How pharma companies can use AI to scale personalized engagement without increasing complexity

Insights from Inizio experts Kristin Ryan, Lauren Turner, and Christen Jones. 

Why AI is changing pharma customer engagement 

AI is creating a world of opportunities for pharma companies to deliver more personalized HCP and patient engagement. But realizing the full potential of AI takes more than just introducing a new tool – it requires high levels of data, system maturity, and a new approach to the way assets are produced.  

The past 30 years have witnessed several waves of digital disruption. First, we had the web, which made information virtual and more widespread, followed by search engines that made it more easily discoverable. We then had social, which made information shareable, and mobile, which made it responsive and accessible anywhere. We’re now well into the latest stage of disruption: AI, which is making information more personalized than ever.  

“While AI may seem daunting, we’ve been through technological disruption before and we’ve made it work – and now we’re making AI work as well,” explains Kristin Ryan, EVP of AI Transformation & Acceleration at Inizio Evoke.   

“Each new capability feels novel and perhaps a little scary at first, but then it quickly becomes something that people just expect in their digital experiences. And that’s really important for our sector because audiences aren’t comparing healthcare experiences with healthcare experiences. Their expectations are shaped by the best digital interactions they’re having in all areas of their life, whether that’s the adaptive recommendations of Netflix or the predictive convenience of Amazon.” 

The difference is, if Netflix gets it wrong and recommends a show you don’t like, it doesn’t matter too much. But in healthcare, the wrong answer can have serious consequences. So, the drive isn’t just for personalization, but personalization that also brings flawless accuracy, compliance, and good governance. Patients want answers that really understand who they are, where they are on their health journey, what they’re trying to decide, and what their next steps should be. 

From one-size-fits-all to personalized pharma omnichannel engagement 

So, how can pharma companies harness all the data at their disposal and use the power of AI to improve personalization, without increasing complexity?  

“We’re reaching the end of one-size-fits-all engagement,” says Lauren Turner, Inizio Evoke’s EVP of Omnichannel Strategy. “Currently, personalization tends to mean taking segmentation data and optimizing for the channel. What we’re moving to now with AI is real-time decision intelligence based on detailed journey mapping. That mapping includes all the moments and external factors that influence HCPs to prescribe, or patients to make treatment decisions.” 

The key to having a deeper understanding of a customer and their needs is combining multiple data signals. For an HCP, that might include their specialty area and healthcare setting, what their patient population is like, their prescribing behavior, and so on. That detailed picture then informs the content strategy, such as specific topics of interest, tailored messaging, and preferred channels. From there, it’s a case of publishing content through the right channels, at just the right moment to create a more relevant and valuable experience.  

Building the data foundations for AI-powered pharma engagement 

To get to this stage, pharma companies can’t just add an AI tool to their existing systems; they must get the foundations right.  

“Organizations are at very different stages of intelligence maturity,” says Kristin. “At one end, you have the fragmented stage, where data exists but it’s disconnected and inconsistent across different sources. If you’re here, then it’s very difficult for AI to interpret what you have and to gain any real, meaningful insights.” 

Companies then pass through various stages as they improve the way they coordinate their data. Eventually they reach a level where predictive and prescriptive intelligence can use that data to identify opportunities, risks, and friction across the entire business. 

How pharma companies can build a scalable AI content model 

Christen Jones, Executive Creative Director of Content Solutions at Inizio Evoke, says that as a company moves through intelligence maturity stages, they can also evolve the maturity of their content production.  

“You can’t deliver more personalization with traditional ways of working,” she explains. “If every email or banner ad is treated as an individual creative assignment, personalization will increase complexity massively. That means we must rethink the content model itself. 

“Most organizations will still have some level of asset-by-asset production going on today: a brief comes in, an asset is created, and then you start over on the next project. As companies move through those intelligence maturity stages, it enables a more sophisticated production process that starts to identify where we can reuse content and build a modular system of pre-approved claims, messages, and other elements. 

“AI can then take those components and – working to set rules and with expert human oversight – quickly assemble assets that can be targeted toward different audiences, channels, and moments. In other words, we shift from a traditional content-production pipeline to a content operating system.” 

How Intelligent Commercialization™ helps pharma companies scale smarter engagement 

Very few pharma companies, if any, will currently be at the highest levels of intelligence and content systems maturity. But through our approach to Intelligent Commercialization™, Inizio can support you, whatever stage you’re at.  

Our Cognitev™ platform combines AI with millions of hours of proprietary behavioral data from tens of thousands of HCPs. It can plug the gaps in your own data and AI capabilities to take you from audience and campaign planning, through message and channel design, content production, campaign activation, and ongoing optimization.  

Turn data and AI into smarter commercialization 

To find out more about how to create smarter engagement without increasing complexity, talk to our experts today.