Harnessing the Power of AI to Inform HCP Interactions

The rapid pandemic eruption forced many organizations to reevaluate the direction and speed of decisions. More specifically, the pandemic accelerated digital transformation in the healthcare industry with a paradigm shift in access to the healthcare delivery system, requiring complete adaptation and swift adoption. Competition in the life science industry became fierce overnight as commercial models transformed towards a digitized platform to engage with healthcare professionals (HCPs) vs. face-to-face interactions.

This change gave rise to a new set of challenges for these organizations. Though a myriad of data assets have become available to aid informed decision-making and improve customer centricity, many organizations in the healthcare industry have been slow to adopt data-driven business solutions. This is because such organizations were not necessarily structured to scope and scale to this new environment, and as a result struggled to embrace technology and precision analytics that could enable higher value HCP engagements.

This newly evolved state requires a strong response and not a mere reaction from organizations, as the shift in HCP interaction has led to changes in their channel preferences and expectations. The “next normal” requires organizations to understand the intent of HCPs to deliver relevant and personalized interactions.

In the past, organizations leveraged descriptive analytics to deploy traditional commercial models to craft communication strategies. Today, they have progressed towards more sophisticated analytics that tap into the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) based modeling to capture behavior patterns and other insights at an enterprise level. With the current surge in datasets, predictive and prescriptive analytics will transform communication strategies that deliver meaningful interactions and impactful results.

Successfully navigating the current landscape from descriptive analytics towards more advanced predictive and prescriptive analytics will require establishing a solid framework. This framework will have to be anchored in executive sponsorship, leveraging digital data assets, and continuous calibration.

• Executive sponsorship will be essential to succeed and prevent siloed work streams with disparate objectives. When HCPs interact with your brand, they tend to connect their experiences holistically and not necessarily to the individual functional units that support their engagement. Hence, this commercial model's underpinning should be an integrated unified approach across different stakeholders with common objectives to deliver informed and intelligent customer experiences.
• Leveraging digital data assets to either build intelligent embedded AI and ML business models, or simple rules-based business models will close the gap to customer centricity in the newly defined remote engagement setting. Digital acceleration gave rise to a massive proliferation of structured and unstructured complex data sources that helped identify behavioral patterns and customer propensity. As the healthcare delivery system continues to shift locally and regionally, data-driven models will need continuous retraining for accurate and relevant outputs in real time. These prescriptive analytic outputs will trigger the sales representative with actionable insights to engage in impactful and meaningful ways. The important thing here is how you are planning to guide them to the right experience.
• Continuous calibration is necessary for success. Given the shift in HCP intentions and expectations, organizations will need to keep their finger on the pulse and maintain a competitive edge in this digitally fatigued environment. Developing strategies that respond to the customer in their need of the moment with relevant contextual messaging will be critical to driving adoption and continued engagement. It is also imperative to actively listen and remain tuned into their preferences and being prepared to help them navigate through their individualized omnichannel journey. Engage with empathy and provide patient support-oriented solutions that extend beyond mere product information.

Organizations investing in innovative technology-enabled platforms powered by an intelligent AI and ML engine will lead the way in delivering on these personalized HCP expectations and needs. The infusion of AI and ML is critical, as sales representatives will need an intentional strategy to remain engaged while collecting feedback that will inform the future best action, given their short opportunity window with HCP.