These days, whenever AI is mentioned, the question of whether the pharmacist profession will eventually disappear naturally follows.

The process of becoming a pharmacist in the United States is honestly not easy. After completing undergraduate courses in science subjects like chemistry and biology, one must enter pharmacy school, which typically lasts four years. The competition for admission is fierce, and the financial burden is significant.

After graduation, one must pass both the national and state exams to obtain a license. Additionally, ongoing continuing education is mandatory. The difficulty of the studies, costs, and time investment are all considerable, making it not a path that can be completed quickly. However, after obtaining a license, it is still regarded as an attractive profession due to its stable income and job security.

However, now it is said that tasks such as scanning prescriptions, checking drug components, and calculating interactions, which are part of the challenging qualifications for pharmacists in the U.S., can already be performed faster and more accurately by computers than by humans. So, can the specialized knowledge of pharmacists really be completely replaced by AI and humanoid robots?

To put it simply, much of the knowledge of pharmacists can indeed be replaced by machines. Tasks such as comparing drug information, dosage calculations, contraindications, side effect lists, and thousands of papers and guidelines simultaneously are much more accurate when done by AI than by humans.

In fact, algorithms that detect medication errors in hospital systems are already showing better performance than humans. If humanoid robots are equipped with such systems, simple dispensing tasks and information provision are likely to be almost fully automated. Especially in large pharmacy chains or hospital pharmacies, there will be a rapid push to adopt such technology to reduce labor costs.

However, the role of a pharmacist is not simply that of a machine that delivers drug information. Pharmacists explain and adjust medications by considering the patient's condition, lifestyle, financial situation, understanding, and psychological state. Even with the same prescription, the counseling content can vary greatly depending on whether the patient is elderly, suffering from multiple diseases simultaneously, or in an environment where they can properly take the medication. This judgment is difficult to handle perfectly with data alone. The ability to read a patient's tone, expressions, hidden anxieties, and areas of misunderstanding is still the domain of human pharmacists.

More importantly, there is the aspect of responsibility and trust. Medications are directly related to human lives. The question of who is responsible when problems arise is not simply a technical issue. Patients feel greater trust in human pharmacists than in robots.

Especially for patients with chronic diseases, the elderly, and those with multiple conditions, pharmacists also play a psychological support role during the treatment process. This relationship is formed not just as a service provider but as a member of the healthcare team.

Ultimately, the duties of pharmacists will be restructured. Repetitive tasks such as dispensing, calculations, and information searches will be handled by robots and AI, while pharmacists will focus on more complex clinical judgments, patient counseling, collaboration with medical staff, and designing medication management strategies. The number of pharmacists may decrease, but the expertise of the remaining pharmacists will become even more important. Simple knowledge transmitters will disappear, and they will be redefined as high-level medical professionals.

Therefore, humanoid robots will not eliminate pharmacists but will change their roles. The areas of calculation and memory within pharmacists' knowledge will be handled by machines, while human pharmacists will take on the areas of judgment, responsibility, and trust. This is more of an evolution than a crisis.

The future pharmacist is likely to be fewer in number but possess a higher level of expertise, becoming a key coordinator in the healthcare system. Ultimately, I believe that technology is not replacing pharmacists but rather transforming them into even more important figures than before.