The Impact of AI on Jobs l Pharma Talks with Nataliya Andreychuk

Karol Wolak, Director and Global Omnichannel Excellence Lead at Merck, joins Nataliya Andreychuk on Pharma Talks to tackle a question on everyone's mind: is AI coming for pharma jobs? His perspective is grounded in hands-on work across customer engagement and digital transformation at one of the industry's largest organizations.Views shared are Karol Wolak's own and do not represent an official position of Merck.Key takeaways:AI isn't replacing pharma roles anytime soon — it's better positioned to absorb repetitive back-office work like content tagging, MLR approval, and data collection.Human qualities — context, ethics, judgment, empathy — remain outside what AI can deliver, especially in a highly regulated industry.The environmental cost of AI, from data storage to energy consumption, is a factor the industry rarely puts on the table.Patient-centricity stays the anchor point for every engagement decision, regardless of which technology sits behind it.Staying engaged and experimenting with AI beats waiting on the sidelines — but balance matters more than volume.Chapters: 0:00 Cold open — "AI will not replace us, at least not now" 0:51 Karol Wolak on the shift from multichannel to omnichannel at Merck 1:49 Why patients are the real center of pharma engagement 3:33 Does AI take our jobs? The blunt answer 5:02 Resource optimization: where AI actually helps pharma teams 7:14 The environmental cost of AI no one talks about 9:18 Finding the balance between innovation and human survival 13:06 Advice for listeners: don't wait on the sidelines📲 Enjoyed this episode? 👉 Like, Subscribe & hit the 🔔 to never miss a Pharma Talks episode 👉 Want to be a guest? Plan your recording with Nataliya Andreychuk at NEXT Pharma Summit (Dubrovnik)🔗 Follow & Connect: 🎙️ Nataliya Andreychuk → https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreychuk/ 🎙️ Karol Wolak → https://www.linkedin.com/in/karolwolak/