Key points
- AI should support pharmacists, not replace them.
- Digital convenience will become a baseline customer expectation.
- Big groups may lead in AI enabled retail, but not necessarily personalised care.
- The future battleground is not just technology, it is convenience versus care.
Artificial intelligence is no longer just a technology issue. For community pharmacy owners, it is becoming a retail issue, a service issue and a business model issue.
A recent article about Coles CEO Leah Weckert, Australian Financial Review, 5 May 2026, highlighted how quickly retail may change. Coles expects that within five years, around 30 per cent of its online orders could be placed by AI agents rather than human customers. In practical terms, a customer’s AI assistant may compare products, assess value and complete the purchase.
That raises an obvious question for pharmacy owners.
If AI agents can shop for groceries, compare products and make recommendations, what role will they play in pharmacy?
More importantly, will larger pharmacy groups and banner networks lead the next phase of personalised pharmacy care, or can independents compete?
Pharmacy is not just another retail category
Community pharmacy will be impacted by the same trends changing supermarkets and other retailers. Customers increasingly expect:
- Convenience
- Speed
- Price transparency
- Online ordering
- Delivery options
- Personalised recommendations
But pharmacy is different.
A supermarket recommendation may influence what cereal, coffee or detergent a customer buys. A pharmacy recommendation may influence medication adherence, symptom management, product safety, or whether a customer should seek medical care.
That is why AI in pharmacy needs to be treated carefully. The opportunity is not simply to sell more products online. The real opportunity is to use AI to support better care.
Used well, AI should help pharmacists:
- Follow up more consistently
- Reduce repetitive administration
- Identify patients who may need support
- Improve the timing of customer communication
- Spend more time on higher value patient interactions
The starting point is simple, AI should support the pharmacist, not replace the pharmacist.
The new service standard
Customers are used to digital convenience in banking, travel, groceries, insurance and medical appointments. Pharmacy will not be immune.
For pharmacy owners, the baseline service offer is likely to include:
- Online script ordering
- eScript management
- Repeat reminders
- Click and collect
- Home delivery
- Online service bookings
- Automated follow up
- Fast access to pharmacist advice
Customers may not consciously compare a local pharmacy with a supermarket or online retailer. They simply compare one service experience with every other service experience in their life. If the pharmacy experience feels slow, manual or reactive, customers will notice.
Where AI can add real value
The immediate opportunity is not a fully automated AI shopping assistant. It is using AI to improve everyday workflow of the pharmacy.
AI can help identify:
- Patients due for follow up
- Repeats that are due
- Missed medication collections
- Vaccination opportunities
- Medication review opportunities
- Customers who may need pharmacist intervention
- Service opportunities being missed
For pharmacy owners, this is where the value sits. AI should remove repetitive work, improve consistency and free pharmacists to spend more time with patients. It should not become a substitute for professional judgement
Will the big brands lead?
The short answer is yes, at least in some areas.
Large pharmacy groups and banner networks have obvious advantages, including:
- Larger customer databases
- Stronger technology budgets
- Greater buying scale
- Brand recognition
- Established online platforms
- Ability to roll out systems across large networks
They may be better placed to invest in online ordering, product recommendations, loyalty programs, delivery logistics, customer segmentation, repeat reminders and digital marketing. However, better retail infrastructure does not automatically mean better care.
AI is only as useful as the data and processes behind it. Poor data, inconsistent workflows and disconnected systems will limit what any pharmacy can achieve.
Can independents compete?
Yes, but not by trying to outspend the major brands on technology.
Independent pharmacy owners need to compete where they have an advantage:
- Trust
- Relationships
- Local knowledge
- Continuity of care
- Access to the pharmacist
- Understanding of patient circumstances
Many independent pharmacists know their patients personally. That is powerful, but only if it is captured and acted on.
The risk is that too much of this knowledge sits in the pharmacist’s head. If it is not supported by systems, reminders, documentation and structured follow up, it becomes difficult to scale and easy to lose.
AI gives independents an opportunity to turn local relationships into a more disciplined service model. For example, AI supported systems could help independents:
- Identify patients due for follow up
- Prepare consultation notes
- Prompt service opportunities
- Support vaccination campaigns
- Prioritise higher risk patients
- Improve customer communication
The market may split
The future is unlikely to be a simple story of big brands winning and independents losing. A more likely outcome is a split market:
- Large groups may dominate AI enabled retail, where customers value price, convenience, availability and speed.
- Independent pharmacies can still dominate AI enabled care, where customers value trust, continuity, pharmacist access, local relationships and personalised support.
Personalised retail is not the same as personalised care. An algorithm may recommend the cheapest product. A pharmacist may recognise that the customer’s symptoms require a different conversation altogether.
That is where independent pharmacy can remain highly relevant.
What pharmacy owners should do now
Pharmacy owners do not need to build their own AI platform. In most cases, that would be unnecessary and uneconomic.
The practical strategy is to start with the fundamentals:
- Clean up patient and customer data
- Confirm consent and communication preferences
- Review current digital tools
- Identify patients who would benefit from proactive follow up
- Create structured workflows for common services
- Automate low risk reminders
- Train the team to use AI as a support tool
- Measure service outcomes and customer retention
- Review privacy, advertising and clinical governance before using customer facing AI
Start with service design, not technology. Decide what patient experience you want to deliver, then use technology to support that model.
The bottom line
AI will change community pharmacy, but it does not need to weaken the role of the pharmacist.
Large pharmacy groups are well placed to lead in AI enabled retail pharmacy. Independent pharmacies can still lead in AI enabled care, provided they act now.
The pharmacies that thrive will not necessarily be the biggest. They will be the ones that combine:
- Convenience with care
- Automation with judgement
- Digital tools with human trust
- Better data with better follow up
For pharmacy owners, the question is not whether AI will affect the sector.
It will.
The real question is whether AI will be used by competitors to take customers away, or by your pharmacy to deliver a better, more personal and more valuable health care experience.
Pitcher Partners works with community pharmacy owners to understand industry change, improve business performance and plan for long term value. If you would like to discuss what these trends mean for your pharmacy, we would be pleased to assist.
