Should You Build or Buy a Conversational Agent?

Though building a conversational platform internally might seem attractive, it can drain resources and will likely exceed anticipated timelines. Here’s what to consider when deciding which option is best for your organization and how an experienced company can help.

1. Establish your main objective

The first step is to define your goals  —  whether it’s to engage users, gather insights on real patient needs, expand reach or improve usability. In all cases, creating a seamless user experience is key. Designed by doctors, Swoop's conversational AI leverages life sciences-specific jargon, enabling 98% accuracy when answering patient inquiries – this means reduced frustration and users that are more likely to connect repeatedly.  

2. Don’t underestimate your team's involvement

Customers will undoubtedly engage your conversational agents at scale, which will increase pressures across teams and may mean having to hire. Be realistic when assessing the resources, time, and energy needed to build a conversational solution from the ground up. 

3. Build to your industry requirements

The majority of conversational platforms are industry agnostic, however, life sciences has significant compliance, medical, legal and regulatory requirements by audience type and market. This creates a learning curve and means more people will have to get involved. Consider how adverse events will be recognized and escalated, or how time-sensitive information will be communicated to appropriate teams accurately. 

4. Identify how conversational AI will be integrated into the organization

A conversational agent should be smartly integrated into sales and marketing. Data gathered from conversational AI can be used at the individual level for ongoing personalization as well as to re-inform a go-to-market strategy. This primary data, which is captured in real time, must be managed correctly to be valuable.

5. Determine scalability 

Fundamentally, life sciences companies' core competencies are in product discovery, development and delivery  —  not software development or technology optimization. As such, build-your-own platforms may be helpful for internally-facing minimally viable products but not for externally-facing proof-of-concept work. Buying a platform over building, and working with a partner who can help at scale is not only more economical but also leads to better results.

About the Author

Emilie Branch 

Content Manager

Emilie has nearly a decade of experience in marketing, writing, research and strategy for the pharmaceutical industry. She has contributed to top pharmaceutical publications including American Pharmaceutical Review, European Pharmaceutical Review, Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, Manufacturing Chemist, Pharmaceutical Outsourcing, Specialty Chemicals, and Contract Pharma. Prior to joining Swoop/IPM.ai, Emilie served as Strategic Content Manager and Managing Editor for Pharma’s Almanac where she lent her voice to some of the industry’s top players including GSK, MilliporeSigma and ThermoFisher Scientific.