Exploring the future of pharma market research: synthetic data & AI respondents
Day One Strategy recently hosted a webinar bringing together 100+ pharmaceutical insights leaders to discuss emerging innovations in market research. The focus was on synthetic data and AI, exploring how these technologies could reshape insights generation in the industry. To read the original article by Day One Strategy’s Head of Digital Strategy, Reena Sooch, visit Greenbook here; https://www.greenbook.org/insights/healthcare-market-research-experts/pharma-insights-leaders-weigh-in-the-future-of-synthetic-data-in-market-research
Key challenges
- Budget constraints: Many insights teams face budget cuts, pushing them to explore more innovative data solutions.
- Maximising existing data: There’s a strong need to leverage historical data more effectively.
- AI adoption: While there’s interest in AI, leaders expressed concerns about extracting clear, actionable intelligence without introducing more complexity.
AI and synthetic data: the next frontier
The webinar highlighted the potential of specialised AI agents like the AI Market Research Moderator, AI Therapy Expert, and AI Strategist. These tools could offer 24/7 availability and advanced analysis capabilities. However, participants questioned whether insights generated by such tools would be reflective of real-world stakeholders.
Large vs. Small Language Models (LLMs vs. sLMs)
Large language models like ChatGPT are popular but come with risks such as data hallucinations and lack of data ownership. There’s growing interest in smaller, more targeted AI models that could be trained on proprietary data, providing greater accuracy and control.
Opportunities in rare disease research
Synthetic data could play a crucial role in rare disease research, where small patient populations often limit data availability. This could help fill gaps in understanding these conditions.
Balancing optimism and practicality
Despite the excitement, participants emphasised starting with small pilot projects in non-critical areas to test and validate the concept before scaling. Ethical considerations and data privacy were also highlighted as essential factors in implementing AI-driven research.
The path forward
The future of pharma market research will require collaboration across companies, data scientists, ethicists, and regulators to fully realise the potential of synthetic data and AI. While not yet mainstream, these technologies are increasingly being considered as viable tools for generating valuable insights.
Overall, the webinar highlighted a growing interest in using AI and synthetic data to address current challenges in pharma market research, while acknowledging the complexities and ethical considerations involved in their adoption.