Don’t be left behind: Getting started with GenAI in biopharma marketing

Innovation in artificial intelligence (AI) is advancing at a blistering speed. ChatGPT spurred the imaginations of millions around the world, unlocking endless possibilities for how generative AI (GenAI) would reshape how we work and how we live.

More than 18 months later, biopharma organizations are incorporating GenAI into their day-to-day activities and workflows. Savvy sales and marketing leaders are using GenAI to deliver personalized and localized content to HCPs and patients across various channels at a scale and speed not previously possible. Looking forward, organizations that embrace the use of GenAI will create new experiences and gain distinct competitive advantages.

But, in a world where every company is an AI company and tools are evolving rapidly, it can feel overwhelming. We’re here to help.

I recently sat down with biopharma experts in biopharma to get their take on the opportunities, use cases, best practices, and pitfalls of implementing GenAI. Here are some of my top takeaways from Alex Jijje, CEO at Digitalya, Jess Ingram, Director at Camino Communications, and Manuel Mitola, AI-for-pharma Advisor, on practical applications of GenAI, where to start, and how to measure success.

GenAI is great at summarizing vast amounts of data and information in a way that might otherwise be time-consuming and cumbersome (or not previously possible). Get familiar with GenAI by taking large sets of information in spreadsheets or in your CMS, running search queries around it, and streamlining the review process. You can even combine multiple data sources to unearth valuable insights across different pieces of content.

GenAI can be a very helpful editor, extremely useful at re-imagining existing content and materials with a few prompts. Give GenAI context, examples, and even approved language, and turn your core content into a new asset in seconds. Experiment with personalization and content for reuse in multiple formats. With some practice, you can reuse content, generate high-quality assets faster, and enhance your multichannel engagement.

While GenAI makes it easier to produce more content, there is still a lot of hype and fear around its use, especially when it comes to compliance. GenAI continues to get smarter and better, but it is essential humans remain in the loop for medical, legal, and regulatory (MLR) review. Content producers, editors, reviewers, and approvers will need to stay involved at every stage to make sure GenAI is producing high-quality, accurate, and compliant assets.

Start with small, low-risk internal projects like drafting emails, summarizing meeting notes, or even writing an internal newsletter to get accustomed to GenAI. Automate these tasks and show your teams how to get them done easier and quicker. This is a great way to learn what works well, find opportunities to scale up, and identify other areas to apply GenAI.

People use GenAI differently depending on where they sit in an organization and their role. A content marketer might use different prompts than a medical writer or a developer who is using it to create code. Leverage your own expertise when writing prompts. Prompt writing in GenAI is an iterative process unique to the objective. It usually takes multiple questions before you land on the insight you need.

Link GenAI to a strategic business need and find projects aimed at delivering value and innovation. Building trust in the platform can engage a wide range of business stakeholders, inform the long-term adoption of AI, and uncover the internal champions and allies that are critical to creating a cultural shift within your organization.

Think global, act local. Ahead of a launch, for example, you might use GenAI to understand the cultural differences and potential response to the introduction of a new therapeutic in a particular region. Then use GenAI to generate localized content. This can be extremely valuable in communicating the health benefits of a particular treatment and hyper-localize content to support marketing campaigns to local populations. GenAI is fast and a great tool for translation.

You have the ability to help lead this transformation. Don’t get left behind. Start small and move fast with clear goals in a short time frame. Build familiarity and confidence and then scale to more sophisticated data sets that will drive greater efficiency and innovation throughout the business.

To hear my entire discussion with these biopharma experts, view our on-demand webinar in its entirety.

What’s next? Stay tuned for our next webinar, where we will dive deeper into the security and compliance issues surrounding AI in pharma. If you have any questions or want to hear more about specific topics, feel free to reach out to us. Pre-register here.