As advances in artificial intelligence technology continue to offer enticing benefits to industries across the board, pharma leaders aren't looking to miss out on implementing the technology into their operations.
That’s according to a new report from health-tech-focused VC firm Define Ventures on the current and future state of AI in pharma. The report is the culmination of six months of speaking with dozens of C-suite executives across the pharma, tech and healthcare sectors, including representatives from 16 of the top 20 ranking pharmas.
The results show a resounding urgency toward adopting AI technologies, with 70% of pharma leaders saying they view AI as an “immediate priority.” Across the top-ranking Big Pharmas specifically, that figure jumped to 85%.
With its high-priority status in the industry, investments toward AI are in turn on the rise. More than 80% of respondents said their companies are increasing their AI budgets either “somewhat” or “significantly,” while only 15% said they are keeping the allocated budget the same.
The investments in question largely center on “low-risk, high-efficacy” areas such as medical writing, according to Define, with a reduction in administrative burden equating to “success” in AI for 100% of the leaders surveyed.
Genentech, for one, uses AI as an “effectiveness amplifier, not just as an efficiency play,” Erik Lundgren, senior vice president of the company’s commercial portfolio organization, said in the report.
And the ramped-up investments are no longer going solely to in-house capabilities, in a change from what has traditionally been the industry’s preferred route for implementing AI, per Define. Forty percent of pharma leaders included in the report said they plan to spread their AI efforts across internal and external partnerships, and the remaining responses reflected an even split, with 30% of pharma leaders sticking with in-house AI tools and another 30% prioritizing external-first strategies instead.
Either way, whether internal or external, AI adoption is approaching a “tipping point” in the pharma industry as rising costs, regulatory changes and “growing competitive urgency” come to a head, Define noted in the report.
“Pharma’s AI future will be defined in the next 12 to 24 months,” said Lynne Chou O’Keefe, the venture firm’s founder and managing partner. “What we’re seeing is a decisive acceleration to enterprise execution—with leaders embedding AI into core workflows to drive speed, efficacy, and real ROI.”
The results of the new report mark a shift in tone from a survey conducted by ZoomRx in 2024 about attitudes toward and the use of AI in life sciences. Across more than 200 industry professionals surveyed in that report, 83% labeled the technology as “overrated.” Still, only 8% reported that their companies weren’t yet using AI, while more than 50% acknowledged that they had either “some” or “several” use cases in production.
Despite the technology’s broad usage, not all AI has been welcomed with open arms. ZoomRx’s findings last year also showed that 65% of the top 20 Big Pharmas had banned employees from using OpenAI’s popular generative AI tool ChatGPT, largely due to concerns that sensitive internal data could be leaked.
According to the new report from Define, many pharma companies are addressing similar concerns about AI with governance committees meant to prioritize ethics and data security policies.
Specifically, about 80% of pharma leaders reported that their companies have already created a dedicated governance structure, and 20% are “in the process” of setting one up. Ethics and safety is the main focus for 80% of those structures, according to the respondents.