DailyPost 2565
CAN AI TRANSFORM INDIAN PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY?
Artificial Intelligence or AI has been making waves for quite sometime now. The advent of ChatGPT seemed to the watershed moment in the history of AI. It could engulf us all and that too in a very short time was the feeling, that was being spread at that point time. It also gave us a feeling that it was the large language model like ChatGPT the only manifestation of AI, actually it was being used at an all pervasive level and could transform our existence even before we could realise. The capabilities of the AI genie was unleased and in no manner its proactive or lighting spread could be stalled.
Pharma was one industry which poised for this change. Covid 19 supposedly ushered in a transformation, the threads of which could have made pharmaceutical industry AI enabled, but that not to happen, at least for now. The urge and hunger to make it happen, does not seem to be there. The tech expertise, with the domain pepper, instead of being the norm is mostly missing. The adoption of AI and machine learning in medical sales and health care professionals leaves a lot to be desired. A recent survey by EY strips it all.
Fifty three percent of the India companies are in the “beginner” stage of the AI implementation. Some forty odd percent are categorised as “conservatives,” and only a small fraction of seven percent have advanced to the “explorers” stage. What a tragedy, when there is so much of hype and talk of AI all around the place. There is no denying the fact that the shift from manual to digital processes has occurred, but what has not happened is the value which should have come out of it and that is a different ball game all together.
Let it be known that it cannot be considered as an optional addition but has turned out to be a crucial differentiating factor across healthcare. Competitive edge and relevance are both dependent on it. What can AI do for the health care industry and us? Vast amount of data is generated in this field. It comes from various sources like clinical trials, drug formulations, and feedback from medical devices or patient apps, artificial intelligence has the capability and the potential to uncover previously patterns and insights. The capability to handle humongous data to lead to more informed decisions, discover new correlations and potentially identify novel treatments or approaches are likely to lost in the desert sands. Not using AI at its best in this field is doing disservice to the people who are in dire of it.
AI HAS TO BE MADE HANDS ON AND DELIVERABLE AND SHOULD NOT TO BE USED AS A SERMONISING TOOL.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.