US health systems of all types are rolling out AI to assist with operations. A majority of those systems, 93%, are either using the technology or planning for it.

When executives are asked about how they see Agentic AI, a mix of hope and concern emerges.

While 86% of respondents said that they feel like they can control AI Agents, 72% still said that sometimes usages slips past IT.

Meanwhile, most agentic AI provisioning is happening through IT, but certainly not all of it. A full third of usages is outside of the firm's regulatory control whatsoever.

100% of respondents wanting patients in their programs is 0% surprising, but half also wanting post LOE effects perhaps is.

A study of "more than 150" pharma executives in the US market was conducted to investigate DTP programs. The respondents were either running or considering DTP so this data is only for products that lend themselves to these programs. One year ago we ran a story that showed 73% of brand marketers were either running or considering DTP.

This makes sense, why create a DTP program if you didn't want more patient conversions? The use of DTP for post-LOE protections is intriguing. One expects that's with price decreases but every product will be a different story. 

Why consider the expense and hassle of building out a DTP program? The number one reason is insurance coverage.

It's a sad reality that once a product gets through the PBM, insurance, provider network system it can cost the patient a similar amount to a direct purchase. If your product is in that boat, you're not alone.

The IAB surveyed 211 advertisers in late July to find out if their projections for 2026 had changed since January. They found a much stronger outlook than in their January survey with growth now pegged at 12.3% from 2025.

Looking at September over January data, we see that growth on social and CTV increased 1.9% and 1.8%, respectively. Digital Display also increased 1.5% in its growth projections. 

Advertisers don't think they need to choose between performance and brand advertising. Both objectives increased, though performance leads in absolute and growth numbers.

As marketers adapt to AI, they are changing how they measure performance. 

To see other data from the IAB, including which areas of AI are increasing in focus, download your copy.

Most consumers say that it will be impossible to tell AI ads within a year and 48% say that time is already here. 

Is AI ad content impossible to distinguish from human-created content?

The folks at Cool have created a test where you are shown 10 sample ads and you have to pick the one you think is AI-generated. They don't reveal the overall stats but it was difficult. After three plays the system give you your stats (the author wanted you to know he got 3 for 3 ... show off -Ed.).

That said, consumers were more doubtful about their abilities after taking the test:

Interestingly, consumers see ads as content. They want them to be relevant and informative. This is one area where pharma can shine.

Gallup conducted a survey of 3,152 adults in the U.S., aged 18 and older, in June 2-23, 2026 to measure sentiment around the technology. Unsurprisingly, the population is increasing its knowledge around the tech.

Americans are worried about AI and employment and know that workers need to use this technology to remain competitive. 

When looking at a range of issues surrounding AI a substantial number of Americans support them.

SEM Rush surveyed 622 U.S. B2B professionals in March–April 2026. Of those, 83% use AI for their work. 95% use the tools weekly or more often.

AI is no longer a novel tool for B2B selection. Now, it's just a part of the standard toolset. When asked if they used AI for researching products, vendors, or solutions 66% said regularly.

This is a bit tongue-in-cheek but for professionals who research B2B solutions it's not surprising that AI is used mainly for that research. That said, they use it for writing like most other knowledge workers. 

For this group, like most others, OpenAI's ChatGPT is the top tool choice. Microsoft CoPilot is higher on the list than normal.

In Apple's recent announcement about Health App upgrades, it referenced a study comparing the new Apple Watch to other heart rate measurement devices. This study is first party so take the results with a grain of salt, but comparing beats-per-minute error across devices, the new Apple Watch is lowest (baseline).

Of course all of the numbers above are relative. We don't get the baseline values. Still, a good result for the Apple Watch. 

Other updates to the Health app include:

Third way health surveyed 200 US healthcare executives to find out how they are incorporating AI and outsourcing into their services. The two options are being used for quite a few similar tasks.

In most use cases, AI is being used more than outsourcing, but it's a close race. The usage isn't mutually-exclusive either. A firm could do both. The more complex task of verifying patient intake and eligibility seems to lean toward outsourcing but AI is still in the mix.

Google owns the home screen of mobile devices. Between YouTube (#1), search, mail, and maps it holds four of the top five spots. 

OpenAI showed how its Sponsored Agents will work in a video on the company announcement. Here it is in a nutshell:

The options for healthcare marketers are legion. The hurdles will be getting acceptance from OpenAI (the easy part) and ensuring all answers are compliant (the hard part).

ByteDance, creator of TikTok, is turning its attention to drug discovery with a spin off, Anew Labs. Initial funding of $290 million has been provided to the new company with a valuation of $1.5 billion.

A new report published by Cumulus contains a fatal flaw on slide 9.

Wire readers already see the error, but we need to point it out anyway. ROI is only valid if it is calculated against "profit," not "revenue." The above slide tries to slide that past the reader by erroneously equating "profit/revenue" at first and then changing to "revenue" later. 

If we assume a generous 50% gross profit margin (we will assume other costs for net profit won't increase even though that's a bit simplistic) then the calculation looks like this:

This means the rest of the report needs to be taken with a grain of salt. In spite of this, the arguments presented ring true: small campaigns have the illusion of better ROI but sacrifice scale.

Another argument worth considering in the report is the brand spend vs. share of market calculation. Brands will tend to grow or shrink by share of market spend, all else being equal (I can hear your economics professor's voice -Ed.).

So, other than the infuriating issues on slide 9 this report has some interesting points and can be a good source for marketers trying to make the brand vs. performance argument.