Artificial intelligence (AI) has been a transformative force in the pharmaceutical industry for over a decade. AI can be categorised into two distinct types: “left-brain AI” and “right-brain AI.” The former, also known as classical AI, has been instrumental in predictive tasks such as finding patients, aiding in R&D to discover new assets and optimising supply chains.
There are currently over 100 AI-driven drug discoveries in the pipelines of pharmaceutical companies worldwide. AI is also being used to create connected personal experiences for patients and providers, streamline regulatory reviews, personalise content, and develop hyper-informed treatment pricing models.
While classical AI has already revolutionised the R&D side of pharma, the focus is now shifting to the commercial side, where generative AI, or “right-brain AI,” comes into play. This type of AI is more intuitive and creative, capable of reasoning and understanding complex scenarios.
But, pharma is experiencing some of the scaling challenges that other enterprises face, as over 80% of companies are experimenting, but only 11% are achieving notable ROI, highlighting the nascent phase of this technology.
Understanding the disconnect
The discrepancy in ROI is not unusual in the early stages of a technological wave. Drawing parallels to past innovations, consider the first autonomous car race in the Mojave Desert in 2004, sponsored by DARPA.
Twenty years later, we still aren’t anywhere near scaling autonomous cars on the road. Similarly, the evolution of e-commerce, with companies such as Amazon, which was founded in 1994, has seen only 25% to 30% of retail sales move online after 30 years. This doesn’t mean these technologies aren’t massively impactful.
As futurist Roy Amara observed, “We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.” While the pharmaceutical industry is in the early innings of the AI wave, the long-term potential remains vast and transformative.
Read more of this article from pharmaphorum
Connect With An Expert!
Author
Scott serves as EVERSANA’s Chief Digital Officer, driving digital transformation for employees, clients, and the patients we serve. He brings more than 30 years of experience in emerging technologies and digital transformation across both…