Axtria Ignite 2025: A VIP roundtable on agentic AI
During this year’s Axtria Ignite conference, over 20 pharmaceutical senior executives from 17 of the industry’s top life sciences companies stepped into an invite-only roundtable, to discuss how best to unlock agentic AI’s transformative value for pharma commercial and medical affairs.
The executives at this VIP roundtable were encouraged to share their thoughts on how AI innovation has been accelerating in recent years, and where it’s heading next. What resulted was a candid back-and-forth that revealed the immense potential for agentic AI, though tempered by practical hurdles.
The roundtable participants acknowledged the incredible advancements in AI made in just a short time. Starting with descriptive modelling and the analysis of historical data for understanding trends and patterns, this gave way to traditional AI, which provided recommendations based on that data analysis. This was quickly followed by generative AI (GenAI) and the creation of new drug molecules and personalised treatment plan possibilities. Multimodal AI followed, and the integration and analysis of diverse data types such as images, texts, and genomic data. We now find ourselves in the agentic AI era, with its autonomous agents conducting research, designing experiments, and analysing results, all while coordinating with each other for continuous improvement.
Agentic AI: Autonomous planner, prioritiser, and performer
Agentic AI is artificial intelligence that accomplishes goals with limited supervision. Consisting of AI agents – ML models that mimic human decision-making to solve problems in real-time – agentic AI can, for example, create territory alignments without any human intervention.
The industry’s turn to agentic AI is due, in part, to rising cost pressures from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the threat to profitability posed by other regulatory changes. Additionally, rare diseases and specialty care demand highly personalised operations and insights; demands which only this type of advanced technology can begin to address.
With moderators at the helm, including Alan Kalton, Principal, UK & Europe at Axtria, Priya Bhargava, Head of GenAI Strategy & Data to Insight Platform, Product at Axtria, and Amanjeet Singh, Head of Strategy & Operations and Business Unit Leader at Axtria, the roundtable moved beyond theoretical consideration to focus on practical application. Leaders discussed real-world use cases, strategies for successful implementation, and how to measure ROI from agentic AI (and GenAI) initiatives, ultimately carving a path to a more efficient, impactful, and patient-centric future for pharma.
Transformation organisation-wide, relieving burden
With technological innovation, as ever, there comes hype. With that in mind, leaders at the roundtable quickly acknowledged that it is paramount to identify the investments that create real value. As the introductory video presented to the roundtable participants stated, “In life sciences, every second counts, and every decision can mean the difference between breakthrough and breakdown.”
The roundtable executives identified a key goal of reducing administrative burden so that field teams can spend time actually meeting with customers; for example, the automation of presentation materials, or using agentic AI to simplify contracting. One leader pointed out the high cost of agency image generation for materials, and how AI is being used to generate all types of marketing content, including text and visual elements. Those AI-assisted assets can then be amplified, by field access teams, sales reps, and MSLs, and the engagement helps formulate a 360° personalised view of a customer.
In short, the future vision of AI for this particular use case is as an augmentation tool to enable marketers to jumpstart their marketing journey. However, legal compliance rules are and will remain issue number one.
Coordination over an AI fabric “parallel universe”
Another critical hurdle raised by the roundtable was cost. Agentic AI isn’t cheap. Cloud platforms, long-term memory storage, and model maintenance can balloon costs. One participant cited an annual increase of $5 million. The proliferation of AI models adds to this complexity, with each requiring updates and support. The solution, executives say, is to create an “AI fabric”—an integrated platform that unifies models with the flexibility and fungibility to append to it newer models as they come to market. At the same time, users across the business are able to interact with that fabric. This approach optimises costs and scalability.
Agentic AI: proving the payoff
Measuring agentic AI’s return on investment is tricky. Leaders at the exclusive roundtable reported a rush to adopt AI without clear success metrics. This fomented scepticism, especially when high-performing reps succeeded without AI tools. Here as well, the leaders offered a solution: prove AI’s worth by defining metrics upfront. Sample metrics they cited include user adoption rates, process efficiencies, or Net Promoter Scores. The executives also reported success with “A/B tests” to isolate AI’s impact versus pre-optimised approaches. One example here involves comparing AI-driven territory alignment to traditional methods to quantify the gains seen. In the end, clear metrics and controlled studies will silence doubters and justify investment.
Winning hearts and minds
One of the largest roadblocks to extracting value from AI and agentic AI projects involves cultural resistance. Indeed, the experts recognised it as a silent killer of AI adoption. Employees fear job displacement, and digital literacy gaps slow down uptake. The shift from labour to technology costs fuels this uneasiness, even when AI helps human roles.
The executives attempted to bridge this gap with several solutions. First, invest in change management and training to boost digital literacy. Some recommended framing AI as a partner, not a threat – and highlighting how it frees sales reps to focus on high-value tasks like relationship-building.
Others recommended a coordination, an alignment between business and IT; indeed, a partnership. One roundtable participant went further and proposed a “three-layer cake” concept of business, IT, and activation teams, wherein change management and digital literacy are crucial aspects, and paving the way for a smooth rollout. The roundtable agreed: transparent communication about efficiency gains and job augmentation will secure buy-in.
Moving forward
Amanjeet Singh summarised the insights gathered: “Clearly the journey is on. But at the same time, things need to be addressed. What are the right governance mechanisms that we need to put in place? What are the right measurement mechanisms? How do we ensure ROI is getting delivered without investing millions of dollars?” Despite the lively debate, the room remained enthused for agentic AI’s potential. The overarching feeling was “start small”, with high-ROI pilots like automating territory alignment or predicting trial recruitment. Then, it’s easier to scale successes and expand the scope, maintaining patient centricity and compliance, and ensuring AI serves both business and humanity. As Singh concluded, “A lot of questions remain open, but the good thing is that everyone has the same core philosophy: ‘Let's try it.’”
About Axtria
Axtria helps life sciences companies harness the potential of data science and software to improve patient outcomes by connecting the right therapies to the right patients at the right time. The company is a leading global provider of award-winning cloud software and data analytics to the life sciences industry. We’re proud to deliver proven solutions that help pharmaceutical, medical device, and diagnostics companies complete their journey from data to insights to action, enabling them to earn superior returns on their investments. As a participant in the United Nations Global Compact, Axtria is committed to aligning strategies and operations with universal principles on human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption, and taking actions that advance societal goals. For more information, please visit www.axtria.com.
