The Current, Future Roles of AI within the Pharmacy Profession
As artificial intelligence evolves from a novel technology to commonplace in health care, the pharmacy industry is adapting to its challenges and opportunities.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has made its way to health care and it is not leaving anytime soon. As with many new technologies, AI’s initial adoption has presented a variety of challenges and opportunities. But with its ability to serve as a tool for providers—rather than a replacement—AI may be the catalyst for a revolution in health care.
“AI is already here and already being used. It's being used a lot with drug discovery, research, purchasing, and inventory management; those kinds of things,” said Scott Nelson, PharmD, MS, FAMIA, ACHIP, Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “Within the clinical context, it's also used in some decision support tools for identifying adverse drug events or even providing more context for alerts and drug information. So, there’re little pieces where it's being used.”
Already completing menial pharmacy tasks, Nelson believes that AI can humanize health care in the long-term by giving pharmacists time back to connect with patients and provide care of the utmost value. With almost an insurmountable number of notable challenges in the pharmacy industry today, AI may be a shining light at the end of the tunnel, as long as experts and providers work together to properly integrate it into health systems.
“I really hope that AI can humanize care again and address some significant issues like burnout and just bring back that human element into health care that it feels like we've lost over the years,” he continued.
Aside from his expertise in biomedical information, Nelson was also a contributing author of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) 2025 Pharmacy Forecast. He co-authored a section of the report titled “Navigating Generative AI: Opportunity and Risk.” Drug Topics caught up with him to further discuss his section of the report and explore the current and potential future roles of AI in the pharmacy profession.
Stay tuned for weekly podcast episodes on Over the Counter every Thursday afternoon. Check out our previous episode with Eric Tichy, PharmD, MBA, BCPS, FCCP, FAST, who was also a co-author of the ASHP 2025 Pharmacy Forecast. In our ongoing coverage of the forecast, Tichy discussed the business of health-system pharmacy and the challenges that often arise.
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