AI in Clinical Practice Must Be Gradually Adapted | NCPDP 2025

The role of artificial intelligence (AI) in health care has been gradually adapted, ensuring that new technologies are able to properly exchange patient data and that AI is considering patient safety. The further AI’s use in health care is developed, pharmacists will be able to utilize these emerging technologies to free up time and provide better care to their patients.

“Right now, it’s just sifting through the marketing of AI and the realization of where we’re at,” said Rick Sage, Executive Vice President of Innovation & Standards at the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP). “We have to understand that, in a clinical environment, you definitely need to crawl, walk, run on this one.”

During NCPDP’s 2025 Annual Conference, we caught up with Sage to discuss his experience in exploring AI and what place it is expected to hold within pharmacy. As the organization’s Executive Vice President of Innovation & Standards, Sage has expertise in the new technologies revolutionizing health care. More specifically, he has been at the forefront of his company’s exploration of AI’s place in pharmacy.

From Sage’s perspective, as well as many other leaders within health care, the adoption of AI in any health care practice comes with time, deliberation, and development. But as more and more providers, and even everyday patients, begin to better understand its functions, pharmacists too will gradually increase their use of AI, be able to expand their scope as providers, and best of all, care for patients while doing so.

Read more from our coverage of NCPDP 2025.

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