Sep 21, 2026 · 30 min · 11 segments
Will artificial intelligence replace Medical Science Liaisons—or help them become more effective? In this episode of The Pharmaverse Podcast, host Michael Pietrack speaks with experienced Field…
Annika SwensonGuestMichael PietrackHostWell, I'll tell you, you know, I think we make the assumption that AI improves the quality of MSL work, and maybe it does.
But how do we pressure test that? How do we actually know that it is improving the work?
I think As a field medical leader, I struggled with that myself in wondering and quantifying the qualitative almost of, is this improving speed, time-saving, money-saving, budget-saving? What is it touching? What is it impacting? Or are MSLs or other field medical roles spending more time in AI and less time in where they should be focused? So a few things come to mind.
One is that we do not, as far as I know, have a true trial, like a control arm to show this did make a difference.
So I've sat in many rooms with many AI companies that are trying to sell a product and it is their own customer base giving anecdotes and saying, well, it helped by doing X, Y, Z for us.
What is it at scale? What is the control arm that it's measured against? And I don't see that the industry is there yet at showing the true impact.
And when it comes to the MSL use or a field medical role use, I think that, I mean, there's so many things.
You can measure someone's time savings, but where does that time go then? So if they save time doing some admin work, is the rest of their time going then to reading journal articles or having more KOL meetings? I don't see that those kind of time studies are being done.
at this point in time, but it is something we may need to explore in the future as this continues to build.
I could just see saying to an MSL, well, now that you are so good at AI, we should double your metrics.
It's like, wait, our phone time should go up because we have all this extra free time now.
Well, I'll tell you, you know, I think we make the assumption that AI improves the quality of MSL work, and maybe it does.
But how do we pressure test that? How do we actually know that it is improving the work?
I think As a field medical leader, I struggled with that myself in wondering and quantifying the qualitative almost of, is this improving speed, time-saving, money-saving, budget-saving? What is it touching? What is it impacting? Or are MSLs or other field medical roles spending more time in AI and less time in where they should be focused? So a few things come to mind.
One is that we do not, as far as I know, have a true trial, like a control arm to show this did make a difference.
So I've sat in many rooms with many AI companies that are trying to sell a product and it is their own customer base giving anecdotes and saying, well, it helped by doing X, Y, Z for us.
What is it at scale? What is the control arm that it's measured against? And I don't see that the industry is there yet at showing the true impact.
And when it comes to the MSL use or a field medical role use, I think that, I mean, there's so many things.
You can measure someone's time savings, but where does that time go then? So if they save time doing some admin work, is the rest of their time going then to reading journal articles or having more KOL meetings? I don't see that those kind of time studies are being done.
at this point in time, but it is something we may need to explore in the future as this continues to build.
I could just see saying to an MSL, well, now that you are so good at AI, we should double your metrics.
It's like, wait, our phone time should go up because we have all this extra free time now.
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