How Are Automation and AI Impacting the Timeline From Prescription to Starting Treatment?

In a conversation with Pharmaceutical Executive, Shivani Patel, Senior Director of Business Development at ConnectiveRx, discusses how manufacturers are rethinking patient assistance program architecture amid the economic pressures of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Patel explores how automation and AI are accelerating speed-to-therapy within hub services, the strategic implications of ConnectiveRx's expanded dispensing pharmacy capabilities, and the dominant themes shaping affordability strategy heading into 2026.

Pharmaceutical Executive: How are automation and AI impacting the timeline from prescription to starting treatment?
Shivani Patel: AI is an exciting topic, and it absolutely has started to be incorporated into what we do. But, the human touch is still absolutely necessary, because while we are starting to figure out how we can apply AI to our workflows, we're not at the end goal yet.

At ConnectiveRx, one of the things we're really proud about is the folks that we bring on to our teams. They have an expansive knowledge of not only healthcare, but what that patient is going to be up against during that journey.

We have an EHR network that we try to leverage and that we're partnering with so that we can get to a touchless provider experience. We're not there yet, though, so we have taken our strategy is to apply automation and AI where it makes sense and where we know we're going to get the outcome needed, and then we surround that by human touch to make sure we still get the pull through, and that there is no gap just because we think AI solved everything.