Not If, But How: Pharmacy's Smart Approach to AI
Every few years, a new technology promises to change everything in healthcare. Currently, that technology is artificial intelligence (AI). AI, as it exists today, performs best when it automates well-defined workflows. However, it falls short when asked to replace clinical judgment or work across disparate data sources.
Pharmacy leaders understand that every major innovation begins with excitement and uncertainty and that lasting progress comes from thoughtful integration into care (not early hype). The lesson from past innovations—like pharmacogenomics, smart pills, blockchain, and big data analytics—is that patience, governance, and stewardship are key. Early adoption of unproven AI solutions may divert attention and resources from initiatives with known value.
What History Teaches Us About Health Tech Hype
Before AI, it was genomics and ingestible sensors. Each brought promise but faced real-world barriers. For example:
- Pharmacogenomics (PGx): Promising in theory, limited in broad application due to reimbursement and infrastructure gaps.
- Smart Pills: Innovative but impractical due to privacy, cost, and minimal clinical utility.
- Blockchain: Hyped for supply chain security but often too complex and costly to operationalize.
- Big Data Analytics: Insightful but hard to act on due to siloed systems and misaligned workflows.
- E-prescribing/CPOE: Reduced some errors but introduced new challenges requiring continued human oversight.
In 2026, the most successful pharmacy leaders will separate reality from rhetoric and focus on what strengthens care, safety, and efficiency.
AI in Pharmacy: What Should Pharmacy Leaders Do in 2026?
In the coming year, AI will continue to bring incremental gains in routine administrative work. But true transformation will depend on how pharmacy leaders and experts help guide its integration into medication-use systems over time.
In the coming year, AI will continue to bring incremental gains in routine administrative work. But true transformation will depend on how pharmacy leaders and experts help guide its integration into medication-use systems over time. It is important for healthcare leaders to:
- Watch the market with curiosity and discipline
- Lead with intention rather than chasing trends
- Focus on proven sources of pharmacy value and the human contributions
- Utilize AI tools to improve efficiency and streamline clinical support tasks
Here’s how:
Drive Progress Without Losing Sight of Purpose
The use of AI can improve efficiency and accuracy, but the ability to summarize, predict, and automate cannot replace compassion, ethical judgment, and professional experience. AI offers pharmacy an opportunity to elevate the profession (not reinvent the wheel).
By shaping how technology is designed, governed, and applied, pharmacy can ensure that these digital tools augment human work. The leaders who succeed in AI-enhanced healthcare will be those who stay curious, stay disciplined, and keep patients—not platforms—at the center of every decision.
Strategically Cross the AI Value Chasm
New technologies typically follow a familiar path of adoption. A few innovators experiment first, followed by early adopters, then the majority who bring it into everyday use. Between the early adopters and majorities lies a chasm where innovations often stall.
Healthcare tends to cross that chasm slowly because of the complexity of workflows, regulatory hurdles, and the significant consequences of failure. Pharmacy’s best opportunity with AI lies near the front of the early majority (adopting when products are stable, tested, and clearly valuable). Leadership is not about being first; it is about pacing with purpose.
Remain Curious About Emerging Reports & Trends
There are numerous reports on the theoretical and practical implementation of AI in pharmacy. These early reports show that AI’s near-term value lies in efficiency, not reinvention. Pharmacy leaders should interpret these findings with curiosity and discipline to learn where AI is improving outcomes and where it’s simply adding another layer of complexity.
Where is AI Making Pharmacy Operations More Efficient?
1. Administrative & Operational Efficiency
The most mature AI use cases involve automating documentation and repetitive data work. Health systems have deployed AI tools to draft policies, summarize formulary reviews, and assist with P&T documentation, allowing pharmacists to focus on accuracy and interpretation rather than initial drafting. AI is automating some 340B program auditing and compliance activities. Additionally, natural-language and optical character recognition tools are beginning to streamline prior authorization and benefit verification, leading to simpler, non-medication claims.
As AI matures, pharmacy will play a key role in helping it evolve to handle the added clinical complexity of medication approvals safely and effectively.
2. Medication Reconciliation & Order Verification
AI-assisted reconciliation tools compare medication lists across the EHR, pharmacy systems, and patient reports. They can flag potential duplications or omissions before pharmacist review, which improves accuracy and ensures safer transitions of care.
This kind of augmentation, not automation, represents the best near-term use of AI in pharmacy.
3. Clinical Decision Support & Safety
Machine-learning models are being developed to cut through the “noise” of inaccurate or low-value alerts for drug interactions and dose adjustments. By pulling in patient-specific EHR data—like age, renal function, and recent lab results—these tools help surface the alerts that actually matter. They’re not meant to replace pharmacists’ clinical judgment, but to support it, making decisions faster, more precise, and easier to act on.
4. Specialty & Infusion Operations
Predictive analytics are being applied across both specialty and infusion services to improve performance and reduce waste. For infusion, tools help forecast sterile-compounding workloads, optimize chair scheduling, and minimize cancellations. In specialty pharmacy, analytics can enhance care coordination and proactively manage inventory for high-cost therapies.
These operational improvements expand patient access, improve throughput, and strengthen resource use.
5. Medication Access, Adherence, & Supply Chain
Specialty, retail pharmacies, and clinics, are using AI to analyze refill data, claims, and patient messages to identify medication non-adherence, streamline refill workflows, and reduce administrative burden for clinic staff.
AI is also helping accelerate medication access by automating the submission and tracking of prior authorization requests and identifying potential delays earlier in the process. Some tools are even assisting with clinical documentation, such as progress notes, to keep patients on track with therapy. On the supply chain side, AI is being tested to improve inventory and purchasing decisions, anticipating shortages, monitoring price fluctuations, and assessing contract adherence.
These capabilities help maintain access to essential medications and strengthen overall supply chain resilience.
Adopting AI with Clarity, Care, and Confidence
As AI becomes more embedded in healthcare, pharmacy leaders have a clear opportunity and responsibility to adopt it with intention. In a caregiving profession like pharmacy, the goal is not to replace people with platforms but to enhance human contributions where it matters most. The most meaningful gains will come from applying AI to structured, measurable workflows.
To learn how Visante can help your organization with your digital and technology strategy so that you can apply AI effectively while staying focused on what matters most, get in touch with our team.
Subject Matter Experts: Joe Lassiter & Jerame Hill
More Resources on AI in Pharmacy