Conversational artificial intelligence agents (CAIAs) are computer programs that imitate human conversations using natural language processing (NLP). They can talk or write with users by text, voice, or videos. They aim to give interactive and responsive experiences. In pharmacy education, CAIAs mainly help students practice communication skills, prepare for human resource management, and learn about health topics like HIV care.
A broad review of studies from 2020 to 2025 found that out of 961 papers worldwide, only six met criteria to study CAIAs in pharmacy education closely. Interestingly, five of these six studies were done in English-speaking countries, including the United States. This shows the U.S. is one of the first countries to use AI technology to improve pharmacy training.
One main focus in these studies is the different ways users interact with AI agents. Most CAIAs in pharmacy education use text-based communication. But some also add audiovisual parts or voice communication. For example, two studies used videos and sounds, while one combined text and voice talk. This makes the experience richer than just text alone.
Most CAIAs have single-user formats. That means each student works alone with the AI agent. This lets learners interact with examples, get real-time automatic feedback, and learn at their own speed.
Using many ways to interact—text, voice, and videos—affects how learners stay involved. In medical and pharmacy education, staying involved is very important. It helps students remember knowledge better and build needed skills. Learning with examples and quick feedback, as in these CAIAs, keeps learners active and helps them use what they learn in real life.
Even though these CAIAs have good features, studies show that pharmacy education has been slow to start using them. This might be because teachers don’t know much about these tools yet or because the technology is still new. But when students do use CAIAs, they show better confidence, knowledge, and communication skills. This is a good sign for using them more in the future.
Researchers looked at many results of using CAIAs in pharmacy education. These results include how well the system works, how users like it, costs versus benefits, and who the learners are. The key learning results focused on confidence, knowledge, and communication skills improvements.
These good results show that conversational AI can help add to traditional pharmacy teaching methods that mostly use lectures and limited practice.
Even with promise, CAIAs have challenges. How students interact with these tools changes a lot and is often not well recorded. This makes it hard to find best ways to use them or keep students involved evenly.
Also, most CAIAs used now work only in pharmacy education. They have not been used much in other health fields. The small number of studies and places shows this technology is still new. Researchers say more studies with more users are needed to check how well CAIAs work and to help more places start using them.
For medical office managers, pharmacy owners, and IT staff in the U.S., conversational AI agents have important uses. Pharmacy education is moving toward learning by doing. This reflects the real-world problems pharmacists face every day. CAIAs can provide fake patient talks that help learners get ready for these problems without risk or cost of real patients.
Adding CAIAs to ongoing education and staff training might help fill workforce gaps. This is especially useful in busy pharmacies with little time and few workers. For example, pharmacy workers can use CAIAs to practice communication skills important for patient safety and following rules.
Managers can use AI training that fits with busy schedules by offering flexible learning times. These AI tools can also collect data on how learners do and stay involved. This helps focus on skills that need more development and check learners’ progress.
Conversational AI helps not just in teaching but also in running daily workflows. Simbo AI, a company focused on AI phone answering systems, shows how this tech can improve communication in pharmacy and healthcare offices.
By automating simple phone tasks like booking appointments, handling medicine refill calls, and answering first patient questions, AI phone services reduce work for front desk workers. This lets pharmacy staff spend more time on patient counseling and clinical choices.
AI phone services can connect with pharmacy software and electronic health records (EHRs). This helps share information smoothly and keeps patient communication consistent. For example, AI can check patient info, confirm prescriptions, and send messages to pharmacists or technicians. This lowers mistakes and speeds up work.
For managers and IT staff, using AI in phone communications saves money by needing fewer workers to answer calls. It also cuts patient wait times and raises satisfaction. AI fits well with efforts to make health work digital, helps follow rules, and keeps data secure.
AI systems can easily adjust to changes in call numbers or services. This flexibility is useful for U.S. pharmacies that meet different patient needs, insurance rules, and laws.
In checking CAIAs for pharmacy education, the World Health Organization’s digital health framework helped guide research. Researchers Sabrina Winona Pit, Mohammad Hamiduzzaman, Carl R. Schneider, and Frances Barraclough helped build an evaluation framework. It includes eleven teaching features and three results categories following WHO rules.
This framework supports organized use of conversational AI tools. It focuses on how easy the tools are to use, how well they work, and clear teaching improvements. Using these frameworks in U.S. pharmacy programs can help make sure AI tools meet quality and safety needs in health training.
Since CAIAs are still new in pharmacy education, there is space for growth. Moving from single-user learning to group or team models could better match real healthcare teamwork. This would prepare learners for working with others in health settings.
Better recording and standard ways of reporting how learners use CAIAs will help develop the technology. Health leaders and teachers in the U.S. need to support funding studies that check long-term success and cost-effectiveness of AI tools.
Also, expanding CAIA use beyond pharmacy—into nursing, medicine, and other health fields—could support training across disciplines. This could help improve patient care on a larger scale.
Conversational AI agents that use many ways to interact offer useful tools to improve learner involvement and skills in pharmacy education in the United States. Usage is still low, but research shows good effects on learner confidence, knowledge, and communication. Medical managers, pharmacy owners, and IT staff can benefit by adding these technologies to workforce training and workflow improvements. AI-driven automation, like Simbo AI’s phone systems, helps by making communication and tasks easier in busy pharmacy settings. Continued research and efforts to use these tools will be important to fully use conversational AI in U.S. pharmacy education and practice.
CAIAs in pharmacy education are used as innovative and scalable training solutions to address complex educational and practice demands, particularly supporting communication skills, human resource management, and HIV care training.
Common characteristics include scenario-based learning, immediate real-time automated feedback, interactive learning, and multiple interaction modalities such as text, audiovisual, and voice, mostly designed for single-user formats.
Evaluated outcomes include functionality, user experience, cost-benefit, user characteristics, and educational outcomes such as confidence, knowledge, and skills development among learners.
Most CAIAs utilize text-based interaction; some include audiovisual elements, one study combines text and voice, while others rely solely on text, predominantly in single-user formats.
CAIAs are largely in early adoption stages: three studies in feasibility/usability, two in effectiveness, and one in efficacy evaluation stage.
CAIA uptake remains low, with variable and poorly described learner interaction. Additional validation of their effectiveness and expansion to other healthcare disciplines are necessary.
The WHO digital health framework informed the development of an evaluation framework capturing key characteristics and outcome measures for CAIAs, enhancing structured design and assessment.
Eleven educational features and three educational outcome categories were incorporated into the evaluation framework to guide CAIA design and evaluation in pharmacy education.
CAIAs have shown potential in increasing learner confidence, knowledge, and communication skills, despite currently low adoption rates.
Further research is needed to validate CAIA effectiveness, expand their use beyond pharmacy to other healthcare fields, and test the proposed evaluation framework more broadly.
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