Lilly names Thomas Fuchs as its first chief AI officer

Eli Lilly has named Thomas Fuchs as its first-ever chief artificial intelligence officer (CAIO), bolstering the digital representation in the group's C-suite.

Fuchs will take up the newly created role later this month, with the goal of providing "vision, strategic direction, and overall leadership of AI initiatives across Lilly, including drug discovery, clinical trials, manufacturing, commercial activities and internal functions."

He was most recently the dean and inaugural department chair for AI and Human Health at Mount Sinai health system, as well as serving as director of the Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Health and Barbara T Murphy Professor for AI and Computational Pathology at the Icahn School of Medicine.

After a wave of appointments of chief digital officers in the last few years, companies, healthcare systems, and government agencies are increasingly looking to add in specialist CAIOs to make sure they stay abreast of the fast-moving technology.

Pharma groups are no exception, although, many still leave responsibility for AI within the brief of chief digital, chief technology, and chief information officers, according to a recent Gartner report, which says many still prefer to put responsibility for AI below the C-suite, with roles such as global head of AI.

Lilly, like all big pharma companies, is deploying AI across its organisation, but particularly in drug discovery where, in just one recent example, it signed a $409 million partnership with Genetic Leap to use its AI engine to discover new RNA-targeted medicines.

Fuchs has previously held positions at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, NASA, and the California Institute of Technology, and also founded three companies, including cancer diagnosis start-up Paige.AI. He holds a PhD in Machine Learning from ETH Zurich in Switzerland and a Master's in Technical Mathematics from Graz Technical University in Austria.

He said that joining Lilly would not only allow him to continue his focus on "leveraging technology to help patients and enhance human health", but to "expand this mission worldwide on an amazing scale."

The new CAIO will work alongside Lilly's chief information and digital officer, Diogo Rau, who has held that role since 2021.

"In this new era of technology, the potential for artificial intelligence and machine learning to revolutionise healthcare is immense," said Rau.

"Dr Fuchs will contribute to Lilly's breakthroughs in AI, aiding in the discovery and development of new medicines while enhancing patient outcomes," he added.