With the new year comes a new set of questions and challenges, especially for life sciences companies hoping to maximize the impact of their investments in AI. To get a better view of where the industry stands heading into 2026, we asked some of its sharpest marketers and thinkers for their take on trends, technologies and systemic problems-in-waiting. Here’s what they had to say.

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What’s the trend, technology or shift in the life sciences landscape that will define 2026?

Geetha Parachuru, director of commercial digital products, Gilead Sciences: In 2026, AI will shine a light on the hidden friction in life sciences. In many organizations, the limiting factor won’t be the technology itself, but the operating model: siloed teams, slow handoffs and delayed feedback on what’s working. The companies that move fastest will simplify decision-making, reassess where they rely on agencies and make sure data ownership is clear so performance can be measured and acted on in near real time.

Meg Rivera, former SVP, U.S. market president, Organon and CMO, head of commercial, Akili Interactive: In 2026 it will be absolutely critical that access becomes the brief. We’ve hit a point where great science and great creative aren’t enough; brands have to design for affordability, friction and access from day one. The winners will be the companies that stop treating access and experience as downstream problems and start building around them from the start. A brand can’t outperform the experience anymore.

Karthik Purna, data, digital and technology program manager, Takeda: In 2026, we will see life sciences organizations finally move from pilot mode to operational scale with data-driven, AI-enabled processes. Instead of isolated projects, AI will be embedded across research, clinical operations and commercial functions, in the process improving trial design, patient matching and real-time insights for clinicians. The companies that win will be those that pair these tools with strong governance and human oversight, focusing less on hype and more on measurable patient and business outcomes.

Scott Miller, president and CEO, Solutions for Enterprise Imaging, GE HealthCare: The defining shift in 2026 will be the rise of enterprise-wide clinical intelligence built on integrated imaging data. Imaging has always been rich with diagnostic information, but its true potential emerges when it is connected with other clinical data sources and made accessible across the full care continuum.

Health systems are moving toward enterprise imaging platforms that unify data across locations, modalities, and service lines, while applying AI to surface insights, streamline workflows and support more consistent decision-making. The integration of imaging with labs, reports and other patient information will enable more proactive and predictive care, rather than reactive interpretation.

Zach Capetola, oncology omnichannel marketing strategy-HCP engagement and capabilities, Merck: It will be the shift from execution to interpretation. It’s no longer just about orchestrating touchpoints; it’s about understanding what landed, what didn’t and why. The industry will start closing the loop between action and insight – and AI will power that shift.

Molly Walpola, former CX senior manager, Novo Nordisk: ​In 2026, the buzzword shifts from generative to agentic. For the last two years, we’ve treated AI like a very smart intern: We gave it a prompt and it gave us a draft. In 2026, AI becomes a colleague. We are seeing the rise of AI agents that don’t just generate text; they execute tasks. They monitor clinical trial sites, re-allocate marketing budgets in real-time and flag supply chain risks without a human ever typing a prompt. The defining shift of the year is that AI stops thinking and starts doing.

What external force will have the biggest impact on pharma marketing and health-tech in 2026, and how should organizations prepare for it?

Capetola: The accelerating evolution of AI. Right now, AI is great with syntax, decent with semantics and still clumsy when it comes to business context. But all of that is changing fast.

Companies that delay their AI ramp-up won’t just fall behind; they’ll miss the window to shape how AI works for their business. This requires leaders (not just practitioners) to get hands-on with the technology. Too much is at stake to leave the vision to vendors or the data team.

Walpola: The industry is walking into a twin vice in 2026: the operational squeeze from the BIOSECURE Act and the revenue squeeze from the “great repricing” we saw begin in December. The days of protecting revenue through high list prices and rebates are ending. For marketers, the new mandate is net-price resilience.

Organizations need to prepare by shifting their launch strategy from contracting to clinical value. If your brand’s survival depends on rebate leverage rather than patient outcomes, you are bringing a 2024 playbook to a 2026 fight. We have to build data moats that prove economic value on day one, because the rebate wall can no longer protect us.

Purna: Regulation, particularly around data privacy, AI transparency and real-world evidence, will be the biggest external force shaping the industry. As governments tighten expectations on how patient data is collected and used, organizations that proactively build privacy-by-design systems and clear explainability frameworks will be better positioned. Preparing now means investing in compliance infrastructure, cross-functional data stewardship and communication strategies that earn patient trust, rather than simply meeting minimum standards.

Rivera: The biggest force shaping 2026 is economic pressure… yes, in a policy sense but also in a very real “show me the value” sense. Marketers will have to prove impact, not activity. That means tighter targeting, clearer narratives and experience design that actually reduces friction for HCPs and patients. Teams that can articulate value simply and credibly will be the ones that break through. And because of that, I’m hoping 2026 is the year that fluff metrics die off.

Where does AI in pharma marketing go from here? What’s the next evolution we’ll see in 2026?

Mariano Bendersky, former head of digital healthcare and innovation, U.S. autoimmune T1 diabetes, Sanofi: I see strong early promise in AI-driven content generation paired with AI-enabled MLR review, as well as agent-based AI experiences. These capabilities have the potential to scale compliant content and provide always-on educational engagement for HCPs, particularly in whitespace areas and lower-priority accounts. However, broader impact will likely materialize over the next few years.

Where some AI initiatives underperformed, the issue was rarely the models themselves. More often, organizations led with AI-first rather than problem-first, or underestimated the importance of data readiness, workflow integration, change management and process re-engineering.

Jane Urban, chief data and analytics officer, Improzo and former VP, customer engagement operations, Otsuka: 2026 will be the year security and privacy finally become built into AI, not just policies taped onto it. Just like we moved from telling people not to click phishing links to actively blocking malicious URLs, we’re going to see enterprises monitoring and preventing unsafe prompts in real time. And as that foundation gets stronger, pharma marketing will shift from generic journeys to deeply personalized, interactive pathways, dozens or even hundreds of micro-journeys tailored to what each customer actually needs.

Justin Molavi, senior director, AI business products, Genentech: The one AI use case that will be impactful for some time is rare disease identification. I can’t think of anything more impactful for a patient, particularly when it may take so long to diagnose a rare disease. The referrals and months or even years spent on diagnosis are a waste in terms of healthcare dollars and the patient’s precious time.

Rivera: In 2026, AI stops being a content machine and starts becoming an intelligence layer. The next evolution is relevance: better timing, better targeting and better coordination across channels. If AI doesn’t make an experience clearer and more human, it won’t last. The hype era is over; the usefulness era is next. Despite what many may think, 2026 isn’t the year that speed and content will win. More humanity will.

Capetola: The future is context-aware AI. Instead of just reacting to clicks or behaviors, models will understand the why behind actions – and when not to act. AI will become less about what we can push and more about what’s worth doing now.

Walpola: We are moving from omnichannel to omni-personal. In 2026, the pharma marketer stops being a creator and becomes a conductor. We won’t be manually approving individual emails anymore. Instead, we’ll see the rise of “digital twin” testing, which simulates campaigns against synthetic personas of doctors to predict behavior before we spend a dime. The next evolution is using agentic AI to assemble compliant, modular content on the fly, giving every single physician a unique asset that hits their specific psychological drivers. It will mark the end of the blast email.

Purna: AI will evolve from content automation into true decision intelligence. Instead of just generating materials faster, AI will help teams understand which messages work for which audiences, and why. We’ll see more dynamic, personalized communication that supports clinicians and patients with relevant, timely information. Importantly, the emphasis will shift toward guardrails, bias monitoring and validation so that AI-assisted decisions are ethical and compliant.

If you could solve one systemic problem in pharma or healthcare in 2026, what would it be? Is there momentum toward fixing it?

Walpola: If I could wave a wand, I’d pop the gross-to-net bubble, the rebate trap that forces list prices up while patients get crushed at the pharmacy counter. The good news is, the momentum to fix this is finally real. The voluntary price reductions we saw major players make in December prove that the market is ready to reject the opacity of the old model. We are seeing a market rebellion where payers, and now manufacturers, are walking away from the rebate game to get to a truthful net price. It’s painful, but it’s the only way to restore trust.

Capetola: Let’s stop pretending we’re innovating if we’re still running the 2012 playbook. We need to confront the institutional muscle memory that resists change, not just talk about transformation.

At the same time, we need to rethink how we engage HCPs. And let’s be honest: HCPs aren’t sitting around hoping for another branded banner ad. They want evidence-based information they can trust, delivered in a way that respects their time and intelligence. They want content that helps them make better decisions, not a nonstop stream of promotional noise. The brands that win in 2026 will be the ones that start treating HCPs like the people they are. 

Miller: The most pressing systemic challenge we could solve is the fragmentation of patient data, particularly imaging data that resides across disconnected systems, locations or clinical departments. This fragmentation slows diagnoses, increases clinician burden and hinders the shift toward more proactive, coordinated care.

Momentum is building to address this. Health systems are increasingly investing in cloud-enabled, interoperable enterprise imaging solutions that centralize access, streamline workflows and create a consistent diagnostic experience regardless of where the patient was imaged or which clinician reviews the case. These platforms also help integrate imaging with the broader clinical ecosystem, enabling richer insights and better collaboration.

In 2026, the focus will be on scaling these capabilities, thus ensuring that imaging data flows seamlessly, insights reach clinicians when and where they’re needed, and AI supports care delivery in a more intelligent way. Solving data fragmentation in imaging is foundational to solving fragmentation in healthcare at large.

Purna: It would be the fragmentation of patient data across systems that don’t talk to each other. This slows research, complicates care coordination and increases inequities. There is momentum, because interoperability standards, real-world data networks and collaborative data-sharing models are improving, but progress has been uneven. Accelerating this effort, with strong privacy protections, could unlock more precise treatments, faster trials and better patient experiences across the board.

Rivera: I’d solve the gap between the story we tell and the experience people actually have. Too much work is still built for an idealized journey that doesn’t exist. The momentum I see, especially among smarter commercial teams, is a shift toward designing for real-world friction: access, affordability, workflow, trust. If we close that gap, everything else gets easier. The story we’re trying to tell cannot outrun the experience anymore. And I think that’s a good thing.

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