The pharmaceutical industry stands at an inflection point where artificial intelligence is fundamentally reshaping how healthcare providers access information, make treatment decisions, and engage with pharmaceutical brands. The DHC Group’s recent webinar, featuring new research of 160 U.S. physicians from the Sermo Realtime Network and insights from five industry experts, revealed that AI adoption among HCPs has accelerated beyond anyone’s predictions—and pharmaceutical marketers must adapt quickly.

The Velocity of Change

The research data paints a striking picture of AI’s rapid integration into clinical practice. Nearly 70% of physicians report their AI use and knowledge have significantly increased in the past six months alone, with 49% rating themselves as “very knowledgeable” about AI applications for clinical decision support. More remarkably, 73% of physicians now use AI tools daily or multiple times per day, while 93% expect their usage to increase moderately or significantly over the next year.

Dr. Edward Kim, a medical oncologist at City of Hope, contextualized these numbers with a powerful real-world example. His institution developed “Hope LLM,” an AI tool that synthesizes complex medical records in minutes rather than hours. “Our LLM can, in 3 or 4 minutes, summarize all of those documents, scanning them, and put in chronological order all the medications, all the radiology tests, all the treatments, and even develop a history of present illness within minutes,” Dr. Kim explained. “That’s 2 additional patients we can see a day.”

This efficiency imperative emerged as a central theme. Michael Palladino, SVP at OptimizeRx, emphasized how AI enables what he calls “synchronization of care”—using predictive modeling to educate both patients and HCPs at precisely the right moments. “If we can use predictive modeling to find patients when they’re going to hit a care milestone, and we can educate the patient at the patient level, and also use AI to predict when they’re going to see their HCP… then we know that when they come together, we would expect something we call shared decision making to occur,” Palladino noted. He highlighted that delayed diagnosis, even by just four weeks in oncology, can increase mortality by 10%.

The Integration Imperative

While adoption is soaring, system integration remains the single biggest barrier, cited by 60% of physicians in the research. The challenge isn’t just technical—it’s operational and cultural. Michael Sivak, Senior Director of AI Content Capabilities at AstraZeneca, observed that the AI revolution is bringing back a human element that EMRs inadvertently removed. “Ambient documentation is bringing the HCP back to the patient. They can on you as a patient… it’s really bringing the humanity back to the doctor-patient engagement,” Sivak explained.

Dr. Kim didn’t mince words about the EHR challenge: “I would not put the EHR platform on a very high level of technology efficiency. It is tough to change. Many institutions have to invest a lot of time and effort just to make changes.” His advice? Don’t let EHR integration timelines delay valuable tools. “Find a good functioning tool, get it in front of folks, make it compatible, and it will get utilized very quickly.”

The Trust Equation

The research revealed nuanced trust dynamics. While physicians show high trust in peer-reviewed journals (85% trust completely or trust) and medical societies (72% trust completely or trust), they’re more cautious about pharma-developed tools, with 41% remaining neutral and 26% expressing skepticism. Yet 78% report being somewhat or very confident in AI-generated treatment recommendations, and 45% are open to receiving pharma-sponsored AI summaries within their workflow.

Brian Stack, SVP of Omnichannel Strategy at Relevate Health, emphasized a fundamental insight: “HCPs are people, too. They go on Amazon and they’re able to interact with Rufus and ask questions about a particular product. The expectation is out there.” He noted that patients themselves are bringing AI into the exam room, “recording conversations, remembering what happened at the last visit, [patients are] bringing it to the HCP.”

Joan-Marie Stiglich, Chief Content Officer at Healio, stressed the importance of physician education on effective AI use: “We need to do a little bit better educating physicians to let them understand that they can put a lot of information in – the AI is prepared to get as much level of detail as possible, and the quality of the answers will improve the more level of detail you give.” She also emphasized portability as crucial: “Physicians are not just sitting in one spot trying to access any of this information.”

Pharma’s Strategic Imperative

The research shows AI is already influencing pharmaceutical decisions, with 56% of physicians using it to suggest alternative medications and 58% to highlight drug interactions. Seventy-five percent have used AI to compare branded medications within the same therapeutic class. For pharmaceutical marketers, this means the traditional pathways of influence are being disrupted by AI-mediated information discovery.

Sivak outlined pharma’s responsibilities clearly: “We have a responsibility to ensure the AI tools remain free from bias providing objective information and transparency. It’s on us to ensure that we’re developing AI tools in collaboration with HCPs.”

Stack emphasized content strategy transformation: “The pharma industry is really great at at creating very credible, trustworthy content… But it’s important to understand how the content that we create is actually interpreted and used by . The world of search is different.”

Dr. Kim delivered perhaps the most compelling argument for pharma engagement: “Pharma is really a lot of the think engine around the drugs, the diagnostics that we’re able to implement for our patients. We are absolutely in need of strong partnerships with pharma. This is the way drugs get to the people.” He stressed that effective partnerships, transparency, and innovation ultimately serve the patient: “If we get more drugs approved, who wins? Well, clinicians win, because we have more choices. Pharma wins, because they get drugs that are approved through. But most importantly, the patients win.”

The Path Forward

The convergence of this research with expert insights reveals a clear mandate for pharmaceutical marketers: AI is not a future consideration but a present reality reshaping HCP engagement. Success requires moving beyond awareness campaigns to become authoritative voices within AI platforms, ensuring seamless integration into clinical workflows, building trust through transparency and collaboration, and maintaining relentless focus on time-saving value propositions.

As the panel made clear, the physicians are ready, the technology is advancing rapidly, and patient expectations are rising. The question is no longer whether pharmaceutical marketers should engage with AI-powered HCP communication, but how quickly and effectively they can adapt their strategies to this new reality.

Panelists include:

• Michael Palladino, SVP – Client Strategy & Engagement | OptimizeRx
• Joan-Marie Stiglich, Chief Content Officer | Healio
• Michael Sivak, Senior Director, AI Content Capabilities & Customer Engagement | AstraZeneca
• Brian Stack, SVP, Omnichannel Strategy & Activation | Relevate Health
• Dr. Edward Kim, Physician-in-Chief & Sr. Vice President, City of Hope Orange County | Construction Industries Alliance City of Hope Orange County Physician-in-Chief Chair | Vice Physician-in-Chief, City of Hope National Medical Center | System Director, Clinical Trials | Professor, Department of Medical Oncology & Therapeutics Research

About the Survey: HCP Research Source: A November 2025 survey of 160 US HCPs on Sermo’s Realtime Network – powered by Sermo’s global community of 1M+ triple verified HCPs and their RealTime survey technology, which allows you to gain on-demand access to HCP insights across the world in as little as 24 hours.