The State of AI in Life Sciences in 2025 and Beyond
Author: Karl Moritz Hermann, CEO
Artificial Intelligence (AI) might not always grab headlines for its use in the life sciences, but make no mistake -it’s making groundbreaking contributions. As Demis Hassabis, the CEO of DeepMind, once said, life sciences is one of the most exciting areas where AI can help humanity. And he’s got a point.
From unraveling protein structures to predicting RNA sequences, AI has bolstered drug discovery and development like never before. Think of AlphaFold, which solved a 50-year-old problem in biology with its ability to predict protein shapes. Or how machine learning supported the rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines - innovations that might have taken a decade were fast-tracked in months.
Fast forward to 2025 and beyond, the role of AI will only intensify across the life sciences industry. At Reliant AI, we believe it’s not just about drug discovery anymore - it’s about making all the data in life sciences interconnected and actionable. It’s about agents.
But what does this future really look like? Here’s how AI is transforming the landscape, predictions for its trajectory, and what this all means for you, whether you’re a pharma executive, AI researcher, or health tech investor.
How AI is Expanding Across Life Sciences
AI isn’t just sitting in research labs or bioinformatics centers anymore. It’s driving real-world efficiency and insights across the entire value chain of life sciences, from discovery to commercialization.
AI's Role in Drug Discovery
The early stages of drug discovery have fully embraced AI, with machine learning models helping researchers identify promising compounds faster and cheaper than traditional methods. AlphaFold’s protein structure predictions were just the beginning - tools like RosettaFold and OpenFold continue to drive advancements in structural biology.
Prediction for 2025 and beyond? Expect to hear about the first Investigational New Drug (IND) application based solely on an AI-discovered compound. This milestone would cement AI’s role as not just a helper but a lead innovator in pharmaceuticals.
Agents in Commercial Drug Development
The buzzword for AI in 2025 is agents. These aren’t the chatbots and simple retrieval systems we played with in 2023 or 2024. Agents are about interoperability - they can interact with multiple systems, retrieve complex information, and act on it.
For example:
- Next-Best-Action Models in Sales: Field force agents that guide representatives with the optimal next steps to maximize impact with healthcare providers.
- Competitive Intelligence Agents: Tools that can monitor market shifts in real-time and generate strategic insights automatically.
Unlike today’s AI chat models, agents represent a leap in capability. They don’t rely solely on retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) but can synthesize data from multiple systems. This drastically improves the efficiency of querying complex relationships and generating actionable insights.
At Reliant, we specialize in building such agentic systems for commercial drug development. Why? Because drugs cost billions to develop, take years to reach the market, and most fail along the way. AI agents can streamline this process, reducing risk and cost while increasing success rates.
Shifting Philosophies: Buy Don’t Build
AI is undeniably reshaping the operational strategies of large pharmaceutical companies. The success of simple GPT-wrapper startups has led some pharma giants to develop AI tools in-house. But here’s the catch - complex, high-value AI systems aren’t something you can cobble together with DIY tools as many companies across all industries have learned the painful way this past year.
Prediction? By 2025, most pharma companies will pivot to a “buy, don’t build” philosophy. Instead of building their own tools (and grappling with the complexity of scalable AI engineering), they’ll partner with AI providers who specialize in life sciences. This shift will help organizations focus on what they do best: creating life-saving therapies - while relying on experts to handle the AI heavy lifting.
Three Predictions for AI in Life Sciences by 2025
Based on where we’re headed today, here are the three most likely trends to watch:
- The Buy-Don’t-Build Era Begins
Big pharmaceutical companies will increasingly buy customized AI solutions instead of attempting to build their own. The complexity of building scalable AI systems with applications beyond RAG will drive this preference and will further strengthen the Palantir-like “SaaS + solutions engineering” model for AI startups.
- AI Spans the Entire Value Chain
Beyond drug discovery, AI will expand into clinical trial design, regulatory compliance, and commercial activities. Prediction? At least one major Contract Research Organization (CRO) will rebrand itself as “AI-first” within the next two years.
- AI-Driven IND Applications
Expect history to be made with the approval of a first IND application for an AI-discovered compound. This would be a monumental breakthrough, underscoring AI’s capabilities to shorten timelines and increase success rates for drug discovery.
Why AI in Life Sciences Matters More Than Ever
The life sciences sector is drowning in data: complex biological datasets, clinical trial findings, genetic codes, and more. Without AI, most of this data remains siloed and inaccessible, preventing key insights from being acted upon. But AI has the power to transform this fragmentation into interconnected knowledge.
For life sciences consultants, competitive intelligence analysts, and health tech investors, this interconnectedness means faster timelines to market, better resource allocation, and less guesswork.
What Should You Do Next?
AI in life sciences is no longer a future concept. It’s the present reality, and it’s evolving fast. The organizations that succeed in 2025 and beyond will be those that adopt cutting-edge AI technologies to drive efficiency and innovation.
Whether you’re a BD/M&A executive looking for your next partnership venture or a competitive intelligence analyst trying to glean insights, the time to act is now. Partner with AI systems that are purpose-built for life sciences, like Reliant’s solutions, to stay ahead of the curve.
Want to learn more about how AI can propel your organization forward? Drop us a line at Reliant AI. Together, we make the impossible possible.
