Uneven Frontiers
TLDR
AI is expected to accelerate and reduce costs in certain areas of drug development, but clinical trials will remain a significant bottleneck because recruiting patients and collecting long-term safety data cannot be substantially sped up by artificial intelligence. The physical and regulatory constraints of human testing create a ceiling on how much AI can improve the overall timeline and cost of bringing new drugs to market. Consequently, AI's impact on pharma will be uneven, transforming discovery and early research while leaving late-stage development largely unchanged.
Why it matters
AI will make some parts of biopharma faster and cheaper, but clinical development will remain a bottleneck due to the physical constraints of recruiting patients and waiting for results.
