AI is giving consumers and healthcare professionals (HCPs) faster access to more health information than ever before. A question that once required multiple searches can now produce an immediate, synthesized response. Treatment options can be summarized, terminology explained, and follow-up questions answered within seconds.
But quicker access to answers does not automatically make healthcare decisions easier.
Consumers still need to judge whether information is credible, understand if a treatment makes sense for their specific health needs, and determine what it will cost them out of pocket. HCPs need to maintain clinical oversight and support their patients amid demanding workflows. For consumers and HCPs alike, AI can accelerate the research process, but it cannot remove the complexity of the decision around how to move forward with treatment.
This creates a new mandate for pharma. In a world where information is abundant, brands must help HCPs and consumers seamlessly move down the funnel from question to action. As a trusted platform with more than 280 million site visits per year, GoodRx helps pharma partners bridge that gap by bringing health information, transparent prices, and pharmacy access into the moments when healthcare decisions are taking shape.
Grappling with a new discovery funnel
AI is creating more entry points into the treatment journey and compressing the time between awareness, evaluation, and action. According to Rock Health, one in three consumers now use AI for health questions, double the rate from a year ago, and more than 80% take action afterward. For manufacturers, the challenge is recognizing when each audience is evaluating a therapy and delivering the information most likely to advance the decision.
That requires understanding how the environment has changed. A patient researching a condition or medication may be preparing for a clinical conversation, while an HCP reviewing a therapy may also be considering affordability and access solutions for the patient in front of them. When those moments are better understood, manufacturers can bridge interest, prescribing, and treatment initiation.
GoodRx gives pharma partners the ability to engage both audiences as they’re making decisions. Consumers can use GoodRx to learn about a brand, access trusted resources, and evaluate costs. HCPs can find information that supports clinical decisions, simplifies the prescribing process, and improves quality of care. Coordinating those touchpoints helps brands support the same treatment journey with audience-appropriate experiences, creating a clearer path from demand generation to therapy start.
Furthermore, for pharma brands, building AI visibility independently can be an uphill battle. While many companies have struggled with search visibility in recent years, GoodRx’s visibility has continued to grow.
In fact, the Sistrix Visibility Index found that GoodRx search visibility has improved while other consumer health sites have declined. Since the start of 2026, GoodRx's visibility within Google AI Overviews has increased 37%.
The difference is utility: GoodRx pairs trusted content with savings and access tools. As answer engines prioritize experiences that help users act, this combination helps GoodRx, and its pharma partners, remain discoverable.
Turning engagement into action
The value of engagement is ultimately determined by what it enables. A consumer may understand their diagnosis, but may be overwhelmed by trying to understand treatment options or stopped when faced with cost uncertainty. An HCP may select a therapy but then may need to reevaluate based on patient concerns or their coverage and affordability requirements.
GoodRx helps pharma extend engagement from health education to incorporating affordability resources, prescription savings, care navigation, and pharmacy access. These capabilities make each step visible at the moment a question becomes a decision. Instead of ending with awareness, the experience can support progress toward a productive HCP conversation or GoodRx telehealth appointment, a prescription, or a fill.
That progression also gives manufacturers a better definition of success. Impressions and clicks show that content was seen. More meaningful measures ask whether an experience increased confidence, clarified affordability, supported prescribing, reduced friction on the path to treatment, and ultimately led to the patient starting treatment.
AI will continue to make health answers faster and easier to obtain. The differentiator for pharma will be what happens after the answer appears. By creating trusted environments for consumers and HCPs, GoodRx can help brands build a clearer path from question to informed treatment action.