Future of AI in Pharma Marketing: Hype vs. Reality 

It is not that pharma marketers are afraid of change or skeptical about artificial intelligence. On the contrary, 91% of research respondents see it as a key enabler. The challenge lies elsewhere: more than half say they lack the support to integrate AI and put it to good use. 

We’re still in the early days of AI in pharma marketing. And those who win the race won’t just be the fastest adopters. They’ll be the ones who know how to make the most out of this technology. 

In this episode of the Pharma Talks podcast, Viseven CEO Nataliya Andreychuk sat down with Dan Atieh, Head of eWizard (an AI-powered content experience platform for pharma), to explore where the industry stands with AI. Here are some of the key takeaways from their conversation. 

No Strategy Means Doing Bad Marketing Faster. 

In the gold rush of the 1800s, striking it rich meant finding gold in the right place, with the right tools and solid discipline. Speed helped, but only if you knew where to dig. The same goes for pharma marketing today. Success in content production requires a clear strategy. Pushing out subpar content faster won’t help life sciences brands build long-term engagement or loyalty.  

Dan Atieh emphasizes that speed to market is not everything. In his opinion, what matters is producing content that’s highly regulated, personalized, and built for reuse. That means modular, structured content that stays consistent across global and local teams. 

Compliance Bottlenecks Are Still There for A Reason. 

Many companies implement AI in the hope of speeding up the MLR review. But at the end of the day, they still hit a stone wall of compliance issues and drown in revision requests from MLR teams. Why does this happen?  

We live in the era of infomercials. Businesses tend to promise pie in the sky with little to no effort on your part. It’s important not to fall into this trap. The right approach here is not to get obsessed with speed but to concentrate more on predictability and accuracy.  

“Many companies still struggle because they lack integrated regulatory intelligence,” Dan points out. Ideally, pharma companies should go after tools that understand pharma compliance frameworks to anticipate risks before they become regulatory challenges. For example, eWizard not only highlights compliance errors but also shows, in percentage, how likely your content is to be approved by the MLR team. The latest release allows marketing teams to choose their specific market, and the tool will check whether the content is aligned with local regulatory requirements. 

Strategic Focus Will Separate Winners from Losers. 

Basically, you have two different paths. Under the first approach, you try to do everything faster, pushing marketing automation to its limits. You disregard quality and compliance, focusing on engaging your audience quicker than any of your competitors. The second path is all about a strategy-centered approach. You take content quality and compliance seriously, and speed becomes a natural side effect of that tactic. 

The key takeaway from the podcast is that the second approach, where you offer real value through a personalized, compliant, omnichannel experience, is what keeps customers coming back to your brand. AI can support life sciences companies in this, but only if they listen to what their customers actually want rather than acting on assumptions about what they think they need to do to earn loyalty and trust. 

In their conversation, Nataliya and Dan debunk common myths about AI. Tune in to the full episode to gain clarity and practical tips for making AI work in pharma marketing. 

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