Biopharma Reaping Numerous Benefits From AI

By Bianca De Blasi, Luca Parisi, Ming-Da Lei, and Hassan Malik

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping clinical trials across the drug development lifecycle, from study design to execution and monitoring. AI applications now span all major clinical development functions, delivering measurable improvements in efficiency and success rates. In early-phase development, AI-supported trials can reach Phase I success rates of up to 80%, compared with the historical industry average of approximately 50%.

Market projections highlight this momentum. The AI market in pharmaceuticals is expected to grow from $4.35 billion in 2025 to $25.73 billion by 2030, driven by advances in clinical trials, precision medicine, and commercial operations. Within this, Generative AI (GenAI) is projected to expand at a 43.12% compound annual growth rate. The AI-in-clinical-trials sector alone is forecast to increase from $2.6 billion in 2025 to $22.4 billion by 2034.

AI’s strength lies in processing structured and unstructured multimodal data — including text, tables, images, and video. At a foundational level, this shifts effort from manual data handling to higher-value tasks such as validation, curation, and cross-source integration. More advanced machine learning models generate predictive and prescriptive insights, guiding protocol optimization, cohort identification, site selection, and patient recruitment strategies — accelerating development while reducing cost and risk.