The development of AI is essential for pharmacy education

With the introduction of agents of conversational artificial intelligence (CAIAS), these emerging technologies are always in the early stages of adoption in pharmacy education and the profession as a whole. However, according to the authors of a study published in Research in social and administrative pharmacyThe development of CAIA in pharmacy education is crucial in order to expand their use in other health care disciplines.¹

“The interest in using the CAIAS in health care increases and evolves rapidly,” wrote the authors of the study. “CAIA use natural language treatment and automatic learning in the context of its features. Caias engage people via mobile, web or audio platforms using speech, text, video or other entries and exit formats.

Despite being at its beginnings of development, the use of AI in the practice of pharmacy has already been explored in detail, because more and more research is being carried out to better understand its capacities. According to a study published in Pharmacy innovationsAI is used to maintain medical records, design processing plans, facilitate the management of drug therapy, help repetitive pharmacy tasks, and much more.²

Find out more: Q&R: smarter pharmacy tools make patient care faster, simpler | Asembia 2025

While many types of AI have appeared on the market, whether in health care or not, its use in the context of this study is specific. In their scope review, the authors of the study defined the CAIA using 3 characteristics. First of all, they had to use natural treatment techniques in natural language and automatic learning to conduct speaking. Then, the CAIA had to operate alone once initialized. And finally, the CAIAs used in the study had to adapt their responses in real time for the user exam.¹

“In summary, existing journals have not given little or no attention to the CAIA. Given the generative progress of AI and its potential to combat previous limitations, a review of the literature is important to fill this critical gap, “wrote the authors. “Our scope review aims to explore and synthesize the key characteristics and measures of the CAIA results in pharmacy education and develop a framework to assess the CAIA in pharmacy education.”

The researchers used a scope review to map, summarize and analyze existing evidence regarding the use of Caias in pharmacy education. Exploring a young and underdeveloped subject in pharmacy, they only included studies from 2020 to 2025 to focus on current research on the CAIA. By using the Digital Health Health framework of the World Health Organization, they were able to extract data, capture the key characteristics and results for the various identified CAIAs.

After data research, the researchers included a total of 6 studies in the final journal – 5 of which were carried out in English -speaking countries and the sixth in Japan. The most common educational subject that these Caia explores was communication in the practice of pharmacy. Besides the skills specific to the pharmacy, the CAIA of the studies included also supported training for HIV care and human resources management.

With the ultimate goal of assessing the CAIAs in pharmacy education, researchers have identified significant gaps and opportunities to improve the framework for the use of these agents in the practice of pharmacy and education. After having increased evidence of the use of CAIA in pharmacy education, the researchers proposed new categories to understand the use of CAIAS.

“So we added 2 categories related to education. Firstly, we added a category called “educational caia features” to help us understand how the caias works and operate, composed of 11 elements, in particular: the subject of education, the name of the conversational AI agent, the platform, the AI ​​application, the user interaction process with the AI ​​agent, the interaction mode with the AI ​​agent students, the user game mode.¹ “Second, on the basis of our results, we added” educational results “as a category to our framework made up of 3 main measures of results, namely the confidence, knowledge and educational results based on skills. This addition reflects the need to assess the learning gains more directly. ”

Again, there is no interpretation that AI in the practice of pharmacy, and in health care as a whole, is indeed at its beginnings. With a gradual introduction into pharmacy education, AI and its uses could soon be of public notoriety for pharmacists. However, additional research is necessary to really understand your capacities and how to educate future generations on the use of AI.

“The CAIA were introduced into pharmacy education but remain in the early stages of adoption,” concluded the authors.¹ “More in -depth research on the CAIA assessment framework, and on the design and evaluation of CAIA in pharmacy education, remain essential to validate their effectiveness and extend their use in pharmacy, as well as to test the framework in other disciplines of health care.”

Find out more: Q&A: What is AI, how it helps pharmacies with compliance | NCPDP 2025

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References

1. Pit SW, Hamiduzzaman M, Schneider CR, et al. Evaluation framework for agents of conversational AI in pharmacy education: a review of the key characteristics and measures of the results. SOS SOCIAL ADM PHARM. Posted online on May 12, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sapharm.2025.05.006

2. Raza Ma, Aziz S, Noreen M, et al. Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the pharmacy: an overview of innovations. Innoving pharm. 2022 DEC 12; 13 (2): 10.24926 / IIP.V13i2.4839. DOI: 10.24926 / IIP.V13i2.4839.