Pharmacy automation solutions: top five scenarios, benefits & adoption guidelines

Pharmacy automation solutions: top five scenarios, benefits & adoption guidelines

November 12, 2025

Pharmacy automation involves using specialized software and equipment and re-engineering existing workflows to automate processes related to dispensing, storing, and delivering medications, as well as managing routine pharmacy operations such as prescription processing and record management.

Itransition provides comprehensive healthcare software development services to help pharmacies and hospitals implement and optimize pharmacy automation technologies, enhancing workforce efficiency, minimizing human error, and improving patient safety.

Table of contents

Pharmacy automation insights & trends

the projected pharmacy automation market size by 2030

Grand View Research, 2022

currently dominates the global pharmacy automation market

IMARC Group

prescription errors were avoided globally in 2024 through automated dispensing and verification

Market Growth Report

Types of pharmacy automation solutions

Pharmacy automation solutions enable pharmaceutical and healthcare organizations to partially or fully execute specific workflows. Here are the five processes most suitable for automation.

Types of pharmacy automation solutions

Storing and dispensing medications are critical operations in any pharmacy. With each drug handled multiple times before reaching the patient, the risk of dispensing errors and mismanagement grows significantly. For instance, medications can be stored under improper conditions, retained past their expiration date, or dispensed in incorrect quantities.

Pharmacy automation solutions play a crucial role in mitigating these risks. For example, inventory management systems integrated with healthcare IoT solutions track each pharmaceutical asset in real time, ensuring their proper stock levels and accurate dispensing. When combined with automation hardware, such as pill counters, mixers, weights, and packaging machines, pharmacy software systems significantly reduce manual tasks, enabling pharmacy staff to focus on higher-value, patient-centered activities.

While most pharmacies just distribute medications received in bulk from manufacturers, some patents require customized treatments for their conditions. In these cases, licensed pharmacies create compounds by modifying medication ingredients or combining multiple drugs into a single formulation, following a doctor’s prescription. Compounding is highly regulated due to potential severe risks to patients, therefore precise measurement, sterile handling, and strict medication adherence to safety protocols are required. Pharmacy automation software supports this process by managing compounding workflows, tracking inventory, and integrating with robotic systems that handle mixing, measuring, and packaging in a controlled environment.
Depending on the type of drug and its intended use, medications can be sealed into blister packs, boxes, sachets, vials, bottles, and other containers. Pharmacy automation software manages the entire packaging and labeling workflow, ensuring that each item is accurately handled in compliance with industry regulations and safety standards. Labels typically include critical information such as the patient’s name, medication name, dosage, administration instructions, and any special handling requirements. This way, implementing automated software solutions helps companies reduce the risk of medication error, maintain sterility, and uphold regulatory compliance.

Patient data input, storage, updates, and transfer include repeated actions that can be automated with a dedicated software solution. Every time a doctor issues an electronic prescription, the data is transferred to the pharmacy and automatically checked against the inventory to verify availability. This enables patients to identify where a particular medication can be obtained.  
The integration pharmacy management software with medical ecommerce apps allows the automatic input of sales and patient information into the system. This way, online order records are accurately maintained without requiring manual effort from pharmacy technicians. Additionally, inventory and supply management software continuously monitors stock levels for each drug, notifies personnel if supplies run low, and automatically places orders, eliminating medication shortages and stockouts.

To continuously improve service quality and create a positive working environment, pharmacies need clear visibility into their operations. By integrating pharmacy automation software with healthcare BI tools, they can turn routine operational data into actionable insights. This integration enables real-time monitoring of prescription volumes, inventory turnover, staffing performance, and patient satisfaction. Such data-driven oversight helps pharmacies identify bottlenecks, ensure regulatory compliance, and continuously improve both operational efficiency and patient care as businesses grow.

Ready to automate your pharmacy workflows?

Contact us

Pharmacy automation success stories

Pharma due diligence automation

40x

faster dossier due diligence

Pharma due diligence automation

A global pharmaceutical company with nearly 100 years of market presence partnered with Itransition to streamline its medicine registration processes. To eliminate time-consuming, error-prone manual verification of medicine dossiers, Itransition implemented an automation solution that ensured compliance with healthcare regulations and automated stakeholder notifications for new registrations and renewals. As a result, the client saved over 1,200 work hours per month, reduced human effort on information updates by 80%, and streamlined business notification flow 30-fold.

Pharma adverse event reporting automation

2x

more submitted reports

Pharma adverse event reporting automation

A UK-based SaaS provider serving the world’s top 30 pharmaceutical companies partnered with Itransition to streamline drug safety reporting. To simplify real-time adverse event reporting for patients and clinicians, Itransition developed a cross-platform mobile application that automated and accelerated report submission. As a result, the client doubled the number of submitted reports, reduced the time and effort required for report creation, and improved patient outcomes.

Smart technologies in pharma automation

AI

An increasing number of companies apply artificial intelligence and machine learning in healthcare to power pharmacy automation devices and software. AI software performs vital quality control functions, such as image analysis in healthcare, ensuring accurate medication dispensing and packaging management: it verifies that the correct medication is being dispatched by triggering the machine to photograph and weigh the drug, then comparing the results with the corresponding data in the database. 

Additionally, AI-powered chatbots, implemented in patient-facing solutions, help users choose a proper over-the-counter medicine based on their symptoms or order a prescription online or via the phone. The technology can also help companies foster pharmacy business development by gathering, processing, and analyzing vital consumer data.

Blockchain

The adoption rate of blockchain in healthcare and pharma is at an all-time high, driven by its ability to enhance security and traceability. Blockchain technology enforces the Drug Quality Security Act by ensuring drug traceability. Each drug is marked with a unique code when produced, and this code can be input into the blockchain. Afterward, each operation with this medication is added to the blockchain: when it is transferred from the wholesaler to the retail pharmacy, when it is sold to a patient or sent to a hospital, returned by the doctor or patient, or discarded due to expiration. 

Many companies have already successfully integrated blockchain solutions into their processes. Devices used in such retail and hospital pharmacies read the code and automatically store the information in the blockchain or check it. This way, a counterfeit medication cannot circulate in the system, as there won’t be a proper code for it, and the software will notify the pharmacist about a mismatch. Fake medicines pose a significant threat to the health and lives of patients and also cause 37,700 pharmacy professionals to lose their jobs annually in the EU.

RPA

Robotic process automation interconnects closely with AI in pharmacy and healthcare operations. RPA applied in healthcare and the pharmaceutical sector ensures the accuracy of processes like automatic medication dispensing and proper storage based on their unique barcodes, placing orders, and tracking returns. It also enables pharmacies to collect, store, update, and efficiently retrieve patient data, as well as generate reports for caregivers, doctors, and regulatory authorities.

Best integrations for pharmacy automation

Pharmacies are often a part of a larger healthcare organization, such as hospitals, long-term care facilities, or central fill stations. To operate efficiently, these organizations require health system pharmacy software that is fully integrated with their IT ecosystems.

Core integrations
EHR/EMR
Hospital management systems
Healthcare ecommerce
Patient engagement tools

EHR/EMR

Enabling timely prescription fulfillment and refills based on the information in patients’ medical history to avoid delivering the wrong medications, keep track of substance usage, and reduce the time and effort needed for order processing.

Hospital management software

Coordinating equipment and substance ordering, their timely maintenance and proper storage, and optimizing medication distribution across hospital facilities according to real-time needs.

Healthcare ecommerce

Boosting profits by selling pharmaceutical products and services online 24/7 with the help of ecommerce tools.

Patient engagement tools

Connecting with customers, understanding their needs, and improving their experience, fostering trust and loyalty with various patient engagement software.

How to choose a pharmacy automation solution

Selecting the most suitable pharmacy automation solution can be complex, therefore, it is recommended to break the process into four key steps.

1

Explore the areas that can benefit from automation, define the main objectives of the pharmacy automation project, and focus on the workflows that need changing to achieve said objectives.

2

Assess your existing software, hardware, and infrastructure to discover your organization’s capabilities.

3

Determine your budget for the automation project, taking into account fixed, variable, as well as hidden costs.

4

Analyze the market and consult the experts who will help you choose a platform-based or custom pharma automation solution that covers most of your requirements within the set budget.

Pharmacy automation benefits

Increased precision & safety

Inadequate measurement or contamination of medicine poses enormous risks for pharmacies and their customers, requiring constant vigilance from human pharmacists. Pharmacy automation solutions help ensure precise dosing, consistent compound characteristics, and medication sterility regardless of the volume of operations.

Improved efficiency & resource allocation

Robotic pharmacy dispensing and automated robotic devices can save pharmacists considerable time compared to traditional manual methods. This allows pharmacy staff to redirect their efforts toward patient care, clinical consultations, or participation in drug research and development initiatives.

Reduced waste

Pharmacy management software helps minimize medication management waste by tracking expiration dates, monitoring stock levels, and alerting staff about potential issues, such as the damage of fragile medicine packaging, thereby contributing to more cost-effective pharmaceutical operations.

Improved data protection & confidentiality

Pharmacy management software helps keep patients’ data securely stored and processed according to industry standards and regulations. Automated record-keeping and prescription fulfillment allow pharmacies to reduce the risk of drug misplacement or abuse while ensuring compliance with the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) and The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Automation adoption challenges

Interoperability & standardization issues

Interoperability & standardization issues

With every pharmacy and hospital relying on its own mix of information management systems, EHR platforms, and legacy software, achieving interoperability becomes a major hurdle. Integrating a pharmacy automation solution in such a heterogenous technological environment often leads to extended implementation timelines or costly legacy system upgrades.

Significant initial investment

Significant initial investment

Sophisticated solutions such as robotic dispensing systems, automated storage and retrieval units, and high-speed carousels require a significant initial capital investment, including hardware, software licensing, installation, and often infrastructure modifications. Beyond the initial purchase, ongoing costs for maintenance, technical support, and software updates must also be considered. Therefore, financial constraints remain one of the key factors limiting the adoption of pharmacy automation, particularly among smaller healthcare providers.

Set-up & maintenance

Set-up & maintenance

Some pharmacy automation systems take up to 180 square feet and require constant maintenance and upgrades. Therefore, only large pharmacies and hospitals can afford to install a full-scale automation system. Smaller facilities, however, can benefit from compact automation solutions that provide similar capabilities without the same financial burden.

Our pharmacy automation services

Automating pharmacy operations is a complex undertaking that requires careful planning and guided implementation in compliance with stringent regulatory requirements. With 25+ years in healthcare IT, our team can help pharmaceutical companies navigate this process as smoothly and quickly as possible.

Consulting

Our experts help you elicit and analyze your business objectives to define and prioritize workflows for automation and determine the appropriate technology for that. We can also plan your implementation initiative and oversee its execution to ensure maximum ROI.

Development

We develop tailored software to support your pharmacy automation strategy, integrating it with third-party services and solutions while ensuring full alignment with your established business processes and operational workflows.

Implementation

Our team performs pharmacy automation software implementation end-to-end, from initial analysis and conceptualization to solutions deployment and post-launch support, helping you achieve operational excellence and maximize the ROI of your automation initiative.

Support

We help you onboard and train software users to maximize the solution’s adoption, while also monitoring and maintaining the new system to resolve operational issues, eliminate performance bottlenecks, and implement upgrades when needed.

Entrust pharmacy automation to experts

Entrust pharmacy automation to experts

Automating pharmacy operations has become necessary for growing your business while maintaining high-quality services and safe working conditions. However, such a complex process has many challenges for pharma organizations new to automation. Engaging an experienced automation consultant and implementation partner like Itransition can help healthcare organizations streamline deployment, minimize integration risks, and achieve faster return on investment.

Entrust pharmacy automation to experts

Need a reliable pharmacy automation provider?

Get a quote

FAQs

What is the cost of pharmacy automation?

The range of prices varies significantly depending on the number and type of hardware, software, and infrastructure changes required to automate your workflows.

How long does it take to automate pharmacy services?

The timeline depends on the complexity of the project. The average process takes from 9 to 18 months. If you need a preliminary estimate for your pharmacy automation initiative, contact our specialists.

What does a pharmacy automation specialist do?

A pharmacy automation specialist implements, manages, and maintains automated systems that streamline pharmacy operations. They ensure equipment like dispensing robots and medication packaging machines run efficiently, integrate with software systems, and comply with safety and regulatory standards.

Will pharmacy staff lose jobs because of AI & automation?

The pharmaceutical industry is growing fast, with new jobs emerging before old ones are automated. Robots take care of routine and tiresome duties, while specialists can engage in complex tasks that require creativity, empathy, and attention to nuances.
Pharmacy management software: key features and implementation best practices

Service

Pharmacy management software: key features and implementation best practices

Optimize your pharmaceutical inventory and documentation flow to enhance patient care with custom pharmacy management software development services.

Pharmaceutical data analytics suite for a US multinational

Case study

Pharmaceutical data analytics suite for a US multinational

Read about Itransition’s 10+ years long cooperation with a US-based multinational to create their flagship pharmaceutical data analytics products.

Business process management in healthcare: features, examples & platforms

Insights

Business process management in healthcare: features, examples & platforms

Discover how BPM solutions can help your healthcare organization optimize workflows to improve productivity, enhance care quality, and increase profits.

Hospital management software: a complete overview & real-world examples

Insights

Hospital management software: a complete overview & real-world examples

Explore hospital management software solutions, benefits, and platforms to enhance your institution’s process efficiency, patient care, and communication.

Healthcare data governance: components, benefits & strategy building

Insights

Healthcare data governance: components, benefits & strategy building

Discover the benefits of a data governance strategy for healthcare providers, tips on its successful implementation, and solutions to possible challenges.

Atlassian suite optimization for a pharma solutions provider

Case study

Atlassian suite optimization for a pharma solutions provider

Learn how Itransition helped a pharma provider fine-tune their Atlassian setup and migrate to Atlassian Cloud Enterprise, ensuring license costs optimization.

AI answer engine for doctors and patients

Case study

AI answer engine for doctors and patients

Learn how we delivered a PoC of an OpenAI-based web application that answers medical questions interacting with the Davinci AI model.