What Healthcare Marketers Learned at HMPS 2026: AI, Trust, and Activation
Healthcare marketers at the 2026 HMPS Summit in Salt Lake City are navigating a fundamental tension: AI adoption has shifted from “fear of missing out” to “fear of becoming obsolete,” as organizations increasingly mandate AI tools in MarComm workflows. Tasks requiring strategy, empathy, and complex interpersonal dynamics remain human domains—for now. A second major theme challenged the industry’s acquisition fixation, arguing that activating existing patient relationships delivers stronger ROI than chasing new ones. And across all sessions, trust—between patients and providers, providers and technology, and institutions and communities—emerged as healthcare marketing’s defining challenge for the decade ahead. More than 800 healthcare marketing, communications, and physician relations executives attended the Salt Lake City conference May 3–6.
Healthcare marketing leaders are being pushed to move faster on AI adoption while simultaneously rebuilding patient trust—two goals that often pull in opposite directions. For multi-site operators, the takeaway is clear: activation of existing patients, not acquisition alone, is where durable growth lives.
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