We just attended a CES session called The Power of AI with Jeremy Kaplan, Editor in Chief, Digital Trends moderating, and speakers Bridget Karlin, Global Managing Director, CTO and VP, IBM; Kevin Guo, CEO of Hive; and Eric Cornelius, Chief Product Architect, Blackberry.

Bridget Karlin spoke about how AI is already all around us and that it has the power to help us predict outcomes; improve automation; and optimize performance. Deeper learning is a fast-growing AI sector, Kevin Guo noted, because the world wants better software, better computing, and more sophisticated data and inferences. He reminded us that AI is already behind many things that people experience every day “under the hood”—things behind the scenes that consumers don’t necessarily notice, but that impacts their day-to-day lives.

Eric Cornelius added that while AI enhances and augments humanity, it won’t “build the bridge”, but can indeed help us create better plans for the bridge…and maybe even file the paperwork for us. All the speakers agreed that AI has the power to augment and enhance the human experience—and while it and the processes around it need care and integrity, it is fueling much transformation.

Innovation is a key pillar at Montreal-based Carebook and we’ve got a live patient-facing pharmacy platform that includes state-of-the-art features like retail and loyalty, online medication refills, health and wellness, and more. Now, with the help of a research grant, the team is diving deep into an AI component that could benefit pharmacists, patients, and global health outcomes: medication adherence.

To date, most digital solutions for medication adherence focus on patient monitoring rather than on providing patient-centered care. The Carebook team believes there is a better, personalized, patient-centered approach to this multi-billion dollar problem. “A patient-centered approach means incorporating patient needs, preferences, beliefs, concerns, and realities in medication management, and identifying personalized solutions to combat adherence barriers. We proposed to investigate how AI inside a mobile app could deliver a patient-centered approach to improve medication adherence.” The Carebook team plans to investigate and identify the adherence trajectories and proactively communicate with users to change that trajectory.

We’re really excited about all the possibilities, and how to best help clients to improve and optimize the human experiences of their patients, customers, and clients. AI is a fuel that can help businesses—and, most importantly, people—on their journeys.

Thanks for the great session, #CES!