

And so that reliability is pretty

awesome, and we're hearing some really

602

good feedback from our employees that,

We have nurses that work night shifts.

603

We have clinicians that work night shifts.

604

We've got obviously clinical

staff that works on the weekends

605

when my team is not, right?

606

And so that's been really positive.

607

But we've also gotten an email here and

there on, "It gave me this response,

608

doesn't necessarily seem it's right."

609

And so we went back and tweaked it.

610

A- and I think that's very important.

611

H- establishing the trust so that

people will give you the feedback

612

as opposed to saying, "Yeah, it's

great," and then never use it.

613

And then monitoring usage

614

I think technology is there, it's

great, but you could actually view the

615

adoption and that curve, fluctuating

real life and I think supplementing

616

that with appropriate communication

and monitoring it is critical

617

Jim: Great stuff, Tammy.

618

If people want to continue the

conversation with you, and I'm sure that

619

they will because we're just scratching

the surface of all the different things

620

that you've done especially if they're in

clinical and healthcare, what's the best

621

way for them to get in touch with you?

622

Tammy: LinkedIn.

623

Connect with me on LinkedIn and

happy to have a conversation

624

Jim: Great stuff.

625

We'll make sure that we include

your LinkedIn profile link in the

626

show notes and that way people

have a way to reach out to you.

627

Speaker 2: Thanks for

hanging out with us, Tammy.

628

Great conversation there's gonna be a

lot in this conversation that I think

629

our audience is gonna walk away with,

but when I think about what stood

630

out to me about what you and your

team have done, at your organization

631

when it comes to AI, is how it's been

focused on the most important things.

632

I think when you're looking at any

AI initiative, every organization

633

needs to tackle a first things

first mindset, which is who is it

634

for and who will we prioritize?

635

And what stands out to me about your

three AI initiatives is that everything

636

was centered around productivity, but

it was centered around productivity

637

that impacts the employee experience

and the patient experience.

638

And when we're thinking about implementing

AI in a healthcare and mental health

639

space, That's gotta be the focus of

any initiative that you push forward.

640

It's gotta be on the employee and

on the patient side of the equation.

641

When you're looking at a pure productivity

through the lens of maybe a cost control

642

perspective, that doesn't work well

within a space like mental health or

643

healthcare, and I think that's what I

really like about what you mentioned.

644

So for those organizations that

are looking at rolling out an AI

645

initiative, if you're not centering

yourself on the employee experience

646

first, you're probably going to run

into a lot of issues when it comes to

647

adoption, execution, and velocity of

implementation within your organization.

648

So I appreciate you sharing that with us.

649

I think a lot of people

will find that valuable.

650

For those of you who've been listening

to this conversation, if you've liked

651

the discussion, make sure you leave us a

five-star review on your favorite podcast

652

player, and then tune in next time where

we'll have another HR leader hanging

653

out with us and sharing with us the

initiatives that they're taking on within

654

their organization to future-proof HR.