Compliance worries keep AI adoption in drug manufacturing low, survey finds

A new survey of more than 400 research and manufacturing professionals shows that over 90% of drugmakers have not committed to expanding AI use in regulated drug production.

While AI is widely employed for administrative tasks and in drug discovery, its penetration into regulated manufacturing remains limited.

Only a small fraction of respondents reported active AI use: about 1% are using it across most or all regulated applications, 8% are scaling it for many uses, and 17% are scaling it for a few. The remaining 74% indicated they are several years away from applying AI to regulated medicine production.

The report attributes this lag primarily to compliance and regulatory concerns, suggesting that overcoming these hurdles will be key to broader AI integration in pharma manufacturing.