The AI Transformation of Pharmaceutical Commercialization

The pharmaceutical industry is immersed in a profound transformation driven by changes in the behavior of healthcare professionals, the emergence of new technologies such as artificial intelligence and the need to adapt to an increasingly dynamic and competitive environment.

In this article we will try to share our experiences and reflections regarding the application of omnichannel and new technologies in the marketing of pharmaceutical products with a special focus on the application of artificial intelligence, as a fundamental emerging tool and the ethical, organizational and operational challenges posed by this evolution.

Transforming the Pharmaceutical Environment

The pharmaceutical sector has undergone significant evolution, characterized by less product innovation and a growing focus on specialized therapeutic areas such as obesity, oncology, and biologics, while challenges are multiplying, mainly due to the challenge posed by financial sustainability for health service providers, such as the growing distortions in the supply chain caused by external factors, including tariffs, wars, and blockades.

Obviously, all of the above elements have an impact on the entire value chain of the pharmaceutical industry. In addition, in the commercial work and making our products and services available to professionals and patients, we face other specific challenges:

• A growing promotional saturation that has limited face-to-face access to healthcare professionals (HCPs), who now adopt a hybrid behavior, combining digital and face-to-face channels for their interaction with the industry.

• New opportunities in competitive markets for over-the-counter or less regulated products (consumer healthcare, devices, food supplements, probiotics).

• A greater influence of the point of sale or health service provision (pharmacies, hospitals and clinics) especially in areas that are experiencing the greatest growth such as obesity and the non-prescription products described above.

• Acceleration of the trend that has already been observed in recent years of greater empowerment and influence of the patient, both in prevention and in early diagnosis and treatment and adherence.

Pharma-Customer Disconnect

The traditional conservatism of many actors in the world of health is causing a disconnect between what customers and especially health professionals expect from the pharmaceutical industry versus what the pharmaceutical industry offers or believes that these professionals demand.

According to a Deloitte study published in 2025, a staggering 82% of life sciences executives are satisfied with their current customer engagement strategies, yet only 28% of HCPs feel that these strategies meet their needs effectively. This disconnect highlights a crucial problem: while pharma executives may believe they are doing well, HCPs do not, and they are actively seeking more tailored, informative, and timely interactions..

In accordance with our practical experience in more than 50 medical omnichannel promotion projects in Europe and Latin America, the new health professional:

• Decides when and how to interact with laboratories versus the classical planned face-to-face medical visit model, arranged according to the priorities and needs of the industry.

• Prefers to consume content on demand: the content that really interests (or needs) them, and at the most appropriate time for them, either for their clinical practice, or to facilitate the reconciliation between personal and work life.

• Values the scientific personalization of content, both to their practice and to their specific patient profiles.

• Penalizes promotional saturation that can become a distraction from their work.

• Uses multiple channels, such as email, webinars, conferences, scientific platforms, and professional networks to be updated.

Omnichannel vs Multichannel

To close this gap between what healthcare professionals demand and what commercial and market access teams offer, it is critical to evolve from multichannel to omnichannel strategies. 

While multichannel involves the use of multiple channels independently (such as medical visits, email marketing, or webinars), omnichannel is committed to a total integration of these channels. This makes it possible to have:

• Unified monitoring by the health professional of all interactions with each of them. 

• Personalization of content according to their behavior and interests.

• A more accurate measurement and evaluation of the impact and return of commercial actions.

The Role of Artificial Intelligence

AI is positioned as a key catalyst in the business transformation of the healthcare sector. Some of its applications include:

1. Data analysis for the identification of opportunities, prioritization of territories and customers, integration of multiple sources, development of more accurate sales forecasting models and the monitoring of all types of actions and investments.

2. Artificial intelligence algorithms allow the dynamic segmentation of our customers, by recognizing patterns in a more agile way and being able to automate the adaptation of content and channels.

3. AI agents enable continuous care, improve operational efficiency, and optimize inventory management and pharmacovigilance.

4. Commercial management: the combination of the above elements, together with natural language processing tools, allows for streamlined planning, preparation, reporting, and dynamic decision-making on the next steps to be taken. All this optimizes the dedication of resources to commercial management and allows the focus to be placed on the healthcare professional and the patient.

Ethical, Operational Challenges

But as everybody knows, the implementation of AI in pharmaceutical commercialization is not without its challenges. Some of them are common to other areas and industries, but they are especially intensified by the fact that we are talking about health sciences, with which many of these elements increase in importance due to the possible impact on the safety and quality of life of our society .

Some of them are:

• Guarantee data privacy: We are talking about health data, the most sensitive data and the most protected by all personal data protection regulations.

• Ensure the explainability of algorithms in such a way that the data, information and algorithms used in any decision-making can be audited from start to the end.

• Liability: It should be noted that the liability of companies for possible errors, omissions or incidents in the use of artificial intelligence in the health sector can lead to serious claims and liabilities. This argument is often used as a fundamental barrier to the use of new technologies and artificial intelligence, but we believe that like many other risks it can be managed and minimized.

• And of course, like many other innovative technologies and methodologies, there are internal and external barriers to change that must be managed with leadership and training.

As we have previously mentioned, the peculiarities of the world of health mean that some of these risks must be minimized to avoid any type of impact or adverse effects on people's health. In our companies, we are applying "human-in-the-loop (HITL)" methodologies to manage and minimize these risks in the application of artificial intelligence for the commercialization of medicines and pharmaceutical products.

HITL is an AI and automation model that integrates human feedback, supervision or intervention at critical stages of an automated process. Instead of AI operating fully autonomously, HITL ensures that a person reviews, corrects, or approves machine decisions to improve accuracy, ethics, and safety.

Probably in the future and with the evolution of artificial intelligence capabilities, this type of model with human intervention will become less and less necessary. But for now, we believe that it is the best way to responsibly manage the potential risks of the application of this technology in the world of health, at least from a commercial or communication point of view.

Application Case Studies

Generative AI agent specialized in health:

MAXI is a generative AI agent that is fully adapted to the characteristics of the healthcare industry.

Its fundamental characteristic is that the entire database and information from which it learns is fully validated and approved, so the risks of using information in the cloud that has not been adequately contrasted are avoided.

It has multiple 24/7 support applications, among which we highlight:

• Integration into a patient support program:

  • resolution of doubts, answer queries and schedule appointments.

  • Proactivity when contacting patients and healthcare professionals 24/7 to remind patients and appointments, provide or request information.

  • Symptom checker and early detection of adherence problems.

• Medical information for healthcare professionals: Streamline queries with accurate, real-time answers for healthcare professionals and patients. It improves efficiency, ensures regulatory compliance, and operates 24/7 in multiple languages.

• Point-of-sale and pharmacy management: Optimize stock management and ensure smooth supply chain operations to meet pharmaceutical demands efficiently and reliably.

New CRM with segmentation, GenAI and NLP:

Our group of companies has developed an innovative CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system that simplifies tasks through the application of different solutions and artificial intelligence:

• Natural language processing for activity reporting, ticket generation, information querying, planning, and tracking.

• Through generative AI we are able to automatically generate personalized Whatsapp & Mailing as well as activity comments and reminders.

• Automatic segmentation: group healthcare professionals, points of sale, hospitals, and clinics according to predefined algorithms that incorporate real data on behaviors, prescriptions, and purchases. These solutions are also used for the automatic classification of requests for information and support, guaranteeing 100% compliance with the company's standards.

Thanks to this new development, last year, we received recognition from the digital health cluster of the Madrid City Council, Spain, for the most innovative initiatives in the application of new technologies in the health sector.

Conclusion

The evolution toward smarter, more personalized and customer-centric pharmaceutical marketing is irreversible. Omnichannel and artificial intelligence offer powerful tools to respond to the new expectations of healthcare professionals and patients. However, its implementation can entail risks from the point of view of ethics and responsibility to the patient. One of the fundamental tools to minimize these risks is supervision, control and continuous improvement by specialized human talent.

But these risks should not be a barrier to the implementation of these new technologies, since it depends on them to create a new, more innovative health environment that provides more value to patients and healthcare professionals and constitutes a competitive advantage for the companies of the future.