Insights / Technology
Field notes on Agentic AI in life sciences — where models actually act, not just answer, across pharma R&D, clinical operations, and commercial.
22 posts in Agentic AI
11 Jun 2026 · 2 min read
Deloitte's 2026 Life Sciences Outlook finds only 9% of life sciences companies see measurable business impact from AI. The companies pulling away invest in the unglamorous layer underneath: ontologies, metadata, semantics, and agent infrastructure that lets anyone build.
4 Jun 2026 · 3 min read
I run my AI advisory work on a private operating system I built myself — and actually using one of these "second brain" systems has taught me that stored volume matters far less than timing. The real step change isn't buying a generic tool; it's building a system around how you actually think and work.
28 May 2026 · 3 min read
At the AI in Clinical Development Summit we hosted in New York, one line defined the room: don't get out of bed for an AI project worth less than $100 million. I walked away with four ideas about where pharma's AI transformation is actually landing — and a conviction that regulatory submissions are heading toward agent-to-agent transactions built on machine-native data standards.
21 May 2026 · 1 min read
Nature published three AI scientist systems on the same day this week — FutureHouse's Robin, Google's Co-Scientist, and ERA — and the detail that matters for pharma is what they run on. Peer review commoditised the reasoning; the real edge still sits in proprietary data and lab throughput that these systems cannot reach.
19 May 2026 · 3 min read
AstraZeneca's licensing of Owkin's K Pro platform signals where agentic AI is actually landing in pharma right now — competitive intelligence — not the broader scientific autonomy the positioning implies. I break down which workflows are realistic today and why the teams that start with unglamorous, high-leverage tasks will be best positioned when the harder problems become tractable.
5 May 2026 · 3 min read
Capital depth, role mix, and integration target. Three signals that separate a real pharma AI capability build from a press-release pilot dressed up as a strategic partnership.
14 Apr 2026 · 3 min read
The hyperscalers are moving on drug discovery from every direction — Anthropic acquired Coefficient Bio, and AWS just launched Amazon Bio Discovery with 40+ biological foundation models and integrated CRO partners. I still don't think the commercial model of pharma is under major threat, but the R&D part is clearly heating up massively.
2 Apr 2026 · 3 min read
CRO stocks dropped sharply on AI fears: IQVIA, Medpace, Charles River. The market may be right that AI changes trial economics. It’s wrong about where the disruption lands. CROs are infrastructure companies, and AI should make them more valuable, not less — if they can break free from the cost-plus model.
15 Jan 2026 · 3 min read
I taught myself to code as a teenager, then spent 25 years away from it. This week I tried Claude Cowork — agentic AI for non-coders — and shipped a working Chrome extension over lunch.
27 Oct 2025 · 1 min read
AI implementation in healthcare in the KSA is progressing at a breathtaking speed — I was inspired by Saad Alhuzami's case study on the MOH Cortex project at Global Health Exhibition, covering agentic AI, ML modeling, digital twins, and care orchestration.
8 Oct 2025 · 3 min read
I joined an inspiring panel this morning at BioTechX with investors from Flagship Pioneering, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, MTIP, Lauxera Capital Partners, and Archimed to discuss where we stand on the journey of cracking biology and health with AI. From agentic AI and defensible moats to the tech-bio platform vs. pipeline dilemma and whether we're in an AI bubble, the conversation covered the full frontier.
16 Sept 2025 · 1 min read
Healthcare AI is moving from answers to actions — and model evaluation must shift from simplistic multiple-choice testing to comprehensive workflow safety and governance. I'm convinced that agentic workflow automation will be a massive opportunity in healthcare and life sciences.
18 Jun 2025 · 1 min read
I joined an interesting discussion on AI in drug discovery and development at HLTHEurope2025 with panelists from Novartis, Roche, and OWKIN. From real-world evidence generation to biomarker development and regulatory considerations, the conversation covered both the opportunities and challenges of bringing AI into pharma.
15 May 2025 · 1 min read
I joined fellow panelists from Saudi FDA, WEF, LEAN, and others at the menatelehealth conference in Riyadh to discuss how AI is reshaping virtual care. We explored Saudi Arabia's regulatory sandbox approach, high-impact use cases from LLMs in critical care to agentic AI, and the infrastructure enabling it all.
11 Mar 2025 · 1 min read
Even Epic — not historically known as an innovation powerhouse — is now fully embracing AI agents. I share highlights from an interview with Epic's SVP of R&D and offer my take on what their commitment to AI and open collaboration means for healthcare.
4 Mar 2025 · 1 min read
I've written several times about the power of AI agents, and I remain convicted that they will bring a fundamental shift in the way we work — including in healthcare — in the next five years. Healthcare may be sleeping on this shift, but the time to start exploring Agentic AI is now.
30 Jan 2025 · 1 min read
I attended the FutureofHealth summit in Dubai today, where leaders from PureHealth and GE HealthCare shared their visions for agentic AI in primary care and oncology — including the bold idea that primary care could become free over time.
27 Jan 2025 · 1 min read
I share interesting insights from Microsoft's Chief Medical Officer David Rhew, M.D. at ArabHealth in Dubai, covering GenAI's role in healthcare — from ambient scribes saving admin time to multimodal models, agentic AI, and the critical importance of trust in adoption.
12 Dec 2024 · 1 min read
I've written before about AI agents and their transformative potential to take action rather than just engage in conversation — and the industry is rapidly validating this vision. From Meta's Yann LeCun to Salesforce's Marc Benioff to Anthropic's Claude, the signals are clear: if you're not experimenting with AI agents today, you're falling behind.
18 Nov 2024 · 1 min read
Formation Bio, in collaboration with Sanofi and OpenAI, has introduced Muse, an AI-powered tool designed to optimize patient recruitment in clinical trials. I think it will be fascinating to watch how this three-party collaboration — Big Pharma, Health Tech, and Large Tech — evolves, and I wouldn't be surprised to see more of these partnerships emerge in the coming year.
5 Sept 2024 · 1 min read
I've been watching AI agents emerge as the next major frontier in GenAI, and the tipping point — when agents interact more with other agents than with humans — could be sooner than we think. From Amazon's aqui-hire of Adept to coding a working Pong game in under a minute with Claude 3.5, the shift from "brains in a jar" to machines that take real action is already underway.
1 Jul 2024 · 1 min read
AI agents — systems that don't just converse but actually do things for you — are the next frontier after GenAI, and I predict we'll see the first pilots for administrative tasks in healthcare within the next 2–3 years.