Integrating AI in Pharmacy: Opportunities, Challenges and Future Prospects

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the pharmaceutical industry and healthcare technology by enabling data-driven decision-making, optimizing processes, and enhancing patient care. This review explores the diverse applications of AI across drug discovery, formulation development, clinical trials, pharmacovigilance, personalized medicine, and healthcare management systems. AI techniques such as machine learning, natural language processing, and deep learning are increasingly utilized to predict drug-target interactions, accelerate lead identification, and optimize manufacturing processes. In pharmacy practice, AI supports automated dispensing, patient adherence monitoring, and real-time clinical decision support. The integration of AI with emerging technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, and big data analytics further enhances supply chain transparency, predictive maintenance, and telepharmacy services. Challenges including data privacy, regulatory compliance, algorithmic bias, and the need for interdisciplinary collaboration are critically discussed. The review concludes that AI has the potential to significantly improve efficiency, safety, and innovation in the pharmaceutical sector, provided ethical and governance frameworks are strengthened.