# Last week at the AI in Clinical Development Summit 2025 in NYC, I had the pleasure of joining an...

> Last week at the AI in Clinical Development Summit 2025 in NYC, I joined a panel tackling the timeless build-or-buy question for pharma AI in clinical development. Our consensus: a "build with" strategy — co-developing with selected strategic AI startup partners — strikes the right balance between speed, fit, and long-term value.

URL: https://www.ch-healthtech.com/insights/last-week-ai-clinical-development-summit-2025-nyc-i-had-pleasure-joining
Markdown: https://www.ch-healthtech.com/insights/last-week-ai-clinical-development-summit-2025-nyc-i-had-pleasure-joining.md
Published: 2025-05-13
Updated: 2026-05-06
Author: Christian Hein
Tags: technology/artificial-intelligence, industry/large-pharma, industry/biotech, activity/partnership-alliance, function/innovation-management, function/strategic-planning, function/clinical-development

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Last week at the AI in Clinical Development Summit 2025 in NYC, I had the pleasure of joining an amazing panel with Sara Hughes (GSK), Rob Saiter (Accenture), and my former colleague Gabriel Eichler, moderated by Adam Petrich, MD from QuantHealth.

We tackled a timeless question: Build or buy?

Specifically - how should pharma approach AI innovation in clinical development?

Three takeaways from our discussion:

- Pharma has rich in-house data assets, but much of it remains siloed or unstructured, limiting its value for AI, if you are unwilling to invest in it; and external data sets are often purchased as one-offs for specific project and not leveraged strategically

- Internal development teams most often can't move at the pace of startups due to scale and complexity

- Off-the-shelf AI tools rarely succeed if they don't integrate seamlessly into clinical workflows

The consensus? A "build with" strategy, co-developing with selected strategic AI startup partners, strikes the right balance between speed, fit, and long-term value.

Thanks to everyone who joined us for the fantastic event, and to QuantHealth for hosting!