Sidebar: the apple pie use case in OpenAI's AI shopping experiences press release made me very hungry. I frequently use Instacart for Costco deliveries, and the idea of eating a homemade, costco-sized apple pie that requires a mini-shovel does something wonderful to my spirit.

Consumers, en masse, won't be satiated and that disconnection will be communicated by sales figures.

Until we reach a point where our AI-powered tech delivers practical, everyday productivity gains that significantly outweigh the resources needed for task execution, I expect overall reception to be lukewarm.

This vision has, loosely, become my point of reference, making intermediary steps like the Instacart shopping and checkout experience powered by ChatGPT's Agentic Commerce Protocol less appealing despite having the bigger picture in mind.

openai.com/index/instac...

Central to making AI gadgets less "bad" is marrying truly agentic AI-powered software to high-grade hardware via an acceptable form factor.

When OpenAI launched Operator, I fantasized what an agentic AI-powered grocery shopping experience might look like using smart glasses: tinyurl.com/y5ju3cfx

It will also force us to re-conceptualize the role of pharmacies, pharmacists, and benefits managers in service provision. Allied health care professionals, too.

A key consideration on which the effectiveness of this transformation hinges: How do we prevent siloed health care experiences from disjointing continuity of care across care modalities and access points?

Digitalization is the future of health care. It is poised to fundamentally disrupt the patient engagement landscape by empowering patients to engage in private, portable, and personalized care experiences that adapt to their dynamic lifestyles.

And they will be most powerful when connected to pharmacies--traditional and virtual--aligned in the mission to literally "meet people where they're at"--be it by mail-order, specialized- or ride share delivery, drone, or more conventional methods.

2. Will play a pivotal role in shaping more equitable service rationing frameworks at clinical points-of-care. Models that connect improving patient satisfaction to eliminating inefficiencies, removing administrative burden, lowering costs, and generating profit.

These efforts:

1. Render antiquated the long-trite mantra "If you build it, they will come." That attitude normalizes operations that birth and perpetuate health care inequities.

Companies like Inito energize me. Their work is a glimpse into the future of patient-centered care within a larger telehealth- and mHealth-focused transformation of the health care space.

Srouji has, since, announced that he has no plans to leave Apple.

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