ทัศนคติของผู้แทนยาต่อผลกระทบของปัญญาประดิษฐ์ต่องานของผู้แทนยาในประเทศไทย

Abstract

This independent study aimed to study attitude of pharmaceutical sales representatives towards impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on sales jobs. In this study, data collection was relied on the specific method to gather data from pharmaceutical sales representatives in Thailand in which three attitude components i.e. cognitive component, affective component, and behavioral component were in focus. Based upon Taro Yamane’s sample population calculation formula, questionnaires were distributed, accordingly to the purposive sampling, to 281 pharmaceutical sales representatives in Thailand. Then, the data obtained were analysed by the statistics i.e. percentage, mean, standard deviation; and t-test in order to find attitude’s priority value of the pharmaceutical sales representatives towards impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on sales jobs in Thailand.

The finding revealed that most respondents were female in the age of 31-40 years old with the education background in Bachelor’s degree. Their monthly income (as counted only from the monthly wage) was 50,001 Baht or more and their working period as the pharmaceutical sales representative was over 5 years. Most of them worked at Sandoz company in the position of Sales Representative. Their company had used AI: Veeva and other operating systems, in their business for over 4 years. These operating systems could demonstrate current and previous circulations of the company itself or even its competitors as reference for marketing strategy planning and sales reporting. In terms of customer relationship management, the AI was applied for meeting arrangement and creating sales opportunities. It was also used as the main tool to construct marketing strategies, especially in increasing sell and launching new product for continuing customers. In addition, the AI was applied in discovering customer requirements and conveying the sales representatives to propose the right products with preferable benefits to the customers in accordance with the customer behavior prediction’s results.

Results of the study on attitude of pharmaceutical sales representatives towards impact of AI on sales jobs in Thailandpresented that the behavioral component had the highest level of mean value. The top three sub-components included the capacity of AI in delivering data to a large number of customers at one time; the need of inputting every new data into the system as the AI could not detect data by itself at the beginning; and the accessibility to Big Data to increase sale efficiency, respectively.

In consideration of the length of working period, the results suggested that attitudes of those with less than 5 years and with over 5 years of working periods in cognitive and affective components were indifferent. In behavioral component, those with less than 5 years of working period trusted in traditional sales system much more than the AI’s; while those with over 5 years of working period were ready to adjust themselves to rely their works on AI.

In consideration of the current company where the pharmaceutical sales representatives were working at, the results suggested that attitudes of the pharmaceutical sales representatives from both original and local pharmaceutical companies in cognitive and affective components were indifferent. In behavioral component, those who worked at original pharmaceutical companies could apply their works and cooperated with AI well; while those who worked at local pharmaceutical companies were ready to adjust themselves to rely their works on AI. In consideration of the length of duration in applying AI to the jobs, the results suggested that attitudes of those with less than 4 years and with over 5 years of duration in applying AI to the jobin cognitive, affective, and behavioral components were indifferent.