Everybody Hates Pharma

Episode 23- Audio
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[00:00:00] Welcome to the Pharma Sales and Tech Podcast. Join Artem, Stefan, Ruslan, and Chris as we explore the latest trends and developments in the pharmaceutical industry with a focus on sales and technology from cutting edge innovations To practical tips and strategies, our expert guests will provide valuable insights to help you stay ahead of the game.

[00:00:30] Tune in to stay informed, inspired, and connected with the world of pharma sales.

[00:00:39] Stefan Repin: Hello ladies and gentlemen, and today is again me, your old friend Stefan from Platforce, but I have a new friend today. His name is Mark. Mark Benthin from VIIHEALTH. Mark would be able to do his own intro because he's just told me about his amazing company. But I think he's going to have more than five.

[00:00:57] Stefan Repin: He's going to need more than five minutes to explain what he does. [00:01:00] Mark, welcome to the show. Tell us what you do and how you guys can help pharma and, Life Sciences.

[00:01:08] Mark Benthin: Fantastic. Thanks, Stefan. Great to be here. Yeah, VIIHEALTH, we're basically applying AI innovations and generative video to healthcare relationships across the healthcare system and in particular in life sciences. And what we mean by that is finding ways to, on the field rep side, to be able to amplify those relationships.

[00:01:32] Mark Benthin: And essentially what it boils down to is allowing those reps to deploy lifelike avatars of themselves that look and sound like them as individuals. Use that to create some rich content that's approved by the company and then deliver that, have the reps be able to trigger that through their traditional Viva or IQVIA type systems.

[00:01:52] Mark Benthin: Two individual reps that can be two individual physicians. They can be hyper personalized to those individual doctors, looks and sound like them, [00:02:00] but really takes all of the issue of production out of the situation. And we're getting some good pull through because it's video at the end of the day.

[00:02:08] Mark Benthin: Video is a great mechanism to deliver new information, complex studies. New results, highlights from materials, and we're getting good eyes on message. So that we think is pretty exciting as a starting point.

[00:02:24] Stefan Repin: Awesome. Okay. So that was less than five minutes, right? You have more time in case you need to present your company. So the first thing, I guess, and foremost important question for us would be tell us how you actually, like, tell me about some results. Like, you know, people always ask about results.

[00:02:41] Stefan Repin: Tell me the results that companies that have worked and implement VIIHEALTH. Again, by working with you guys.

[00:02:49] Mark Benthin: Sure. In life sciences, we work across, across the product life cycle. Everything from clinical trials. Through to medical marketing physician to physician [00:03:00] kind of approaches where key opinion leaders would be educating physicians in the same country or other countries with the field side of the commercial representatives in multiple markets, and then also on the, the patient side too.

[00:03:13] Mark Benthin: And the three main advantages of taking. AI and applying it to this scenario is number one, just pure flexibility and production. It's so much easier from a representative side or anybody who's the speaker. We're really trying to bring their persona into the digital channel and make them to be able to be part of that digital channel and leverage their relationship.

[00:03:38] Mark Benthin: with the intending physician in order to be able to generate more, more click through as well as more value for that representative. But it takes about one hour of a rep's time up front in order to just capture the information required to create the visuals and the audio. And then from there, it can be used across any number of approved [00:04:00] messages.

[00:04:00] Mark Benthin: There's no issue with compliance. The messages are all pre approved and the text is pre approved, whether it's branded text or unbranded text or other invitation type material. And the rep doesn't have to step into studio again. All this material can be produced in the background. It's all fits into the Viva Sanctified.

[00:04:22] Mark Benthin: Or IPVS sanctified rep triggered email kind of interface. And then the reps can use it. So the first real benefit that everybody is seeing is the flexibility and the ease of production and usage by The field reps of today make sure that they're not taking time out of their normal day where they're trying to reach and speak to different physicians, but really give them a tool that they can can leverage.

[00:04:48] Mark Benthin: The second good usage is we're able to bring content that might've been developed, let's say in English and bring it to other markets whether it be Spanish, Italian, French, German, what have you.[00:05:00] In a way that's very accessible and it handles that multilingual content because the avatar is then able to to use it appropriately.

[00:05:08] Mark Benthin: And obviously the reps can then speak to their own physicians about that, that content that they've seen in, in the appropriate language. And the last key benefit that people have seen is, is really the critical one. Is we can hyper personalize. Any of those messages, any of those videos. So really like we're talking now, I can refer to hi Stefan.

[00:05:30] Mark Benthin: I can use that in the audio, in the video itself and every physician can get a very specific, very valuable personal message. From the representative and the rep, again, doesn't have to do any work. It's all automated. It's all integrated, tied in with the Viva system and through our solution set, and it just makes it that much easier in terms of results.

[00:05:53] Mark Benthin: What we're seeing is that the time that physicians are spending on the videos is really good. I [00:06:00] mean, they're getting, depending on the length of the actual video and the text that's been approved by, by the company, but we're seeing on average about 70, 75 percent of any video actually watched by physicians that start watching the video, about half of them.

[00:06:16] Mark Benthin: See over

[00:06:16] Stefan Repin: hmm. I have a question. What are the videos sent through as a part of, like, you send them through the omnichannel approach or, like, multichannel approach? You send the video already? How does it work? Can you explain in detail? Mm hmm.

[00:06:28] Mark Benthin: Sure. We send through the videos let's say in a rep trigger for the rep side. It's in a rep triggered email. And so the email, what happens with the email is it is personalized and there's a preview of the video in the email. And it's that preview that really drives the relationship, make sure that the physician knows what it is that they're.

[00:06:49] Mark Benthin: Getting into whether it's a three minute video or, or, or longer and also brings forward that relationship with the representative themselves. And then [00:07:00] there's the actual video. If they, they tap on it, then they'll go directly to see their personalized. That's been generated for them. So it just makes it very seamless and they're already doing this today.

[00:07:11] Mark Benthin: This is not a sending the triggering of emails is happening, you know, hundreds of millions of times every month across the industry. And so it's the same mechanism. It's just that the content is that much richer. That much more personal and and also doesn't take any effort for the, for the rep to actually do out of the gate, which is nice.

[00:07:34] Stefan Repin: Yeah, I don't see, I don't see much tech. Actually, I don't see much tech in in pharma lately or life sciences being. Well, being actually applied at this scale what about, you mentioned something about the direct and indirect results of like implementing your technology, can you talk about that?

[00:07:56] Mark Benthin: Yeah, so we're seeing the time that the, our [00:08:00] system is measuring all of the activity of the physicians. We also are alerting the representatives for example, when one of their physicians has seen a particular video. They know that, so they're able to get an x ray of not just that they received an email, opened the email, but they also know that this individual physician has seen the video and also spent a certain amount of time.

[00:08:23] Mark Benthin: They know all that, so if they're going back in for another conversation, they know where they can start off. They can say, Hey, what did you think about this video? Was it, was it good? Did you understand, you know, this element, or they can talk about a certain element of content, or if they hadn't had a chance to see it yet, they can refer back to it.

[00:08:38] Mark Benthin: So I think that's an important element to kind of. Drive it through. And at the same time, what we're seeing is because these are very visual messages, we're seeing a lot more click through on other things that are already part of the email chain. So these would be calls to action. That would be leading to more traditional types [00:09:00] of resources, documents, websites, etc.

[00:09:03] Mark Benthin: And we're seeing more click through up to about 50 percent on those when we're using the video type messages. Really because the physicians are spending just that little extra time to take in what the content is. To see what the message might be about, and then to consider some of the other elements in that email.

[00:09:22] Mark Benthin: So it's really helpful to be part of an overall campaign. And that we think is, is exciting and does make sense from an omni channel context.

[00:09:33] Stefan Repin: Awesome. Yeah. Omnichannel is, is, is very important, I think, nowadays, because you need multiple. Well, the theory of... Marketing that I learned in school says that you need at least seven touches for a message to basically get into your head. And nowadays you know, since you have digital, you have digital, different digital touches.

[00:09:53] Stefan Repin: You have... Email you have, maybe some programmatic ads, Google ads, [00:10:00] Facebook retargeting. Obviously some of it you cannot use in Pharma. But your presence, your I would say virtual assistant, virtual messages is something very new for Pharma, I would say. I've been in tech for a long time and I would say in tech it's like, it's something.

[00:10:16] Stefan Repin: Quite new as well, but like I've seen people, I've seen, I've seen companies use it and quite successfully You can even see that on the website like you have whenever you go to someone like go to a website The AI assistant knowing your data will talk personally to you like you would feel like because it has your data, right?

[00:10:34] Stefan Repin: I don't know if that's something you can implement with your solution and if pharma companies can do that.

[00:10:42] Mark Benthin: Absolutely. So we have on the other usage of our core capability we are doing the avatar based assistant. So that's pretty interesting. So you can have it be a physician who is providing, let's say a leading physician providing information to patients, or you can [00:11:00] provide a leading physician providing information to other physicians.

[00:11:03] Mark Benthin: And it's very much headed down the road towards true AI, real time video assistance. So the versions of today that are video oriented are becoming real time assistance over the next few months. And we're pretty excited by some of the leading work that we're doing with a few companies in that, that regard.

[00:11:23] Mark Benthin: The other thing I'll say, you mentioned about retention, Video just delivers a better message. When it's short, focused, we're seeing the retention is probably five or six times greater than if it was the written word. Now that doesn't mean that your seven touches, you know, reduces by five or six times, but it definitely has more impact.

[00:11:45] Mark Benthin: You know, the ability to then see the information and you can really Pack a lot of information in a minute and a half. It's surprising how much info you can really bring about. That's very technical. That's very [00:12:00] relevant in that time period. And what we're seeing in the content is gone are the days of kind of starting a conversation where you start everything at the beginning and you work your way eventually to get to the meat of the conversation.

[00:12:12] Mark Benthin: Nowadays, thanks to Tik Tok and YouTube shorts and the rest, all of the. Content really starts at exactly the right place for that individual person and relationship. So you're right into the middle of it. If you want to know how to bake a cake, you're into the baking of the cake. You're not actually going to the grocery store and buying all those products.

[00:12:32] Mark Benthin: It's the same thing here. If there's a cardiologist who is interested to know about the method of action in this particular information or a study, you're directly into that detail. And physicians are appreciating how fast, how little time they have to spend to get the maximum value out of the channel.

[00:12:50] Mark Benthin: And I think that's, that's really important to, to capture. And all of these videos are interactive as well. So they serve as another overall channel to be [00:13:00] able to gather data. From the customers based upon their interests. And then obviously most life sciences and pharma companies have big initiatives to gather that additional data.

[00:13:10] Mark Benthin: So this is a new channel that they haven't seen before. They're able to gather new data, new questions and answers, different opinions, and then start to include that with their overall. Omni channel efforts. So we think that aspect also integrates nicely with the farmer's long term vision about how to be more data aware, more innovative and, and, and more responsive to what the end customer is looking for.

[00:13:35] Stefan Repin: Interesting. So, so when you, when you, okay, so when you go to pharma companies, right, and you pitch your, your, your solution, right, what's the, like, what are the doubts that pharma companies come to you with? Like, what, I'm just thinking it's like a fantastic solution to drive engagement. What are the, like, some of the objections you're hearing from pharma companies who are reluctant to try it out, if there are any.[00:14:00]

[00:14:02] Mark Benthin: Well, the, the first objection that people will always bring forward is, Oh, well, I don't know what my compliance department will think about this.

[00:14:11] Stefan Repin: Okay.

[00:14:12] Mark Benthin: But at the end of the day everything that the avatar. speaks to is driven from approved script and materials. So the text is what is the starting point and the messages are always on, on script.

[00:14:28] Mark Benthin: So in fact, what we found, even though those are the initial reactions in over the last, you know, couple of years, as we've been, you know working this up and, and turning it up and rolling it out, what we've seen is in fact, the compliance side. It's very straightforward. That's the initial objection, but that's really where it's, it's quite straightforward because they soon realize, Oh, okay.

[00:14:50] Mark Benthin: Whatever is said, whatever is written is what will be said and it won't stray or create new claims where there weren't those claims before. So that's [00:15:00] important. The other efforts, I guess, or questions are, well, you know, how much work is it for the representatives? And at the end of the day, you know, we've boiled it down to that they only have to spend, you know, one hour of their time for a year's worth of work.

[00:15:15] Stefan Repin: Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

[00:15:18] Mark Benthin: you know, from a cost benefit approach of the time it takes to to get another coffee and enjoy it, they can have this as a whole channel that represents them well in the digital channel. And they are certainly the face. of the pharma companies and the brands with the physician. So it really helps to bring them into the digital channel.

[00:15:37] Mark Benthin: So we've seen from that side that they're pretty excited by it. And the avatars at this point are, are very good quality really represent the individuals. It's not gaming or cartoon avatars. It's really, you know. I could be my avatar at this point given the quality of the video that's being generated.

[00:15:58] Mark Benthin: So the [00:16:00] avatar is is at a level of quality where anybody can really take advantage of it for professional use.

[00:16:07] Stefan Repin: Okay. And that's a good one. So I was thinking, who's your, like, your, who's your target customer in terms of like pharma? Do you work most, who, who, what, what pharma companies sort of like, are your ICP ideal client profile? Because I assume smaller companies, maybe who are more, who like tech, tech solutions.

[00:16:29] Stefan Repin: They're more prone to work with your work. Who would you say was your ideal customer? And what way do you think that?

[00:16:36] Mark Benthin: I think what's, what's great is. If people are willing to adopt video and agree that video is a good way to interact with their physicians, whether it's rare disease or big company small market, large market, what we're seeing is a leveling of the playing field across the board. They do need to kind [00:17:00] of accept that video can be good.

[00:17:01] Mark Benthin: Don't worry about the technology for the avatars. Don't worry about those. details because that's really just how things happen more quickly, more cost effectively. And, and it's really the solution of today. But what we see is the ideal client is one that's really focused on what are the physicians or let's say in the patient side, but what are the physicians looking for?

[00:17:24] Mark Benthin: How much time do they have during the day to really understand this particular message that you want to deliver how relevant is that script or video going to be when the physician receives it? If we get that right, everything else takes care of itself. And that could be big company, small company, rare disease, oncology GPs across the board.

[00:17:45] Mark Benthin: It really doesn't matter. We've been involved with all different types. And I think that's what's really interesting with the versatility of the solution set. It's really about the customer and bringing the sales rep and the customer closer together in that [00:18:00] digital channel. So when we sit down with the client, we tend to look at, okay, what's your, your current plan, your current roadmap.

[00:18:07] Mark Benthin: Cause they're all doing something. And where do you think there are a few gaps in the messages, a few weak spots where it would be great if you could get more. Penetration of a more understanding of a particular topic. We use that as a starting point. There's usually two or three, and then we use that as a starting point and then wrap the campaign around that.

[00:18:28] Mark Benthin: So it's actually addressing the unmet needs of the customer and that itself delivers more interaction. So physicians are happy that the companies have spent some time, delivered a quality product about something that they care about that's relevant to their practice and the reps look good doing it. So that's a nice combination for for being able to, to use that more going forward.

[00:18:55] Stefan Repin: Interesting. Let's, let's, Have you seen any other use of your technology? Let's say for, [00:19:00] because by experience, I can say pharma companies use, they spend a lot of money on training new sales reps and retraining them. Do you think your technology could be used for onboarding, training new sales reps and pharma life sciences?

[00:19:15] Stefan Repin: And how do you see that working?

[00:19:18] Mark Benthin: Absolutely. The core tech of the lifelike avatar can be used for training increasingly where we started from was from asynchronous messaging, you know, being able to get a message in front of somebody that was relevant to them and could, could help strengthen the relationship. Where we are evolving is to include that, but also synchronous, as you mentioned upfront, where in real time, you're getting these responses and can react you know, more completely to, you know, how people are then accepting the content.

[00:19:53] Mark Benthin: So training is a, is a good one. From bulk content, we're seeing people use it for innovation [00:20:00] development inside their companies, you know, different scenarios where we had one CEO speak to his avatar who was at a distance and they use that live conversation between him and his avatar to really drive home the point of doing things differently.

[00:20:17] Mark Benthin: Of driving innovation across the company and things like that. So it can be used in that communications kind of way as well. I think the sweet spot for this for the complete set, though, is when the relationship is really something that can be personal. And can also exist offline as well, possibly, then you can really use this capability to deliver that one on one messaging experience.

[00:20:46] Mark Benthin: You know, you can really say, Stefan, hi, you know, this and that we spoke about this yesterday. Now here's this other entry. So being able to get down to that. kind of one on one scenario is something that you couldn't do before [00:21:00] at all without this kind of AI solution. And now you can, and it can support all the aspects across healthcare, not just the field scenario, but the field scenario is a, it's a unique set of relationships.

[00:21:13] Mark Benthin: And some of them are very long term and it's a great place to to help amplify what they're actually doing.

[00:21:21] Stefan Repin: Awesome. Let's talk about yourself. Like, so you sell to pharma, right? What are the most common, let's say, objections or challenges you face in the sales process and like, how did you, how do you overcome them?

[00:21:38] Mark Benthin: Well about a year and a half ago we did our. Management buyout of this company based on this idea and this technology at the end of 2021, right at the end of the year. And in 2022, there was no chat GPT out there. I mean, until the end of the year. So we called this personalized video because we didn't have another name for it, right?

[00:21:59] Mark Benthin: That's what we called [00:22:00] it. And people didn't really understand what it might be unless we showed it to them. And then when we showed it to them, well, then they start to have ideas. And that was great. Now, thanks to ChatGBT and this whole awareness of generative AI that's really helped from it gives us a good backdrop.

[00:22:15] Mark Benthin: But this is really a this whole set of capabilities is really tied to what the healthcare needs are. So it's more than just you know, producing the video. It's all the tracking, all the data, all the interactivity, all the system usage and so on. And we've seen that Our key need is that people need to see people in pharma need to see the result.

[00:22:37] Mark Benthin: And very often they need to see it of one of their own people so that they can say, Oh, okay. It's not just sleight of hand or magic. It is, you know, this person over here, we know that person. And yes, indeed, the avatar looks exact, looks and sounds exactly like them. So as long as we can. Show somebody quickly in five minutes.

[00:22:58] Mark Benthin: What we've seen is that [00:23:00] from there it becomes a lot easier to have a conversation about what it could be. But if people are just kind of sitting back and, you know, not, not sort of willing to take the time to see what it might be, but just read it. Then you don't get the benefit of that whole video capability of, you know, six to one retention or, or or convincing people, you really need to see it to believe it.

[00:23:22] Mark Benthin: And I think that's one of the key blockers because not everybody is willing to take the time to have a meeting, invest their time because they don't know whether it's going to be that successful or valuable at the end of the day. So that's, that's a key. I guess not so much objection per se, but a key requirement to really get the value quickly for this kind of a solution set.

[00:23:46] Stefan Repin: Yeah, I would say pharma and life sciences, these are like very, very face to face focused industry. So you really need to show people an example of a person they know or some, some, someone they, they actually [00:24:00] heard of. It's, I'd say cold messaging, more like coming out from cold and trying to sell, trying to push something doesn't really work in pharma.

[00:24:09] Stefan Repin: It's, it's very different. It's very like touchy relationship, relationship based industry. It's same as like life sciences, right? And you have big corporations where the matter, where your reputation matters a lot, right? So the, the mess where that's why AI AI assistance are very helpful because you make sure that you're the message that you're.

[00:24:31] Stefan Repin: Commercially or do your marketing lead wants you to put in the mouth, the personal assistant and the heads of the, of the HTP is actually getting across, right? It's not something else that you came up with, like exactly that message. And I think plus, plus there's video involved. It's also interactive.

[00:24:49] Stefan Repin: I think it helps, it helps a lot in with, I mean, I, if I were a commercial lead, I would definitely try your, your solution. Right. I guess it's like, you know, it [00:25:00] can spark a lot of engagement. Yeah. We just came from from Latin America. We've used a lot of like pharma there and I can say yeah, they do need, they, they were a few.

[00:25:09] Stefan Repin: Our potential clients that were complaining about the lack of engagement in, in they, they get basically that, that their sales reps get from, from, from the HTPs because it's the same old, like how, how many times can you go to the same HTP and say, yeah, I have this and I have this and I have this and what's up, right?

[00:25:29] Stefan Repin: And it's hard, like in, for example, I think that they have. Flash visits. It's like you get 30 seconds with the doctor, 1 minute with the doctor. You go there, you ship your it's like once a month you go like that and then that's all you get. It's not very interactive, you know. I don't think the doctor will understand anything from what you're saying in 1 minute, right?

[00:25:51] Stefan Repin: It's like

[00:25:52] Mark Benthin: But you know, I look at my so two comps that I look at my daughters, I have young daughters and they, when they see a video, they understand very quickly. [00:26:00] The kind of video that they will swipe through or the kind of video that they will tap and watch on YouTube thereafter, very fast, within a half a second.

[00:26:07] Mark Benthin: They know because they make that association very quickly. And it's, it's because it's video, right? And when we got interested in this and it wasn't when we were, had made the technology was not. Possible to make when we first kind of found the requirement, we were doing some patient engagement with people that didn't have phones, didn't have computers, were older, and it was maybe eight years or so ago.

[00:26:31] Mark Benthin: What we learned from that is, you know, we tried different methods. And what we learned was that, you know, video does work as long as it feels and sounds and looks kind of like the nightly news or family feud. It's got to feel short, quick, light, a little bit of education, a bit of a kick. And also in a reminder, all in the same kind of tight package, human beings respond really well to that.

[00:26:52] Mark Benthin: It took us a while before during the pandemic, we thought the technology was almost there. So we started, you know, getting busy with it. And then obviously [00:27:00] over the last you know, a couple of years, it's the, it's just been moving at a, at a rapid, rapid pace, the core focus is that our brains work better when information.

[00:27:12] Mark Benthin: Is delivered in a way that makes sense. And video is a great medium for doing that. Then if it can be delivered and also involve somebody that you know from and hear about and is part of that day to day world, that also helps build that relationship. So you're trying to get kind of a two way dialogue, even if it's a message and you know, turn that into a whole.

[00:27:35] Mark Benthin: Relationship over time. So I think that's very interesting from where it's at is delivered good results so far very good results. Physicians like the content of this medium. They're spending the time they're getting more time on this kind of call than they are sometimes you know, with then that 30 second example that you mentioned of the Indian sales rep,

[00:27:56] Stefan Repin: it just doesn't work that way.

[00:27:57] Mark Benthin: So so I think that's a [00:28:00] good base to start from and then, you know, see where it where it evolves to over the next a couple of years as well.

[00:28:06] Stefan Repin: Well, the next iteration of your product, actually I'm a fan of virtual assistants and like AI stuff. The next iteration of your product could be something where you have not just one message, but you could create actually a script. Where you say that your AI assistant says something and then you have options there.

[00:28:23] Stefan Repin: So the doctor can choose stuff and then it goes through a script. And the doctor even can answer maybe with, like, you know, just with a video, if he's comfortable, if she's comfortable, or with a written response, and then you can get the, the... Response from the, from the field right away. I, I'll let you comment on this.

[00:28:42] Mark Benthin: Yeah, in fact, you must be reviewing some of our some of our projects are in fact that at this stage, they're that where you're making choices and they are very interactive. So you can go down different roads in the story and learn differently where we see that going very shortly. is [00:29:00] not being pre canned scripts, but being approved content that the AI can also speak to.

[00:29:09] Mark Benthin: So the responses for different people will be slightly different. Right. If you're speaking to a physician, you're going to use technology, language that is medical in nature detailed. If it's a specialist, that's a certain language style. If it's a consumer, you're not going to use the same language at all.

[00:29:28] Mark Benthin: It could, but it could be done by the same assistant with the same access to the same constrained amount of content. And we see that as being, that's the real time assistant for us. And the videos are great messages that are offshoots of that. You know, that you can have different versions so that anyone can share with their family members something that they saw.

[00:29:47] Mark Benthin: But that base can apply to any scenario and it involves all the aspects that we're doing now, as well as this evolution into the The topical assistance. So we see [00:30:00] that's pretty exciting for 2024 and it's just around the corner. And it looks like the the industry will will need to, to, to grow through that process as well.

[00:30:11] Stefan Repin: I agree. Okay. So what's your, I have a few more questions for you. And one of them would be, how do you stay up to date with the latest technology? You're, you're obviously a pioneer in what comes to like technology, right? Life science and space. How do you, how do you personally stay up to date?

[00:30:31] Mark Benthin: I think by, at the end of the day, it sounds corny, but it's physicians are deciding what they want to be engaged with and being in tune with what tools and techniques are out there in any market. Horizontally is really important and then applying them to the customers that we have here. You know patients can, hospitals will be able to use this to reduce [00:31:00] the rehospitalization rate clearly with patients because it's delivering information that's all generated.

[00:31:07] Mark Benthin: So you've Kind of get the value of video, but without all the costs of production, which is such a nice place to be. And we we've started to see some of the gen AI basic video tools, you know, generating content on Tik TOK and others. And that's sort of that core baseline, but applying it to. The healthcare context, there's so much more need out there.

[00:31:29] Mark Benthin: There's patients that have not asked questions because they were, might've been embarrassed to, or they didn't get time with a physician to ask the right question, or they forgot because they heard about something else. So there's lots of different ways for patients to learn on their own from their own physician, even.

[00:31:44] Mark Benthin: It's at that point where it's not just the specialist. We've got started with the specialist, the leading physician, but this is something that can be brought to every physician and pharmacist, wherever they may be. It could be them responding to their patients and [00:32:00] building that relationship. So I think that's an exciting aspect of the future, not just the sales side.

[00:32:05] Mark Benthin: But also how do we get people to know more about what they're dealing with and do the right things to help their disease and condition without a lot of effort. At the end of the day, it's convenience and anything that's worked well over the last 20 years has all been about convenience, whether it's Amazon or Uber or, you know, what have you, it's all about that convenience.

[00:32:27] Mark Benthin: And I think this capable, this set of capabilities, bringing it together. The AI in the video with healthcare content and controls that really is very, very convenient for the rep, for the doctor, for the patient. It just becomes something that's easy to to take part in.

[00:32:44] Stefan Repin: Okay. So how about, there is a huge debate about chat GPT. So is that a yay or a nay? What do you think?

[00:32:53] Mark Benthin: Well, I think that there may be lots of different uses. What we think that's really [00:33:00] important here is that conversational AI component, all that core LLM LLM technology, but applied to. The constrained content that healthcare companies have to represent, you know, from a legal perspective and from the clinical trials, it has to fit that model.

[00:33:19] Mark Benthin: So that is where things have moved to now. So the open AI You know sessions of earlier this week were very interesting for our team. They're, they're very excited to see the next step because really it's about getting all of that value of ai, but applying it to the right you know, reg, highly regulated content and not having an addition.

[00:33:42] Mark Benthin: Any problem with the compliance committee. Now that's there. And that's where I think 2024 be even more interesting than just a video widget or even avatar. It'll be that much more intriguing to go faster so that we can help more patients and physicians be on top of [00:34:00] their conditions and treatments.

[00:34:02] Stefan Repin: All right. Thank you. Last question. Okay. So if you had to give some advice to pharma companies about like, you know, getting their sales numbers higher, what would you, what would you recommend?

[00:34:15] Mark Benthin: I think they need to move more quickly to innovate and scale there's lots of innovation going on, lots of tests of innovation, but they tend to be on a different time cycle on a much longer time cycle. But what we're seeing is the innovation in the AI space is happening very, very quickly.

[00:34:37] Mark Benthin: And so you need to be able to get something to scale and take advantage of that very much, much faster. So rather than trying something with just a couple of people. Try it with an entire region, make sure that it has the ability to generate the numbers and and, you know, you can take a probably a couple of years out of the whole process.

[00:34:59] Mark Benthin: [00:35:00] If that process to scale was that much faster and smaller companies are doing that, you know, they're very quickly switching over to a new methodology. And I think that is a good lesson for some of the larger companies to take advantage of.

[00:35:17] Stefan Repin: Awesome. Thank you Mark for this awesome episode. See you. I'll hope to see you next year with some more insights about sales. Hopefully you have, you will develop even more, some more attractive features and products so we can discuss about how that can increase sales for pharma. It was great having you here.

[00:35:34] Stefan Repin: Thank you so much.

[00:35:36] Mark Benthin: Thank you very much, Stefan.

[00:35:38] Stefan Repin: The pleasure is mine. Thank you.

[00:35:40] Mark Benthin: All right. Cheers.

[00:35:41] Yeah.