Pharma marketers are exploring the potential of AI tools to enhance engagement with healthcare professionals
Pharmaceutical companies are on the verge of an AI-driven transformation. The technology offers a potential solution to a growing problem. In recent years, firms have struggled to engage healthcare professionals, making it increasingly difficult to share clinical data, provide education and obtain feedback on their existing solutions.
A 2024 study by Veeva Systems, a provider of cloud software for the life sciences industry, revealed that healthcare professional (HCP) engagement with pharma field force and online channels has fallen to 53%. Of those HCPs that are communicating with pharma companies, 62% meet with three or fewer firms. The problem is the result of changing wants and needs.
Data from the Digital Health Coalition shows that just 27% of HCPs feel pharma companies communicate with them in a relevant and personalised way. There is also a greater demand for convenience to enable them to access information almost instantly on an ongoing basis. Alexander Alex, head of CRM and engagement channels at Bayer AG, said: “HCPs want quick information. They’re not willing to wait for the rep’s next visit or phone call.”
AI-powered digital engagement
Pharma companies must innovate and do so at speed or risk greater customer engagement with competitors. Many are turning to AI to enhance engagement – from improving content creation to gaining sharper audience insights.
In fact, Veeva’s research revealed there has been a 20% increase in the creation of digital educational content by pharmaceutical companies, and for good reason. Firms that create this content see a 2.5 x increase in doctors using treatments compared to phone calls or other methods that don’t provide the same value.
Now, AI provides marketers with an opportunity to create content at scale. But in order to engage HCPs ahead of their rivals, it must be superior in quality, tailored to the needs of individuals and delivered to market faster.
The first step to achieving this is to understand the information HCPs need and create it in the right formats in line with their preferences. AI helps firms to collect data about competitors’ actions and their marketing activities. Marketers can choose topics in high demand for their target audiences and then create content in the preferred formats of individual professionals.
of HCPs agree or strongly agreed that ‘pharma companies currently communicate with me in a relevant and personalised manner.’
of HCPs agree or strongly agreed with the statement, ‘I feel that pharma companies really understand me as a physician.’
Harnessing the power of AI-agents
Once marketers have this data, they must then decide on their channels of distribution. Inbound channels are becoming increasingly popular. Data from Veeva shows that when pharma companies make a compliant instant messaging channel available, doctors initiate conversation 30% of the time. Pharma reps respond rapidly to their queries (on average, in just five minutes), with their replies yielding twice the open rate compared to emails.
Once companies begin conversations with HCPs, this level of personalisation can be enhanced further by using AI to store and analyse insights from previous interactions. This enables medical reps to ensure each new interaction with a doctor evolves off the last one. The technology can also help to automate routine tasks, such as follow-up emails with conversation summaries, meeting reminders and updated content and product info.
But some pharmaceutical companies are going one step further. Edward Morris is the Lead Prompt Engineer at Enigmatica. The company helps pharma firms to harness the power of Gen AI, but also create their own miniature AI agents. These are software systems trained using specific information designed for specific audiences in individual industries. “These agents hold information about a particular product or service,” says Morris. “Doctors can ask the agent questions about potential side effects of treatments and compare them to existing products without speaking to a medical rep.”
Unlocking MLR with AI
Information created by pharmaceutical companies must undergo Medical Legal Regulatory (MLR) review. This is a critical process, ensuring all promotional and non-promotional materials are accurate, fair, balanced and comply with applicable laws and regulations. This review involves medical experts, legal professionals, and regulatory affairs personnel to scrutinise content for accuracy, safety and compliance.
Pharma companies must innovate and do so at speed
This process is often lengthy and can require multiple review stages before information is considered compliant and approved for publication. Delays can cause frustration for pharmaceutical companies as they race to keep HCPs informed and do so ahead of their competitors. But AI could be used to accelerate the speed of approvals.
Emma Hyland, VP of strategy and commercial content at Veeva, explains. “We really believe that if the quality of the content that is entering this review and approval process is better, then it’ll mean there are fewer review stages. It’s common sense. We can use AI to take care of simple, time consuming tasks, like spelling and grammar checks and making sure formatting is compliant with regulations in different regions.”
Hyland says this would empower pharmaceutical marketers to spend their time on high value tasks. “Marketers should be focused on asking critical questions, like: ‘Is this claim really representing what we want to be able to say to our customers? Are we really representing this data in a safe and effective way for the HCPs?’ That’s where they provide really high value. That’s the step that needs to happen. AI can really help with it.”
of HCPs that are communicating with pharma companies meet with three or fewer firms
Human x AI
However, on all steps of the journey, human insight and input remain critical. Maxim Polyakov, SVP of business intelligence and research at M3, says: “There are two themes that really resonate for me when people talk about AI. The first is that, right now, AI is being positioned as a tool that makes an expert better at their job. It does not make a non-expert into an expert, and that distinction is key. The second is about the steps that need to be taken in deploying AI well, such as ensuring it is used within a clear set of guardrails that enable appropriate risk management, and by team members who are properly trained and are aware of AI’s limitations.”
Ultimately, if deployed well, AI can help pharmaceutical companies step up their game in how well they can engage HCPs. By contrast, companies that fail to innovate will fall further and further behind.
