How Data and AI are Redefining MedTech with Boston Scientific

I'll say we had a conversation with our Salesforce partners today about that topic, and we're excited to get our hands on some of this stuff. So we're glad you're innovating around this space.

Hello, I'm Jeff Amen from Salesforce, and today we'll be discussing the role of AI agents in the life sciences industry, with a focus on how data and AI are redefining medtech. And I'm joined today by Ben Ammel, vice president of commercial digital enablement at Boston Scientific, one of the most innovative life sciences companies in the world. We'll kick off today just by talking a little bit about data and AI at Boston Scientific. And I'd really love to know from your perspective, what are some of the most impactful ways that you're seeing data and AI currently redefining the medtech landscape? Maybe specifically in terms of patient outcomes or operational efficiency.

Awesome. Hey, thanks, Jeff. I have to start by just saying that the role of data and AI is not new to life sciences and medtech. For many, many years, both have played a critical role in the products that we deliver, the quality of the therapy that they deliver, and honestly, just the services that we put around our products. But definitely we are moving into a bit of a new space here with generative AI and agents. And so I guess one thing I'd really highlight when I think about, you know, something that we're pretty excited about, it's the opportunity to leverage this capability to reach more people. I think for a lot of our products, awareness to the therapies. Just in general, what's available to people can be a challenge. And we've had a lot of success already with agents helping our teams educate patients and healthcare providers about the therapies and products that we have and how they can really make a meaningful difference in terms of solving challenges that our patients might have. That's one of the things that I think we're most excited about, is really connecting dots, and it's an opportunity to have a global impact.

Well, we know you're having a global impact, and we also know you've got a lot of great examples of how you're using AI powered agents. So maybe would you be willing to walk us through a couple of examples of how you've embedded AI and agents into a specific workflow or maybe even a product lifecycle?

Our mission at Boston Scientific, or I should say our purpose, is to advance science for life. And I got a few examples that I think support that, and maybe one that I'll Start with, we've done a lot in the marketing space where we're using agents and AI to help us be more efficient with how we're developing marketing content around our products and therapies. And obviously this is the area that I think a lot of. I don't think we're unique in targeting this space, but I can say it's been rich. We've seen in certain areas where we've done this upwards of a 40% improvement in kind of our overall efficiency and how we generate content, how we communicate that information. So that's an area that we've been pretty excited about and where we have some Runway with. There's a few other areas that we really have. I'd say we're betting big on or we really believe are going to be transfer transformational. For Boston Scientific in general, agents around our service areas is a key focus as well as rep assistants. Right. You know, our reps are asked to do many, many things. Oftentimes our reps are in the operating room when therapies are being provided. And how do we make their jobs easier to do? Right. How do we simplify their workflow? And we think agents and AI will have a big role, you know, really in the near term. And there's things we're doing right now.

Well, I know one of the things that we're really thrilled about working with Boston Scientific is the partnership that we have. And I'm curious, from your perspective, how have you seen that partnership accelerate your efforts in harnessing data to provide better results for patients, for your customers, for your employees, et cetera?

Yeah, I'll just say we're thrilled about it too, Jeff. I sincerely mean that. We've been partners with Salesforce for over 10 years. I had the pleasure from the very get go to be involved and I would say that the partnership has never been stronger than what it is right now. We have regular engagement with our Salesforce teams and they're a key part of some of the opportunities that we're after. One of the things that I'm really excited about is how we use the Salesforce technologies to help us specifically around data to help us gain better insight into the digital interactions and interests of our healthcare providers. And it puts us in a position where we can have much more meaningful conversations with them, our reps. Can we arm our reps with information around areas that our customers have shown interest, whether that's trainings that they've taken from Boston Scientific or other digital interactions that they've had around with Boston Scientific? And it allows us to, I think, make the most of the time we get when we're in front of our customers. And so, like, there's a huge opportunity there and we couldn't do that without the technologies that Salesforce provides. It's core to what we're doing in that space.

Well, Ben, you're always full of incredible examples and bringing it into the real world, which I really appreciate. And I'm curious, from your perspective, can you provide some examples of where our partnership has unlocked a particular capability or maybe an insight that you wouldn't have achieved alone?

We use a lot of different products from Salesforce. Right. And one of the things we leverage is data cloud. And that's been really key to how we think about segmenting our customer base and then using that information to again, be more targeted in how we interact with those customers through other technologies, platforms, and just human interactions. And so I think the full suite of products really kind of works well together to support our needs. And it honestly all plays back into the example I gave when we, when we first talked about the partnership around just arming our teams with the information they need to be as effective with the interactions we have and making the most of the little bit of time that we get.

That's awesome. And we love to celebrate victories and these great success stories are awesome. But maybe I'll flip it just a little bit because I think we also learn a lot sometimes when we face obstacles. And so maybe you can share for folks, what's a hard lesson that you or others at Boston Scientific have learned while trying to successfully deploy at scale as you have?

I actually have a couple. Maybe the first thing I'll say is partnerships are critical to success in this space. Right. I think we're all on a journey and we've been pretty open minded about the types of partnerships that we'd be willing to get into to be successful here. And I personally and my teams have been involved with, with some partners that are new to us at Boston Scientific. And that's been a really good, positive learning, but also that creates challenges anytime you kind of create new partnerships and work, work, work, you know, work in different ways. And so that's been kind of an interesting learning, I would say. Another area that has been key for us has been and probably not unique to, you know, AI agents data, but change management has been so critical to really driving the outcomes of some of our focus areas. And again, that's not a new concept, but, you know, it's a lot easier, I think, to bring the technology to bear. But what's been more difficult has been getting that kind of adoption, the understanding of how it can really enable and support our teams. And so we're finding that focus on change management is a critical differentiator. And I think one of the examples I'll share, you know, we recently are deploying some capability to some, to one of our selling organizations and we had super strong executive support from the president of that, of that business and the sales leadership in that business. And actually just this week we wrapped up in person training with the whole sales management team where we literally flew in the whole sales management team to spend time with our teams around some capabilities that we're rolling out to them that we think are really going to help make a difference and you know, in their day to day job. And so that type of support, that type of effort and energy that's being put into change management, like you don't always see that. Right. But that just speaks to, I think the buy in, the excitement and the belief in what we're doing here.

You know, the change management's so important. I'm really glad that you went there, Ben, but I want to ask you, since the rubber really meets the road with the frontline teams, how do you engage them further upstream when you're developing AI agents and you're thinking about future innovations that will later need change management? I'm curious how you engage those teams in that effort.

Yeah, really good question, Jeff. You know, we haven't talked really a whole lot about how we structure for success at Boston Scientific. And it's actually something that we feel really good about. We feel like we've been thoughtful and intentional about how we get after AI. We have a strong engagement from our leadership executive committee. We've actually formed an AI Governance Council. And I know that's not what you asked me about, right, but it's part of the story, right? And so with the formation of this AI Governance Council, one of the very first things that this group did was say we need AI Change Champions that are embedded into our business. And so we have this what we call AI Change Champions network where we have representation from every division, every region, every function at Boston Scientific. And they play a critical role in not only helping to surface opportunities for where we can leverage AI to help our company succeed, but also in, you know, I think, testing out these ideas, right. And being a, you know, kind of a feedback mechanism, you know, for the rest of the organization. And so, and we also do some really cool things where, where we do you know, all kind of these all hands meetings with the whole, with the organization. They're really open to anybody. And these AI change champions not only are part of that, but they get an opportunity to present to that group. So they get a bit of a stage as well. And so we have a culture that really, I think, supports inclusivity, collaboration across the organization. And I think the structure and the approach we've taken here supports that. It's been great.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall in some of those meetings. I'm sure they're very interesting and everybody learns a lot. And speaking of learning, we're obviously focused on life sciences in this session, but every industry is going through transformations like this. And I'm just curious, are there other industries that inspire you in terms of the partnerships or innovation models that you see rolling out outside of life sciences, especially around agentic AI, that really impact what you and others at Boston Scientific are doing?

Meaningful innovation is a core value at Boston Scientific. And we're not ashamed of learning from what others are doing. Right. And we don't presuppose that we always have the best ideas and that we're first. Right. And so one of the other, I think, angles on this is the same people that are our customers, our patients, interact with other industries just like we all do in our personal life. And so we really aspire to create a, I guess an environment where working with Boston Scientific is as good as working with any other company that they enjoy working with outside of, you know, outside of our interactions, if you will. Right. And so this idea of making it easy to do work with Boston Scientific, we do benchmark against other industries and look at where we feel like we can learn and do better. And I think services is a huge area. Right. So how do we make it easy for, you know, for customers to get the information they need, engage with Boston Scientific with the right information at the right place at the right time, all these things. We think a lot of companies outside of Boston Scientific do well. And you know, we're trying to learn from that, to create that same excellent experience.

So, Ben, I know you're very forward thinking and so I want to ask you to kind of look ahead a little bit and tell us about what role you see AI and agents playing in shaping Boston Scientific, but also the whole medtech industry. And I'd like to say over like the next three to five years, but AI is evolving so quickly that maybe we'll shorten that and make it one to two years. So near term. What do you, what's your outlook, Ben?

You know, one of the areas that I think is going to be of focus and challenge, interest, all the above, if you will, is this idea that agents are kind of expanding beyond just assisting to be, you know, really kind of doing more work, I'll say independently, but really in a team environment. Right. We're seeing some examples of this today. Right. I think we're early on in terms of that level of autonomy with these agents. But, you know, we've rolled out agents for our. To provide service kind of assistance and service to our internal teams. We have an IT agent, an HR agent. Right. To help answer questions. And we've actually been quite pleased with the uptake that we're seeing on that. We're seeing agents solve greater than 90% of the questions that they're getting. And we're actually seeing a reduction, a significant reduction, greater than 20% reduction in calls to our traditional help desks. Right. And so I think that's an early example of what I'm talking about where agents are starting to pick up work, operate more kind of independently and as really a part of the team versus just assisting maybe a team member in providing service. We certainly have examples where agents are also assisting service team members so that they can do their job more effectively. So it kind of works in both ways.

That's very interesting, Ben. And we also believe that humans and agents can work together in a hybrid optimized workforce and make that organization even better than it could be with just one or the other. But it is mind bending. And so I'm curious what sorts of things that you see as challenges and also opportunities in that space as you move forward and maybe especially things that, you know, that you're thinking that maybe some of your peers might not be.

Yeah, it's hard for me to speak to what my peers are or aren't doing, to be honest. But I will say that, you know, we talked earlier about the change management component to this. I think that that challenge and opportunity only gets greater as the capabilities of agents grow. Right. And so removing barriers, fear. I think you got to kind of prove it over time, Right. That the investment in focus in AI and agents is to enhance the. Enhance what our teams can already do. Right. And so, and like I said, this idea of agents, you know, kind of being part of the team and I think adapting our workforce to think of it that way and to make the most of what agents can do in our environment and you know, we have, we have a core value around winning spirit. And that speaks to things like being, you know, daring to try and really kind of competing to win. And I just believe that that winning spirit, that core value, is going to be key to our success in taking on these challenges and getting to where we want to be.

Well, Ben, listen, this has been a great conversation as always. I want to really thank you for joining us and sharing your thoughts about Boston Scientific, an amazing organization. What you're doing there is so innovative and exciting and it's going to help so many people in this world. We really appreciate you taking time out of your busy day to talk to us. And thanks to everybody out there for joining us and spending the time to listen to us talking about AI and agents, especially in the life sciences industry and med tech. And there's a whole lot more to learn in the links below, so please check them out. You can see some more information about Boston Scientific, about Salesforce, about our incredible partnership, and how we're transforming the life sciences and medtech industries. Thank you very much.