45% Increase in Aktana Next-Best-Engagement Suggestions Used in 2021 Demonstrates Surge in Artificial Intelligence (AI) Adoption Across the Life Sciences Industry

Series of industry milestones indicate shift in AI implementation strategy as growing number of pharma companies accelerate AI programs broadly across regions and brands

Aktana, the leader in intelligent customer engagement for the global life sciences industry, reports new indicators of a shift in artificial intelligence (AI) implementation strategy in commercial life sciences. Notably, Aktana crossed a milestone of 30 million next-best-engagement (NBE) suggestions, including an unprecedented 45% increase in AI-driven omnichannel actions, directly impacting the customer experience of more than 700,000 healthcare professionals in 2021 alone. Leading pharmaceutical companies are now scaling AI capabilities simultaneously across multiple geographies, therapeutic areas and brands rather than taking a market-by-market approach.

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“Rather than just validating the value of AI, life sciences commercial and medical teams are now realizing the value of AI – in a big way”

LEO Pharma, for instance, is expanding use of Aktana’s Contextual Intelligence 360 platform across multiple European countries and Canada. “We want to leverage the power of AI to better support healthcare professionals with relevant information when they need it throughout the omnichannel journey,” said Marc Tàpies Llobet, senior director, commercial excellence in the EU at LEO. “The rollout of Aktana’s solution globally is also key to increase the effectiveness of all our commercial teams with helpful next-best-action suggestions and insights.”

One top-20 biotech has expanded use of the Aktana platform across 46 countries using a brand-agnostic model that allows any brand to leverage the technology as needed, while another top-10 global pharma company is rolling out the AI platform across six therapeutic areas and 12 brands, to be completed in early 2022. Additionally, 2021 marked the first year that more than half of new omnichannel NBE programs included smaller markets at program launch. Aktana’s modular solution enables commercial and medical teams from all-sized organizations to rapidly scale AI-driven programs to personalize the customer experience, coordinate engagement and optimize the customer journey across channels.

AI and big data/analytics have been identified by healthcare industry professionals as the top technologies that will transform pharmaceutical drug discovery and development processes, as well as commercial – according to GlobalData. Nearly one-third of survey respondents believed that AI/analytics would play a major role in optimizing marketing and sales. AI in sales and marketing is believed to reach a bigger uptake in the next few years, up by 4% from a current use rate of 18%.

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As category creator, Aktana continued to focus on key product advancements to make AI more accessible and accelerate enterprise-wide adoption. Some 2021 highlights include:

• Launched Contextual Intelligence 360, a modular solution that includes the next generation of Aktana’s Contextual Intelligence Engine, which brings together all sources of data and insight to transparently identify the highest value combination of all possible customer-facing activities
• Expanded the ecosystem of integrated technology providers – including recent partnerships between Aktana and Real Chemistry and Cantab Pi
• Acquired new machine learning automation technology that will allow non-data scientists to create and manage their own models on the Aktana platform

“Rather than just validating the value of AI, life sciences commercial and medical teams are now realizing the value of AI – in a big way,” said Derek Choy, president of Aktana. “In 2022, expect to see more and more companies looking to roll out AI programs across multiple brands and countries simultaneously, while integrating sales, marketing and medical teams at the outset instead of in phases. Working with our customers, Aktana is at the forefront of developing AI-driven solutions that deliver the kind of breadth and speed the market needs.”

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