Pharmacy technician shortages are forcing hospital pharmacy leaders to rethink how work gets done — accelerating investments in automation, robotics and AI not as optional efficiency tools, but as infrastructure to stabilize strained teams.
While workforce pressures are pushing automation higher on the priority list, pharmacy leaders said the goal is not to replace workers. Instead, many see these technologies as a way to protect pharmacists’ clinical capacity while reducing manual workload — a shift that is reshaping how health systems evaluate technology investments.
At Albany, Ga.-based Phoebe Putney Health System, technician shortages have required leaders to rethink how they deploy staff across inpatient and outpatient settings.
“When technician staffing is constrained, pharmacists are often pulled into distributive tasks, which can limit their ability to focus on clinical care, medication optimization and interdisciplinary collaboration,” said Darren Evans, PharmD, vice president of operations and system pharmacy services at Phoebe Putney.
To manage that pressure, the system has focused on protecting pharmacists’ clinical roles while stabilizing operations through workflow redesign, cross-training and strategic use of automation.
Workforce shortages have also accelerated how leaders think about automation’s role in pharmacy operations, Dr. Evans said.
“Before, many team members viewed automation as a replacement for our workforce; now, it is seen as an enabler that allows pharmacists and technicians to operate at the top of their license,” he said.
Automation opportunities are emerging across multiple areas of pharmacy operations, including centralized dispensing, inventory management and medication distribution — functions where manual processes historically required significant technician labor.
Phoebe Putney has already implemented automation across several pharmacy settings, including anesthesia carts, medication cabinets, carousels and IV workflow automation, which Dr. Evans said have improved efficiency while allowing pharmacists and technicians to spend more time on clinical care.
Other health systems are exploring how automation and AI can extend pharmacy teams’ capacity in specialized areas of care.
At Chapel Hill, N.C.-based UNC Health, pharmacy leaders are using full automation within their consolidated pharmacy center for specialty and home delivery to support scale and reliability for specialty patients, said Robert Granko, PharmD, system executive director of pharmacy for UNC Health System Enterprise Services.
The system is also planning a pilot that would use generative AI agents to support patients by managing routine questions, education and care navigation in specialty and home delivery settings.
UNC Health has already deployed technology tools to support prior authorization workflows, which Dr. Granko said are helping reduce administrative burden and improve efficiency for pharmacy teams while shortening delays in therapy.
Still, pharmacy leaders emphasized that automation is not intended to replace the workforce.
“From my vantage point, these solutions are labor complements rather than labor substitutes,” Dr. Granko said.
Looking ahead, leaders expect pharmacy operations to continue shifting toward more centralized, automated and technology-enabled models, particularly as workforce shortages persist.
Automation will increasingly support distributive pharmacy functions, allowing pharmacists and technicians to focus more on clinical care, patient engagement and medication management, Dr. Evans said.
At the Becker's 11th Annual IT + Revenue Cycle Conference: The Future of AI & Digital Health, taking place September 14–17 in Chicago, healthcare executives and digital leaders from across the country will come together to explore how AI, interoperability, cybersecurity, and revenue cycle innovation are transforming care delivery, strengthening financial performance, and driving the next era of digital health. Apply for complimentary registration now.
