OBJECTIVE： To investigate the research status，hotspots and frontiers of the artificial intelligence （AI） technology  applicated in pharmaceutical field， and to provide ideas for the development of related research in China. METHODS： Using bibliometric method， relevant journals and proceeding papers from 1998 to 2017 were searched from Web of Science database （“Article” and “Proceeding Paper” as retrieval words）. Using analysis and retrieval results of ISI Web of Knowledge and its function of creating citation report， CiteSpace 5.2.R1 software was employed to draw knowledge map； quantitative statistics and qualitative analysis was conducted to summarized the research volume， co-citation， main research countries/areas， main research  institutions， main researchers， research hotspots and research frontiers in this field. RESULTS： A total of 3 674 related literatures were retrieved， and the number of global published literatures in this field increased rapidly from 1998 to 2017； the dominant nations included America， China， Britain and Germany because of their large number of publications，but China showd an obvious lack of international cooperation and excellent core teams. From the researcher’s point of view， the research in this field was in a state of “partially concentrated and overall dispersed” and lacked team cooperation. The research hotspots contained important core of AI technology （machine learning algorithms） and its application in pharmaceutical field （drug discovery and design）， the classification of disease or adverse drug reaction， the establishment and optimization of pharmaceutical mode， drugs screening or pharmacodynamics prediction， the estbalishment of pharmaceutical database， etc. The recent research frontiers included “molecular docking” “machine learning” “Meta analysis” “precision medicine” “targeted therapy”， etc. CONCLUSIONS： AI applicated in pharmaceutical field is a hot research field with strong timeliness， and its application in the development of pharmaceutical industry is the general trend. However， there is still a gap between the current research level in this field in China and the international frontier research. In order to adapt to the international trend of the combination of AI technology and pharmacy， pharmacists in China should strengthen their cooperation with researchers in AI fields while doing well the basic work of experimental research and clinical trials，etc.