Key Takeaways:
- 85% of HCPs have used AI for clinical work in the last three months.
- Only 2% of HCPs turn to pharma first when a clinical question comes up.
- GEO for pharma helps your content appear in the AI answers HCPs rely on.
When an HCP asks AI a question about your therapy area, the answer they get is built from someone’s research. The question is whether it’s yours.
Increasingly, that’s how HCPs find answers. Instead of a page of links, tools like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews give one summarised answer, often drawn from just a few sources. If your science isn’t one of those sources, it’s unlikely to reach them.
What is GEO?
GEO, or generative engine optimisation, means shaping your content so that AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Google’s AI Overviews can find it, understand it and use it in their answers. Think of it as SEO for AI: where SEO helps your content rank in search results, GEO helps it get quoted and cited in AI-generated answers.
The good news? GEO doesn’t start from scratch. Much of what works for SEO, from site authority to the right keywords, still shapes how content appears in AI. GEO simply takes it further.
What the data reveals
EMJ’s 2026 report, Can Pharma Stay Relevant in the Age of AI?, shows just how quickly AI has become part of clinical practice:
- 85% of HCPs have used an AI tool for clinical or professional work in the last three months
- 70% have used a general AI assistant, compared with 26% for medical-specific tools
- 8 in 10 usually or always verify AI-generated answers
- 54% say patients frequently arrive with information from AI
Widely used. Rarely taken on trust. As one respondent with 18 years in practice put it: “If verified, it is very helpful.”
Why trust matters
When HCPs check an answer, they go back to the sources they already rely on. Medical journals are the first port of call for 39%. Pharma resources come last, at just 2%.
AI tools work in a similar way. They favour content that is credible, clearly structured and easy to access, published on sites they recognise as authoritative. That gives trusted, independent medical publications a natural advantage.
And HCPs are open to pharma’s data when it reaches them in the right way. They say full data transparency (67%) and peer-reviewed publication (52%) would most increase their trust. The opportunity is to reach them through the channels they already turn to.
How EMJ gets your science cited
That’s where a trusted publication comes in. AI tools look for the same signals HCPs do: credibility, clarity and evidence. EMJ has spent years building all three, and we share that expertise with you.
A crawlable, well-built site is only the starting point. We work alongside you as a partner, bringing what we know about how HCPs search and how AI chooses its sources, so your content is structured to be cited from the very first draft.
- Credibility AI recognises: EMJ is an established, peer-reviewed medical publication, trusted by the top 30 pharma companies worldwide. Your content benefits from years of site authority from day one.
- Clarity that gets you cited: We help you shape each piece around the questions HCPs ask, with the key findings up front and a clear structure AI can easily follow and reference.
- Evidence with authority behind it: Your findings are backed by named experts, references and data, on a site whose original research earns backlinks and mentions from reputable sources.
Same science. Stronger signals. More chances to be cited.
Why GEO matters now
HCPs aren’t ignoring your science. They’re simply looking for answers in a new place. And as AI becomes a routine part of practice, the sources it draws on today are likely to shape what HCPs see tomorrow.
Going even further
Getting cited is just the start. EMJ also makes sure your science reaches and engages the right HCPs:
- Formats that engage: Interactive articles, patient case studies and video bring your evidence to life, as seen in our COPD diagnosis tool with PARI.
- Delivered to the right specialists: Email and social distribution, segmented by therapy area and specialty, means your content doesn’t wait to be found.
- Impact you can prove: Insight reports shaped around whatever you’re judged on, from views and engagement to search visibility. It turns “we published it” into “here’s who found it, and how”.
Whether you’re launching a product, raising awareness of a condition or extending a congress presence, you’ve already done the hard part.
Talk to our team and see how EMJ helps your science become part of the answer.
