Pharma’s AI Story is Unevenly Distributed
When it comes to AI, pharma’s biggest spenders aren’t the clearest narrators.
Last year, the global pharma sector spent an estimated $4 billion on AI, with Lilly, Roche and Bayer leading the pack. But the pharma AI narrative sending the clearest signals belongs to Sanofi.
My Narrative Scan of the top 25 global pharma companies assesses how clearly those stories are signaled in public, and whether they hold together over time. By that measure, Sanofi stands out for an AI story that’s intentional, owned, and repeated.
Much of that narrative coherence traces back to a pivotal AI strategy announcement in June 2023. The announcement was made under then-CEO and recently departed, CEO Paul Hudson, so we’ll see if the story lasts. But for now, it remains the most compelling AI story in big pharma.
Sanofi uses a few narrative anchors to hold the story together:
Framing Advantage
Sanofi announced the launch of its AI platform “plai,” as a “Digital Teammate.” This framed plai not as an AI platform, but as a new type of employee that everyone across the business will work with, shifting the story from “we have tech” to “we have a new colleague.”
Sanofi also built a set of rules around AI usage called RAISE: Responsible AI at Sanofi for Everyone. They named additional AI tools like SimplY for supply chain, and Muse, a trial recruitment tool, and organized their use of AI into categories like “Expert AI” and “Snackable AI.” These terms were adopted and repeated by analysts and trade press.
All of this positioned Sanofi’s use of AI a single system and program, not the “Land of 1,000 Pilots” that large companies often fall victim to.
Declared Ambition
In the announcement, then-CEO Hudson stated, “Our ambition is to become the first pharma company powered by artificial intelligence at scale.” This language avoided the industry-standard “We want to be AI-first,” and evolved to: “We are the first biopharma company powered by AI at scale.”
A year after the announcement, Hudson publicly attacked what he called “AI washing” by other pharma companies, signaling Sanofi as the one “authentic” player in the group and sharpening Sanofi’s POV. He called CEOs who delegate their AI strategies “idiots.” Brash, but effective.
Commitments With a Cost
Beyond high-level pronouncements, Sanofi elaborated on how it’s applying AI across research, clinical operations, manufacturing and supply. The commitment was so deep that Hudson said the company would sacrifice its 2025 profit margin targets to fund AI-powered R&D. The stock took a hit (and later rebounded), but the narrative remained, trading short-term margin for long-term “AI productivity at scale.” That kind of public accountability strengthens credibility.
A Company-Driven Narrator
No pharma company is expected to use only bespoke AI capabilities, and Sanofi, like others, has been open about its partnerships. But how those relationships are presented is critical. Where some companies allow for third-party announcements, Sanofi has been diligent about its positioning with AI partners, showing them as tool providers that accelerate Sanofi’s strategy.
Operational Proof (for now)
Sanofi knows that a press release isn’t a strategy. Since that June 2023 announcement, the company has communicated its results, including: discovery of seven novel drug targets in 2024-2025; cutting mRNA design time by 50%; 80% accuracy in predicting supply chain disruptions, resulting in $300M in savings; and putting 2,200 senior leaders through an AI executive training program from 2023-2026.
Potential Cracks in the Narrative?
While Sanofi’s commitment to its AI strategy is noteworthy, it’s not without setbacks. On the biology side, despite Sanofi being “all in” on AI in drug discovery and trial design, AI couldn’t predict the liver toxicity issues that ended Phase 3 trial for tolebrutinib in January this year.
And on the narrative strategy side, the recent partnership announcement with Earendil Labs suggests a risk of AI narrative drift. After three years of touting its Digital Teammate plai as powering everything, Sanofi’s outsourcing of AI drug discovery for $2.5B sends a muddled signal.
This is where many companies lose the narrative thread and fail to maintain the story across deals, partnerships, leadership changes, and time.
In past announcements, Sanofi’s AI partners were positioned as accelerants of the company’s AI strategy, not originators. With the Earendil deal, though, there was no press release from Sanofi (odd for a $2.5B deal). There was only a release from Earendil, which told the story of its platform and solutions – with Earendil clearly positioned as the originator.
From all accounts right now, Sanofi is doing a lot right with AI. But a lot can change with a new CEO, and Hudson was replaced in February by Belen Garijo, known for her “increased rigor” and pragmatic leadership. Ultimately, the AI narrative may shift from vision to strictly execution.
It’s too soon to tell whether the tolebrutinib and Earendil silence was a strategic PR decision, or a bellwether of Sanofi’s AI narrative transforming from rallying cry to a more practical productivity position. Either way, Sanofi has moved past the proof-of-concept phase and now speaks AI as a native tongue. The head start in the AI story race remains their advantage if they want it.
