What makes it impossible to imagine the future of the pharmaceutical industry without discussing Artificial Intelligence? What does AI have in store for the industry in the coming years?   

The future of pharmaceuticals is clearly AI-enabled. While the extent of its potential is still being figured out, it is certain that the industry is in for AI-assisted revolutions; experts anticipate a significant impact on drug discovery, research, and development.  

Keep reading to find out how AI will shape the future of pharmacy.  

With the advent of AI, there has been an obvious shift in the paradigm of innovations in the pharmaceutical industry. Over the past five years, the industry has been enjoying the fruits of the technology to discover new drugs, tackle or prevent illnesses, process medical data, and more.  

From preventing epidemics to discovering vaccines, the industry has numerous responsibilities on its shoulders that call for high-quality solutions. But thanks to AI, most of the tasks that traditionally relied on the capacity of human intelligence have now been automated and fast-tracked. Artificial Intelligence is currently key to improving efficiency and expediting the production of drugs. In the future, AI is expected to produce computational workflows that can increase the quality of solutions by several folds.  

Here are some prominent predictions regarding the impact of AI on the pharmaceutical industry: 

AI will be used for more technical advancement 

Pharmaceutical professionals have already recognized the potential of AI to revolutionize the field. AI and Machine Learning are at the forefront of leading the digital future of the industry. Premier pharmaceutical companies have already collaborated with AI vendors; the technology will soon be leveraged more for manufacturing, discovery, and most importantly, research.  

AI will be used for the management of chronic diseases  

Global drug development and pharmaceutical companies are expected to invest more in AI to facilitate the research and discovery of chronic diseases and terminal illnesses. In the US, chronic diseases constitute one of the major reasons for death. It is safe to say that AI will be used to improve the management of chronic diseases, bring down operational costs, and certainly, boost the patient's health. Some of the chronic diseases that will receive attention in the coming years include cancer, chronic kidney disease, diabetes, and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. 

More healthcare companies will invest in AI

Studies show that almost 62 percent of healthcare companies are already planning on investing in AI. By 2025, around 50 percent of healthcare companies are expected to fully utilize the benefits of AI. AI will also be used to boost the success rates of newly discovered drugs. According to a study conducted by MIT, only 13.8 percent of drugs pass the trials. AI can help increase the success rate of drugs while bringing down the cost of operations.

AI will be used to refine the candidate selection process 

AI will redefine the future of pharmaceuticals by fine-tuning the process of candidate selection in clinical trials. It will ensure that the most suitable candidates are chosen for trials by performing a detailed analysis of data and filtering the candidate pool. Factors that impact the accuracy of results can also be filtered to lower errors.  

AI will enhance the process of medical data extraction 

AI and Machine Learning tools are expected to be a lot more accessible in the future than it is now. This will help organizations to screen and diagnose patients with greater accuracy. AI will also allow experts to extract more meaningful information from existing medical data.  

Though AI and ML techniques can be potentially generalized across fields, proper implementation in the pharmaceutical industry requires expertise in respective scientific domains. This in turn increases the demand for professionals with advanced degrees and exposure.