PaceSetters: with Venky Ananth and Tom Swanson

Tom Swanson

Thank you. Thank you. I'm looking forward to our chat.

Venky Ananth

Let's first talk about your own background, Tom. How did you end up at Adobe and doing the gig that you're doing right now?

Tom Swanson

It was actually a great journey. I came from a medical device manufacturer where I was actually Adobe Customer for almost as long now as I've been an Adobe employee. And so I had the opportunity to work with the Adobe Tools and apply it in a highly regulated space. Right prior to working at a medical device company. I was kind of a pure digital marketer, right?
And I was brought over to help the device company kind of bring their marketing up to speed, right? And that's how I got exposed to Adobe. And when Adobe decided to formalize the health care vertical, I was actually the first employee that Adobe hired to help kind of get this thing off the ground.

Venky Ananth

Fascinating. Yeah. Digital transformation. Adobe in healthcare and digital transformation. So our common intersect really is healthcare. And I want to really get your perspectives on where you think the healthcare industry is from a digital transformation perspective. I just want to get your views.

Tom Swanson

I think by and large the healthcare industry is still kind of nascent. In just beginning the journey into digital transformation, now, of course, you've got some leaders, right? That kind of saw what was coming a couple of years ago where when the pandemic hit. Because what the pandemic did was essentially take a very laggard industry where digital engagement was concerned and forced us into engaging in the digital channels because we could no longer engage in kind of the face to face way that we used to.

Tom Swanson

You know, hospital facilities were limited to chronic conditions. You know, health clinics were closed to foot traffic. And so as health care consumers, we're still looking for ways to manage their health care. The first place they turned was to digital, because that's what they were used to for retail and travel and hospitality and all of these other industries.

Tom Swanson

And so, the thing that was interesting about that whole dynamic was as consumers turned to digital channels, they brought with them the expectation of what a good digital experience is going to look and feel like. And those expectations. Right. Or kind of why I say, I think the health care industry is at the very beginning stages, right?

Tom Swanson

Because, yes, health care is using digital channels. Yes. Health care has started using data to personalize experiences. But this whole notion of putting the customer or the consumer in the center of a digital engagement, of course they're the center of the HCP, you know, to patient engagement. But putting the customer and customer expectations customer demands in the center of digital engagements is where I think health care has just started and really needs to get to right now.

Venky Ananth

Adobe is, you know, all about experience led growth. What's the state of the market from a customer/consumer experience in the health care market? Sure, you said that it's at its infancy and you know, well.

Tom Swanson

If there's any indicator, it is the fastest growing industry vertical within Adobe.. I mean, two or three fold. And I think it's a function of the fact that the industry is finally ready for what Adobe brings to the table, because consumers have finally said enough of these bad digital experiences. Right? This is what I expect.

Tom Swanson

And if I don't get it, I'm going to go elsewhere. And so legacy health care companies are finding themselves having to compete in arenas where they've never had to compete right before. And they have a very short window in which to kind of get up to speed. Because one of the things that I mean is either particularly exciting as a consumer or particularly disturbing as a legacy health care provider, is all of these kind of non-health care companies or tech companies getting into the marketplace.

Tom Swanson

I mean, if you think about it, health care represents roughly one third of the gross domestic product of this country. And I think we would all agree that the vast majority of the money that's spent in health care is not spent particularly efficiently or effectively. So no wonder there's so many companies thinking, well, I can utilize technology, get into this and get my half or get my piece of that, that financial pie and the fact that there's such a gap between consumer expectation and what legacy health care companies are delivering is where the disruptors have an opportunity to play.

Tom Swanson

And I don't think it's any coincidence, right, that the likes of Google and Meta and Apple and Amazon are all investing in health care opportunities or health care technology. I mean, Hacking best Buy, right, is getting into the medical device business. Right. So the merging of or the blurring of the lines between retail and health care I think is a significant factor in the growth of the marketplace.

Venky Ananth

Yeah, no, I couldn't agree more with you, Tom. And frankly, our own experience is that Adobe within health care for us is is one of the fastest growing segment which is why we really betting big on Adobe because not only are they obviously a natural leader from cloud-content-data manifesting into the products that healthcare players offers into the market, but also deep into personalization, which is a big segment that is normally not seen in the healthcare world as much as one has been used to in the retail world or the transportation industry, etc..

Venky Ananth

So let's talk about personalization. And I know it's a topic that very close to your heart. How do you how do you think about personalization in the context of healthcare and how do you see the future unfold?

Tom Swanson

Okay, that's a heck of a question. Let's see.

Well, I mean, personalization in healthcare is tricky, right, in that, like I said, health care consumers are kind of demanding, right, a degree of personalization. And health care organizations typically have been very reticent to utilize data in order to personalize. Right. So personalization of digital experiences really boils down to three days data, right? And then using that data to kind of generate insights into your customers, using those insights to determine what content should be served up to them based on the digital cues that they're giving you regarding what they're searching for and what content they consume, how long they stay.

You don't do they share it with somebody. Those are all data points as to what you should be serving up to them and then being able to orchestrate delivery of that content across all of the channels where your customers are already. Right. So and then as that content is consumed, you're in those channels, you're collecting more data and you need to be able to utilize that data in real time, Right?

Tom Swanson

To further refine the experience that you're that your customers are getting in terms of personalization. Now, health care is certainly not lacking data. But what health care is lacking is the courage, if I can use that word, to use the data in a compliant and appropriate way. Right. And so you ask me kind of where I thought personalization plays.

Tom Swanson

I mean, I think personalization is essential, right, for legacy health care companies to continue to compete with these disruptors that are coveting it. And as health care consumers become more and more proactively engaged in the management of their care. But personalization is going to become a bigger and bigger deciding factor of whether they continue to do business like greatness.

Venky Ananth

When in fact, my view is that particularly health plans historically have been benefit administrators. But over time now they're beginning to graduate into what we call scale orchestrators into whole health system. So the future horizon is all about whole health. And within that, what you're really talking about is what's lavish and the whole health level so.

Tom Swanson

Well and increasing that level of engagement. Right? Because from a whole health perspective, that's something where health care consumers are far more engaged, are far more proactive than they ever have been, where, you know, kind of the legacy model and health care is one of kind of episodic engagement. Right. Where you only engage your doctor or your insurance company when you have to.

Tom Swanson

Right. And now you're seeing the evolution of where consumers want to be engaged with their ecosystem. Right. Including doctors, insurers, pharmacists, pharmaceutical companies, medical device companies, where it might be anyone who's providing care, they want to be engaged with them all the time. Right. Whether it's, you know, receiving educational information or asking questions, you know, the fact that you have so many channels available to you now for interaction, it's no surprise that the consumers are actually taking advantage of that.

Tom Swanson

The disconnect is actually making sure that as a health care company, you're in that channel serving up the content that your customers want to see. Right now, I mentioned kind of a reticence to use the use the data. Right. The thing that's I think a bit of a, you know, discordant within health care right now is consumers are saying, I know you've got my data, I want you to use it to better serve me. And so health care companies are finding themselves in the position of having to do something that they're very uncomfortable with. Yeah, right. Which is utilizing that clinical data to actually build a comprehensive profile of their customer. And if the customer is giving you consent to collect and use it, they're telling you use my data. And so I think that's one of the things that we've got to see is these health care organizations be purposeful in explaining to their customers what data they want to collect, how they want to use it and for what specific purpose and I think they'll be surprised how willing consumers are to grant that consent.

Venky Ananth

Right. I know great, great insights, particularly on personality. And then how with the right concerned with the right within the right regulatory framework, there is a clear need for leveraging data of the member to sell them.

Tom Swanson

Yeah. And that's you know, to be honest with you, that's where a partner like Infosys and, you know, the development work that we've been doing in Adobe really comes into play, right? Right. Is how let's give you kind of the tools but also establish the governance boundaries and establish the guardrails so that you can manage what data you've got and for how long you have it and who has access to it and how it can be used in whatever particular program.

Tom Swanson

And having, you know, the expertise that Infosys possess brings to the table and the expertise that Adobe has developed over the course of years in building our hyper ready toolset, I think is where we can really help these folks get over that hurdle of using the data that they have at their disposal, which.

Venky Ananth

Is a good segue way for my next question – AI. We heard about next generation launch of CDP. We heard about Firefly, we heard about Sensei. You know, help me any early thoughts on our how do you see it in the context of health care?

Tom Swanson

Well, I mean, I know AI is a big topic in health care and you and I have talked about it before, about its application and kind of are DNA based kind of directed pharmaceutical development. Right. In my part of the world, right, where we're talking about personalization of digital experiences, I think AI can play a critical role in bridging the experience and resource gap that a lot of health care companies get, that they don't have data scientists, right?

Tom Swanson

They don't have typically a team of marketers that's determining what content should be served up went right. And the fact that Adobe applies the Sensei algorithm to the data points that you're collecting, right, in order to generate customer based insights. And then since they can recommend - here's the content you should serve up, right? And then based on how that content is consumed, here's the next step in the journey and the next step.

And all of that can happen in real time as a result of the AI, as opposed to collecting data, putting it in a box and letting the data scientists go through it and then come back with recommendations weeks later when that data is no longer relevant. Right. So I think AI, as in any business, has a unique opportunity to really drive speed and efficiency when it comes to determining exactly how to build a personalized experience.

Venky Ananth

Very, very exciting times ahead. Yeah. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and insights.

Tom Swanson

And I completely agree with you. I think this is a super exciting time to be a health care consumer, which is why all of us are.

Venky Ananth

Absolutely. Thank you so much, Tom. Appreciate it.

Tom Swanson

Thank you.

Venky Ananth

Thank you so much. That's the end of this edition of Pacesetters from Tom Swanson from Adobe.