From Clean-Up Crew to Strategy Partner: AI’s Next Leap in Pharma

I was involved in a very interesting conversation today about how AI is impacting our industry.

In most of our industry today, AI lives in the realm of repetitive tasks, data cleaning, integration, and formatting. That’s undeniably valuable—for instance, it streamlines workflows and supports data hygiene, especially across fragmented systems. But the real breakthrough comes when AI steps up to help us make smarter decisions.

Yesterday Eli Lilly and Company launched TuneLab, an AI and machine learning platform built on over $1 billion worth of proprietary research. It’s designed to democratize access to powerful drug discovery models—even for smaller biotechs who wouldn’t otherwise have that advantage.

Companies are already realizing faster discovery times, and lower trial costs through the use of AI, and TuneLab is the latest tool that capitalizes on curated proprietary data.

So how do we get AI to support better decisions? Three principles guide us forward:

First, feed AI with rich, external context, not just our internal data. Platforms like TuneLab suggest the path forward—leveraging deep, shared industry knowledge to augment what we already know.

Second, embed AI in strategic workflows. We can move from static dashboards to dynamic simulation tools that answer: “What if?” questions faster and more accurately. AI becomes our active planning partner and not just a data processor.

Third, measure real impact. We shouldn’t settle for time saved. We should be tracking AI’s influence on decision quality—things like prediction accuracy, risk management insights, and, ultimately, how portfolios are prioritized and structured.

If we train AI with broader data, plug it into dynamic models, and demand that it deliver real strategic outcomes, we unlock a level of portfolio orchestration that goes far beyond efficiency. That’s the utility that matters.

Let’s keep pushing—together we’re moving from tools that tidy data to tools that transform decisions.