“If you hire us, you will never need to hire another pharmacy technician”

That's the bold promise one AI vendor made to me at NASP 2025. With five dedicated AI sessions and twenty exhibitors showcasing AI solutions, it's clear that artificial intelligence has moved from emerging technology to essential tool in specialty pharmacy. But here's what caught my attention: there's no agreement on where pharmacies should start, and we're still in the very early innings of a very expensive vendor consolidation game.

There is definitely a lack of consensus on implementation strategy.

Pharmacy operators are struggling to evaluate and prioritize among too many vendors pushing too many solutions. Meanwhile, AI companies are making bold promises about replacing tasks (and potentially entire roles), while the reality is that we're still years away from true integration.

The AI revolution in specialty pharmacy has arrived, but the real challenge now is implementing it thoughtfully. Read this issue’s article to get my full NASP takeaways as they relate to AI and specialty pharmacy.

Cheers,
Harry

NASP ‘25 Photo Ops

Come one, come all, to our first public event!

You’re invited!
Tuesday, November 11, 2025
4PM-5PM EST on Zoom
Free admission

Join fellow RxRoundtable Members for a targeted discussion about pharmacy and behavioral health featuring expert guest presenters.

SAVE THE DATE! DETAILS TO COME!

The AI Balance Sheet

⬆ The upside of AI ⬆

In a study published in JAMA Network Open, researchers at Chicago-based Northwestern Medicine developed an AI-system in-house allowing them to instantly draft near-complete, personalized radiology reports from X-rays, reporting an average efficiency gain of 15% and in some cases up to 40%.

One of the most interesting aspects of this study is that the researchers built their AI model from scratch instead of using API's to existing models such as ChatGPT or Claude. “For me and my colleagues, it’s not an exaggeration to say that it doubled our efficiency. It’s such a tremendous advantage and force multiplier,” said study co-author Samir F. Abboud, MD, chief of emergency radiology at Northwestern Medicine. Is this an approach that will succeed in pharmacy? Let us know in the comments, if you are seeing anything similar in pharmacy.

• Radiology Business: Real-world use of generative AI boosts radiologist productivity by up to 40%

• JAMA Network: Efficiency and Quality of Generative AI–Assisted Radiograph Reporting

⬇ The downside of AI ⬇

Articles in both the NYT and WSJ highlighted the insatiable appetite that AI has for power. If there is one thing that will constrain the growth of AI, it will be access to reliable power. Nvidia can increase its chip production much faster than a public utility can build a power plant. It is estimated that AI will consume over three times as much electricity in 2030 than it does today, growing from approximately 5% to over 15% of total power output in the US.

The WSJ reports that the current AI models are being trained on data centers using approximately the energy to power 30 Walmart Supercenters. Future models will require the equivalent of the total power needs of the island of Manhattan. Due to the tight interconnection of the US electric grid, there is not a community or state that will not feel the impact of AI on its costs to all consumers. Watch your electric bill for the AI impact.

• WSJ: Five Things to Know About AI’s Thirst for Energy

• NYT: Big Tech’s A.I. Data Centers Are Driving Up Electricity Bills for Everyone

Upcoming Industry Conferences

• PCMA Annual Meeting—September 30 - October 1, 2025, Colorado Springs, CO

• NCODA 2025 International Fall Summit—October 15-17, 2025, Orlando, FL

• NCPA Annual Convention and Expo—October 18 - 21, 2025, New Orleans, LA

• HLTH Event 2025—October 19-22, 2025, Las Vegas, NV

• Association for Value-Based Cancer Care—October 22 - 24, 2025

• AMCP Nexus—October 27 - 30, 2025, National Harbor, MD

Upcoming RxRoundtable Member Events

To showcase the caliber of RxRoundtable Member-only events, here’s what’s coming in October:

• 10/7/25 RxRoundtable Session—Professor of Pediatrics & Vice Chair, Faculty Affairs, University of Kentucky College of Medicine Tom Collins, will talk about his new book, The Four Stars of Leadership and other topics related to leadership.

• 10/14/25 RxRoundtable Session—Derek Borkowski, CEO of Pyrls, and Richard Waithe, will introduce members to the Pyrls platform, cover their key value-adds and current GTM strategy. They will also talk about differentiators and where they’ve seen success currently.

• 10/21/25 RxRoundtable Session—Craig Fagin, VP AI Strategy and GTM for Neon Health. Craig will be talking about AI-powered workflow in pharma hub services.

• 10/28/25 RxRoundtable Session—Joy Liu, CEO and Founder at Plenful, will be talking about their leading AI workflow automation platform.

For RxRoundtable Members to attend, book the series inside the Events Calendar in the Member area.

Past Member Event Recordings

Miss an event? No worries. We have it recorded!

We know you sometimes have competing priorities and miss attending a live RxRoundtable Member event. The good news is we record every event for all Members to view at any time.

To access past event recordings, log into the RxRoundtable Member area and click on any past event to find the recording in the event detail page, or, visit the new Past Recordings in the Resource Library.

Join the RxRoundtable!

Refer the RxRoundtable and RxR Briefings

Our network of RxRoundtable Members is growing daily, and if you are eligible to join, we would love to have you. It’s a great opportunity to network, learn industry trends, and discover opportunities that will grow your professional skills and career. View our Member categories and eligibility requirements here. You can also suggest speakers for us to recruit to our events by replying to this email with your ideas.

We also invite (and thank you) for sharing and referring fellow colleagues to subscribe to the RxR Briefings. It’s a great way for us all to stay in touch and share valuable industry information, especially during a rapidly-changing economy and healthcare marketplace. Forward this email to share our RxR Briefings newsletter. There’s also a QR code on the sign-up page as well!

We hope you enjoyed this issue of RxR Briefings