Background/Objectives: This study assessed operational, financial and technology-adoption challenges among retail pharmacies in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, and used the findings to design a context-appropriate AI-driven smart pharmacy framework. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive survey with mixed-methods instrumentation was conducted among 56 retail pharmacies across four geographic zones of Ujjain using a 26-item questionnaire. Quantitative responses were analysed using frequencies, percentages, descriptive statistics and cross-tabulations; open-ended responses were coded thematically. Results: Thirty-seven pharmacies (66.1%) reported no digital billing or inventory system. Thirty-seven (66.1%) experienced stock shortages at least once or twice per month. Twenty-six (46.4%) reported monthly inventory/expiry losses of ₹5,000–₹20,000 and five (8.9%) reported losses above ₹20,000. The manuscript's conservative midpoint calculation estimated collective monthly loss at ₹5.125 lakh. The leading adoption barrier was data-entry time (42.9%), followed by training difficulty (28.6%) and software cost (26.8%). Forty-seven respondents (83.9%) were willing to adopt an AI system immediately or conditionally, while 36 (64.3%) preferred a fixed monthly fee of ₹1,500. Conclusion: The findings identify a substantial usability and affordability gap rather than simple rejection of technology. The proposed RxScan framework integrates smart billing, inventory and expiry management, pharmacist-supervised prescription OCR, ordering and analytics. It remains a proposed design and requires prospective evaluation before effectiveness claims.
Abstract
Share on Mobile
Scan to access on mobile
Keywords
AI adoption
Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM)
Digital pharmacy
Inventory management
Pharmaceutical retail
Smart pharmacy framework
Tier-2 markets
Ujjain
Content
No content available