Speaking FAQ

Tom Lawry is a healthcare AI keynote speaker, author, and advisor, and the former National Director of AI for Health and Life Sciences at Microsoft. He is the author of three books on AI and healthcare leadership — AI in Health, Hacking Healthcare, and Health Care Nation — with a second edition of AI in Health, focused on building Intelligent Health Systems, releasing in October 2026. He now runs Second Century Tech, advising health systems and speaking at major healthcare and AI conferences worldwide.

Most AI speakers explain what artificial intelligence is. Tom Lawry prepares healthcare leaders to actually lead through it. His keynotes are built from nearly two decades of hands-on experience implementing AI inside real health systems — not from theory or hype — and focus on a consistent theme: creating measurable value with AI, not chasing the technology for its own sake. He speaks as a practitioner who has led AI strategy at the executive level, not as a technologist or futurist speaking from the outside.

Tom's signature keynote themes include the AI Leadership Imperative, Creating AI Value at Scale, Building Intelligent Health Systems, the Future of Work in Health and Medicine, Finding Your AI Superpowers, and AI, Longevity, and the Future of Aging. Every topic can be tailored to the specific audience — health system executives, boards, clinical leaders, or industry associations — and grounded in the organization's actual stage of AI adoption rather than a generic AI overview.

Yes. Tom Lawry has delivered keynotes at HIMSS, the American Telemedicine Association (ATA), RACMA, and Vitalis, among other major healthcare and health-technology conferences, often to standing-room-only audiences. His talks are regularly requested by conference chairs and health system CEOs specifically for their combination of practical frameworks and executive-level relevance.

Both. Tom is known for moving audiences beyond AI hype toward what boards and executive teams actually need to know — including AI governance, accountability, and responsible-AI questions that belong on a board agenda, not just the technology's upside. His content is built around a "value over hype" philosophy: practical frameworks for adoption paired with a clear-eyed view of where AI implementations commonly fail.

Yes. In addition to keynote speaking, Tom leads executive retreats, board education sessions, and AI leadership boot camps for health system leadership teams. These formats go deeper than a single keynote, helping executive teams build a shared definition of AI strategy, align on governance, and leave with a practical roadmap rather than just inspiration.

Before founding Second Century Tech, Tom Lawry served as Microsoft's National Director of AI for Health and Life Sciences, and earlier held healthcare leadership roles including at GE Healthcare. That practitioner background — actually implementing AI inside large health systems and a global technology company — is what distinguishes his keynotes from those of career speakers or analysts without direct healthcare AI operating experience.

"Intelligent Health Systems" refers to health organizations that have moved beyond isolated AI pilots to embedding AI as a core, value-generating part of how they operate — clinically, operationally, and strategically. Tom defined the coming of Intelligent Health Systems in the first edition of AI in Health published in 2020. It is the central framework of the forthcoming second edition of AI in Health and the organizing idea behind his current keynote content, which focuses on how leadership, not technology alone, determines whether an organization gets there.