Pharma 2025 Trends

Pharma AI trends
Sagar Shah

Head, Pharma Practice, Fractal

Summary
Including patent cliffs and inefficiencies in the U.S. healthcare system, the pharmaceutical industry faces its share of challenges. With AI, particularly generative AI (GenAI), poised to drive transformation, pharma companies are establishing internal capability centers and adopting AI to elevate operations and innovation. Read on to learn about pharma trends such as building internal capabilities, transforming workflows with GenAI, emphasizing AI governance, accelerating innovation and more, for future-forward business success.
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Summary
Including patent cliffs and inefficiencies in the U.S. healthcare system, the pharmaceutical industry faces its share of challenges. With AI, particularly generative AI (GenAI), poised to drive transformation, pharma companies are establishing internal capability centers and adopting AI to elevate operations and innovation. Read on to learn about pharma trends such as building internal capabilities, transforming workflows with GenAI, emphasizing AI governance, accelerating innovation and more, for future-forward business success.

The pharmaceutical industry stands at a crossroads. The U.S. healthcare system, valued in the trillions, is among the most complex and inefficient in the world. Patent cliffs are set to strip hundreds of billions of revenue over the next three years, threatening innovation cycles. Pharma needs a reset — and AI, especially Generative AI (GenAI), is uniquely positioned to drive this transformation.

Trend 1: Build vs. buy

What’s happening: Pharma companies are rapidly establishing internal capability centers, particularly in India, Mexico, and Eastern Europe. This move isn’t just about cost optimization, but it’s also about control — owning your data, your decisions, and your processes. The shift is massive. In India alone, there are 1,500 Global Capability Centers (GCCs), each employing hundreds or thousands of professionals in AI, engineering, and analytics. (GCCs in India: Evolving from Cost Centers to Innovation Powerhouses)

Pharma has embraced a build-vs-buy strategy. We’re seeing almost every major pharma opening centers in Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Gurgaon.

The strategy: The build-vs-buy strategy is clear. Companies are moving away from solely relying on external vendors. Instead, they are upskilling intensively. Fortune 100 companies are training thousands of employees in AI to embed this expertise into every function, from drug discovery to supply chain management. This shift has become essential, especially given the pressures from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Brexit, and the broader global economy.

This transformation is gradually altering the industry, spurring pharma companies to respond with agility and self-reliance to disruption in an increasingly complex global landscape.

Trend 2: GenAI and agentic workflow transformations

The impact: GenAI is transforming internal operations across Finance, HR, legal, and supply chain workflows. The benefits? Faster decisions, enhanced data quality, and reduced waste.

The challenge: Adoption is slower in external-facing areas like marketing and sales, caused by trust and readiness issues. Users are cautious about new tools. But this is changing gradually. Board-level mandates for AI adoption are pushing companies to rethink their GenAI deployment strategies. Today, GenAI is no longer optional but expected, and necessary. We have reached the stage where companies are transitioning at scale from pilot projects to full-scale production, embedding GenAI into everyday workflows.

Last year, companies were piloting GenAI. This year, they’re moving to production, embedding GenAI into workflows across functions.

Trend 3: No AI without governance

Unexpected leader: Trust and Privacy are paramount in Healthcare, hence Pharma is at the forefront of Responsible AI. While the industry may lag in other tech adoptions, it’s racing ahead in AI governance. Data governance, AI governance, and Responsible AI principles are merging into a unified framework, and that is significant!

Pharma is doing a phenomenal job, and it’s only going to get better with more regulation and responsible AI adoption.

Core principles: “Do no harm” is a cornerstone. Transparency, accountability, and explainability are non-negotiable. Companies are using advanced Large-Language model operations Large Language Models operations to manage millions of tokens every day, ensuring AI systems remain efficient, ethical, and compliant. This is integral to building trust in AI across the industry.

Trend 4: Faster, smarter innovation

The opportunity in challenge: Innovation is both Pharma’s greatest challenge and its biggest opportunity. With rising R&D spending, AI, particularly GenAI, takes center stage. It is accelerating drug discovery, molecule identification, and clinical trials. What once took years can now be accomplished in months.

Pharma innovation requires acceleration. GenAI can help identify target molecules, optimize clinical trials, and develop drugs faster than ever before.

Leadership is key. Pharma companies are onboarding executives from non-traditional industries like insurance, retail and tech to challenge the status quo. These leaders bring fresh perspectives and new energy, accelerating AI adoption and innovation at scale. This cross-industry collaboration is exactly what the industry needs to tackle future barriers.

Pharma’s AI-powered future

GenAI, Responsible AI, and internal capabilities are reshaping how pharma companies operate and innovate. We’re only scratching the surface of the possibilities. As technology advances, pharma has the chance to lead not just in innovation but in building a more efficient and effective system for everyone.

AI is the worst it will ever be today. It’s only going to get better, and that’s why it’s such an exciting time to be in pharma.

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