As artificial intelligence continues to transform drug discovery, clinical development, manufacturing, commercial operations and enabling functions across life sciences, senior HR and workforce transformation leaders are facing a new strategic challenge: how to redesign work, skills and operating models for an AI-enabled future.
Generative AI is already reshaping how life sciences organisations operate. McKinsey has estimated that generative AI could generate $60 billion to $110 billion in annual economic value for the pharmaceutical and medical product industries, with impact spanning research and early discovery, clinical development, operations, commercial and medical affairs.
Deloitte has also highlighted that AI and GenAI are beginning to revolutionise life sciences by accelerating clinical development, optimising quality management, enhancing processes, managing AI-related risks and supporting competitive advantage across the industry.
However, the shift from AI experimentation to enterprise-wide execution is creating a new set of workforce questions for life sciences organisations. As AI begins to augment and automate tasks across the value chain, companies must determine which roles will change, which skills will become critical, how leaders should guide AI-driven transformation, and how HR can support adoption in highly regulated, scientifically complex environments.
This is no longer a technology conversation alone. For life sciences companies, AI transformation is increasingly becoming a workforce transformation challenge.
Accenture has noted that the true value of generative AI in life sciences comes from reinventing workflows and processes end-to-end and at scale across the value chain, rather than treating AI as a typical technology upgrade. McKinsey has similarly emphasised that pharma organisations must learn how to scale generative AI and address the industry’s unique challenges if they are to move from hype to measurable value.
For HR leaders, this raises critical questions. How should organisations prepare leaders to guide AI-enabled change? How can global AI ambition be translated into locally compliant workforce action? Which human skills become more important as AI takes on more analytical, administrative and process-heavy work? What does early-career development look like when AI changes traditional “learning by doing”? And how should companies manage future teams made up of both humans and AI agents?
These questions will be central to discussions at the Designing the AI-Enabled Life Sciences Workforce Summit Europe, taking place 29–30 September 2026 in Basel, Switzerland.
The summit is the first dedicated European forum built specifically for senior HR, people, organisation, workforce transformation and strategic workforce planning leaders in life sciences. It will bring together CHROs and workforce transformation leaders from leading drug developers to explore how organisations can redesign work, skills and operating models to deliver measurable business impact at scale.
Across two days, attendees will examine how to connect AI-driven technology transformation with strategic workforce planning, prepare leaders for AI-enabled change, develop the human capabilities that matter most, rethink early-career development, and make workforce planning more intelligent, practical and usable.
Confirmed speakers include senior people leaders from organisations such as Roche, Sanofi, Novartis, Merck Group, Grifols, Servier, Pierre Fabre, Chiesi, Ipsen, GSK, Evotec, AstraZeneca, Biogen, Daiichi Sankyo Europe and Lonza.
The summit comes as life sciences companies increasingly seek to understand how AI can help accelerate innovation while preserving scientific judgement, regulatory compliance, workforce trust and human capability. Accenture has highlighted that AI-driven methods have already accelerated the discovery of over 50 drug candidates and that generative AI is creating strategic opportunities across the biopharma value chain when workflows are consistently reinvented end-to-end.
As AI adoption accelerates, workforce leaders will play a critical role in determining whether life sciences organisations can translate technological promise into sustainable organisational performance.
Dive into the full agenda here
Sources
- McKinsey & Company, Scaling gen AI in the life sciences industry, January 10, 2025. Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/life-sciences/our-insights/scaling-gen-ai-in-the-life-sciences-industry
- Accenture, Reinventing life sciences in the age of generative AI, August 30, 2024. Available at: https://www.accenture.com/gb-en/insights/life-sciences/reinventing-life-sciences-age-generative-ai
- Deloitte, Realizing the value of artificial intelligence in life sciences: Key steps to harness the promise of GenAI in pharma. Available at: https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/Industries/life-sciences-health-care/articles/value-of-genai-in-pharma.html