AI is now a firm part of day-to-day business. Copilot now keeps busy schedules organised, ChatGPT helps with research for the next presentation, Alexa dims the lights at the dining table and robot vacuum cleaners navigate domestic obstacles with ease. In the working world, too, there are constantly minor revolutions under way thanks to AI – and its abilities to perform tasks like viewing and analysing huge volumes of data in a fraction of the time that a human would need to do the same thing. In this post, Tobias Schwaiger, Executive Creative Director at WEFRA LIFE SOLUTIONS, explains the changes that AI tools have precipitated in healthcare communications and the ones that are still to come.
Some of the AI tools at WEFRA LIFE have already been in use for years, including for example Healthy Programmatic, the firm’s exclusive, data-driven media buying service. With it, the communications agency enables pharmaceutical companies to reach healthcare practitioners after login and place their technical content in compliance with the German Healthcare Advertising Act, in line with the target audience and with low waste. It enables efficiency increases of up to 50% in the media budget.
The healthcare marketing agency from Neu-Isenburg, Germany, is now also harnessing artificial intelligence in the form of image generation. Generative AI images and videos can be generated at high quality and provided to clients even when the deadline is tight and budget limited. For example, WEFRA LIFE SOLUTIONS partnered with Pharma Deutschland to initiate an awareness campaign surrounding e-prescriptions for OTC medicines. It made use of a large number of AI-generated, audience-specific assets for print as well as video and digital.
AI as a coder: custom microsites
The AI toolbox has recently grown to include something called ‘ready-to-use dev AI pages’. Used in a variety of AI programs, they can create microsites which need a fraction of the time and money normally needed for the coding process. ‘Generating a landing page with AI can be an idea above all for temporary campaigns, relaunches and prototyping,’ says Tobias Schwaiger, Executive Creative Director at WEFRA LIFE SOLUTIONS, ‘These tools are already very powerful and can deliver compelling results.’
The expert does, however, see two limitations: ‘Complex pages like specialist portals can’t be made by an AI tool.’ The reason for this is that an AI-designed microsite does not have a true content management system behind it like a human-coded website would have. This makes it more difficult to insert new content, carry out major changes or integrate sub-pages.
Using the correct prompts is also crucial. ‘With the healthcare sector in particular and the complex requirements that our clients have, AI needs precise and careful instructions for it to give us a fitting result.’
Navigating the AI jungle with an advertising agency
The world of AI is a fast-moving market, Tobias Schwaiger explains, ‘The sheer volume of tools is remarkable. Most of them aren’t firmly established yet, and there are constantly new developments coming out.’ WEFRA LIFE SOLUTIONS helps its pharma clients to keep track of them. ‘As an advertising agency, we can always add the latest tools to our clients’ arsenal. We inspect and test the relevant instruments, evaluate them and deploy them in a way that adds value.’
Whether ever-self-optimising AI will one day replace humans as a factor in healthcare communications? The expert doesn’t believe it. ‘At the end of the day, the value of the human share of the work will even increase,’ he explains, ‘There will always be a premium segment, too, along with demand for it. With good websites increasingly becoming easier to set up, good websites will become the standard at some point. It’s much like art, though: human originality and creativity are what creates excellence in the first place, and in this context human creative output serves as a seal of quality.’
For reasons of better readability, the simultaneous use of the language forms male, female and diverse (m/f/d) is dispensed with. All personal names apply equally to all genders.
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