Al in pharma: Disruption, displacement, and a new digital dawn

Dr Rajendra Pratap Gupta, Chairman of the Academy of Digital Health Sciences and Former Advisor to the Health Minister of India, highlights how artificial intelligence is redefining pharma — from workforce structures and business models to the very definition of what a pharmaceutical company will be by 2032

- Dr Rajendra Pratap Gupta

“By 2030, pharma will not just be about pills — it will be about platforms, patients, and predictive algorithms.”

Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer a futuristic buzzword in pharmaceuticals and healthcare; it is reshaping jobs across the value chain. From R&D to sales, from patient engagement to regulatory filings, the industry is in the middle of a silent revolution. The consequences? A mix of job displacement, job transformation, and job creation.

The mixed picture: Loss, transition, and opportunity

The most visible casualties will be traditional field force roles — medical representatives, sales teams, and administrative staff dependent on manual processes. Automation of repetitive tasks and AI-driven engagement platforms mean that the size of field teams will shrink dramatically.

At the same time, AI is spawning new jobs in specialised areas: data science, bioinformatics, digital health management, and clinical informatics. Global Capability Centres (GCCs) in India's tech hubs will be the crucibles for these opportunities.

In R&D, the story is one of transition, not elimination. AI will accelerate drug discovery, predictive modeling, and patient recruitment for trials. But this will require large-scale reskilling of the existing workforce.

The scale of disruption will be profound. “By 2030-32, the pharmaceutical industry will shed nearly half a million workforce.”

Yet the net outlook is not bleak. The jobs of the future will be higher value, technology-enabled, and global in scope.

In my view, 'forward-looking healthcare and life sciences companies will have far more 'agents' than 'humans'; That's the future.”

AI across the pharma value chain

Where exactly will AI bite deepest — and where will it create?

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