Verified

AstraZeneca

Scaling
  • Pharma
  • 96,100 employees
  • Enterprise AI unit (Dec 2025)
  • AI in 90%+ of small molecule pipeline
  • ~1,000 AI pilots (Apr 2026)

AstraZeneca deploys AI through an Enterprise AI unit formed in Dec 2025, with Anne-Claire Gerbaldi as Chief Digital, Data and AI Officer, building agentic tools such as Velocia on its own data platforms, using Microsoft Copilot and Amazon Bedrock, and partnering with Tempus, Pathos and insitro on foundation models and drug discovery. AI enables more than 90% of AstraZeneca's small molecule discovery pipeline, and about 1,000 AI pilots were running in Apr 2026. AstraZeneca reports no financial return credited to AI alone.

astrazeneca.com

Their approach to AI

The platform
AstraZeneca builds agentic tools on its own enterprise AI and data platforms, among them Development Assistant for clinical data and Velocia for medical evidence, and in 2025 gave employees who reach a set level of AI accreditation early access to an AI agent builder; more than 1,500 agents were built in the first two months.
The models
AstraZeneca uses several providers: Microsoft Copilot (2024), Amazon Bedrock Agents for Development Assistant, in-house foundation models in R&D, models from its Tempus partnership, and Modella AI's models after buying the company in Q4 2025.
The reach
More than 50,000 of AstraZeneca's 96,100 employees took part in its Thriving in the Age of AI programme in 2025, more than 17,000 were certified in AI by Apr 2026, and AI enables more than 90% of the small molecule discovery pipeline (Feb 2026).
The catch
AstraZeneca has not said how many employees use a general AI assistant each week, publishes no AI spending figure, and credits no financial return to AI alone; its reported plant gains are credited to digital and AI tools together.

Snapshot

Employees
96,100
End of 2025 (2025 annual report)
Technology budget
Not disclosed
R&D expense was $14.2B in 2025 on Total Revenue of $58.7B
AI/ML headcount
600+ in R&D
Data science and AI experts supporting R&D (Aug 2026); no company-wide count published
Who owns AI
Anne-Claire Gerbaldi
SVP, Chief Digital, Data and AI Officer (title in use by Jun 2026); leads the Enterprise AI unit formed Dec 2025
Platform
Enterprise AI and data platforms, built
Plus Microsoft Copilot and Amazon Bedrock Agents, bought
Models
Several providers
Velocia picks a language model per task; in-house and acquired foundation models in R&D
Reach
50,000+ employees trained (2025)
Thriving in the Age of AI; 17,000+ certified by Apr 2026; weekly assistant use not disclosed
Use cases
About 1,000 AI pilots (Apr 2026)
AI in 90%+ of the small molecule discovery pipeline; agentic tools in clinical development, evidence generation and operations

Key findings

  1. AstraZeneca created a dedicated Enterprise AI unit in Dec 2025 to deliver a single data foundation and scale high-value AI initiatives across R&D, Commercial, Operations and corporate functions, led by Anne-Claire Gerbaldi as SVP and Chief Digital, Data and AI Officer; Jorge Reis-Filho, the unit's Chief of AI for Science Innovation, left for Foresite Labs in Aug 2026.

  2. AstraZeneca said in Feb 2026 that more than 90% of its small molecule discovery pipeline is AI-enabled, after reporting AI and data science in 85% of its small molecule programmes in Feb 2025, and its website counted more than 600 data science and AI experts supporting R&D in Aug 2026.

  3. More than 50,000 AstraZeneca employees took part in the Thriving in the Age of AI programme in 2025 and earned more than 102,000 certificates, after more than 12,000 had taken part by Apr 2025, and CFO Aradhana Sarin said in Apr 2026 that more than 17,000 employees were certified in AI and about 1,000 AI pilots were running.

  4. AstraZeneca builds agentic tools on its own data: Development Assistant, built with Amazon Bedrock Agents on the Drug Development Data Platform, went from concept to production in about six months and is scaling to more than 1,000 users, and Velocia, a multi-agent system for medical evidence, is being validated on real studies in 2026.

  5. AstraZeneca has published no financial return credited to AI alone: the output and productivity gains it reported in Feb 2025 at its Wuxi, China plant and in Swedish production are credited to digital and AI tools together, and Pascal Soriot said on the Oct 30, 2026 results call that AI lets AstraZeneca grow without adding as many people, without giving a figure.

Where AstraZeneca sits

Stage
Scaling

AstraZeneca sits at Scaling: AI enables more than 90% of its small molecule discovery pipeline, agentic tools such as Development Assistant run in production on clinical, regulatory, safety and quality data, about 1,000 AI pilots were running in Apr 2026, and AstraZeneca formed a dedicated Enterprise AI unit in Dec 2025 with Anne-Claire Gerbaldi as Chief Digital, Data and AI Officer. AstraZeneca meets the reach test only in part: more than 50,000 of its 96,100 employees joined its AI training programme in 2025 and trained employees got an AI agent builder, but AstraZeneca has not said how many employees use a general AI assistant. AstraZeneca falls short of Embedded because it reports no weekly usage figure and no financial return credited to AI alone; its only published gains, at two plants, are credited to digital and AI tools together, and Pascal Soriot's Oct 2026 remark that AI lets AstraZeneca grow without adding as many people came with no figure.

How the stages are defined
Ownership
SVP, Chief Digital, Data and AI Officer; Enterprise AI unit since Dec 2025
Platform
Hybrid: Enterprise AI and data platforms built; Copilot and Bedrock bought
Models
Several providers, plus in-house and acquired foundation models
Hosting
AWS (Amazon Bedrock) and Microsoft's hosted Copilot; Oracle's cloud for the Oracle collaboration (Oct 2026); drug discovery starting on Sferical One, a shared NVIDIA supercomputer in Sweden; no own AI data centers disclosed
Reach
50,000+ employees in AI training (2025); 17,000+ AI-certified (Apr 2026)

How they deploy

One unit for AI across the value chain

AstraZeneca created a dedicated Enterprise AI unit in Dec 2025, which its 2025 annual report says will partner with the business to drive a unified AI transformation, prioritise and scale high-value initiatives and manage change. The remuneration report adds that the unit will deliver a single data foundation. AstraZeneca's Enterprise AI careers page describes the unit as a global centre of excellence spanning R&D, Commercial, Operations and corporate functions, aiming for significant improvements across the value chain by 2030.

Build in-house and partner

AstraZeneca says it builds AI solutions both in-house and with external partners (Sep 2025). In 2025 AstraZeneca formed AI collaborations with Tempus and Pathos on a multimodal oncology foundation model, acquired Modella AI, and advanced existing and new collaborations with ImmunAI, Syneron Bio, Stanford Medicine and Algen Biotechnologies, according to its 2025 annual report. In 2026 AstraZeneca licensed Owkin's K Pro platform for three years to build AI agents (May), signed a drug discovery deal with insitro (Oct) and signed a non-binding AI collaboration with Oracle Health and Life Sciences (Oct).

Foundation models and agents in R&D

AstraZeneca's 2025 annual report says R&D is building an ecosystem of foundation models and agentic AI frameworks to speed drug discovery end to end, using AstraZeneca's own data. AstraZeneca's oncology unit wrote in Mar 2026 that its AI strategy rests on domain-specific multimodal foundation models that combine images, omics and clinical text across the R&D lifecycle. Pascal Soriot told CNBC in Jun 2026 that AstraZeneca built an agent that combines clinical and lab data to estimate the probability that a Phase III trial succeeds, using models from its Tempus partnership, and that the value of AI in the industry is productivity.

Model choice by task

AstraZeneca designed Velocia so that different language models can be chosen for different tasks as the technology changes (Oct 2026). Enterprise AI job postings from Oct 2026 describe multi-agent systems built across several model providers, with routing through region-specific infrastructure where data sovereignty requires it.

AI proficiency for every employee

AstraZeneca launched an AI upskilling and literacy programme for all employees in 2024, built with Global IT, HR, Compliance and the business functions, with Bronze to Diamond accreditation levels. AstraZeneca requires staff above a certain grade to reach at least Silver, according to CFO Aradhana Sarin (Apr 2026), and its Enterprise AI careers page, as read in Nov 2026, describes a commitment to 100% workforce AI proficiency.

Deployment model
AstraZeneca runs AI through a central Enterprise AI unit, formed in Dec 2025, alongside AI teams inside the business: a Centre for Artificial Intelligence in BioPharmaceuticals R&D, an Oncology Data Science and AI team in Oncology R&D, and IT teams for R&D and Commercial, including the R&D IT team that built Development Assistant with AWS. Anne-Claire Gerbaldi, SVP and Chief Digital, Data and AI Officer, leads the Enterprise AI unit, which includes an AI Science Innovation group and an AI Enterprise Process and Innovation Center (EPIC), headed since Dec 2025 by Cassie Gregson; job postings from Oct 2026 describe AI engineering for enabling functions such as HR, Finance, Procurement and Legal. AstraZeneca also runs Evinova, a separate health-tech business launched in Nov 2023 that sells AI tools for clinical trials to AstraZeneca and other drugmakers.
Model providers
AstraZeneca has not named a single model provider. AstraZeneca's 2024 annual report says researchers and scientists have a range of generative AI tools and that employees use Microsoft Copilot, and Development Assistant runs on Amazon Bedrock Agents, a service that offers models from several providers; AstraZeneca has not said which models it uses there. In R&D, AstraZeneca builds its own foundation models from health datasets and fine-tunes them for specific tasks, runs in-house machine learning tools such as MILTON and REINVENT, and bought Modella AI in Q4 2025 to bring its multimodal foundation models and AI agents into oncology R&D. AstraZeneca will share an oncology foundation model built by Pathos on Tempus data (Apr 2025), and Pascal Soriot said in Jun 2026 that AstraZeneca uses AI models through the Tempus partnership. Owkin is building agents for AstraZeneca on its K Pro platform under a three-year licence signed in May 2026.
Data and infrastructure
AstraZeneca's Drug Development Data Platform (3DP) pulls clinical, regulatory, quality and safety data into standard data products that Development Assistant, built on Amazon Bedrock Agents, queries. An Enterprise Data Office and an Enterprise Data Council govern data across the company, and the Enterprise AI unit's remit includes a single data foundation (2025 annual report). AstraZeneca co-founded Sferical AI in Aug 2025 and holds 20% of it; Sferical One, an NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD of 16 DGX GB300 systems in Sweden, has run since late summer 2026, and AstraZeneca is beginning to explore drug discovery on it (Oct 2026). Oracle is to supply real-world data, cloud infrastructure and AI-enabled clinical tools for the Oct 2026 collaboration, which uses de-identified data and gives AstraZeneca no patient-identifiable information. Owkin's K Pro agents are to be integrated into AstraZeneca's own IT infrastructure (May 2026). AstraZeneca has not disclosed company data centers for AI.

Platforms and internal tools

  • Development Assistant

    Development Assistant is AstraZeneca's multi-agent AI tool that answers natural language questions across clinical, regulatory, patient safety and quality data by combining text-to-SQL generation with retrieval-augmented generation. A supervisor agent routes each question to specialist agents for terminology, clinical, regulatory and database work. AstraZeneca built Development Assistant with AWS and moved it from concept to production in about six months, including cybersecurity and AI governance checks, according to an undated AWS case study.

    Users
    Scaling to more than 1,000 (AWS case study, undated)
    Models
    Foundation models through Amazon Bedrock Agents

    Source

  • Velocia2026 (validation on real studies)

    Velocia is AstraZeneca's connected set of multi-agent tools for medical evidence generation, from study design through analysis, reporting and publication, built on AstraZeneca's enterprise AI and data platforms with clinical, real-world and contract research organisation data. AstraZeneca is validating Velocia's first group of solutions on real studies in 2026, with more planned through 2027 and beyond.

    Models
    Language model chosen per task

    Source

  • Drug Development Data Platform (3DP)

    The Drug Development Data Platform ingests data from AstraZeneca's clinical, regulatory, quality and safety systems and aligns it with common vocabularies to produce findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable data products, which serve as the base for Development Assistant.

    Source

  • AI agent builder2025

    AstraZeneca's AI Agent Builder lets employees build and deploy their own AI tools. AstraZeneca gave early access to employees who reach a set level of its AI accreditation, and more than 1,500 agents were built in the first two months (Oct 2025); AstraZeneca has not named the vendor behind it.

    Users
    Employees above a set AI accreditation level (Oct 2025)

    Source

  • Microsoft CopilotBy 2024

    AstraZeneca employees use Microsoft Copilot, and the 2024 annual report says researchers and scientists have a range of generative AI tools for tasks such as hypothesis generation and protocol authoring.

    Users
    Seat count not disclosed; 1,200 were surveyed in 2024
    Models
    Microsoft Copilot

    Source

  • REINVENT

    REINVENT is AstraZeneca's small molecule discovery platform, which predicts molecular properties and optimises candidate molecules before synthesis; AstraZeneca's 2025 annual report says REINVENT now saves significant time but gives no figure.

    Source

  • MILTON

    MILTON is a machine learning tool from AstraZeneca's Centre for Genomics Research that combines de-identified health records with genetic and protein data to predict the risk of more than 1,000 diseases, sometimes 10 to 15 years before clinical diagnosis.

    Source

  • Quantitative Continuous Scoring (QCS)

    QCS is AstraZeneca's computational pathology system that scores the presence and location of biomarkers in tissue. The VENTANA TROP2 RxDx Computational Solution, developed with Roche Tissue Diagnostics and Daiichi Sankyo and built on QCS, received FDA Breakthrough Device Designation in 2025, the first for an AI-driven companion diagnostic.

    Source

  • Phase III success prediction agent

    Pascal Soriot told CNBC in Jun 2026 that AstraZeneca developed an agent that combines clinical and lab data to estimate the probability that a Phase III trial will succeed, drawing on AI models from the Tempus partnership. AstraZeneca has not published the agent's name, accuracy or how widely it is used.

    Models
    Models from the Tempus partnership

    Source

  • Evinova platformNov 2023

    Evinova is a separate health-tech business within AstraZeneca that sells digital and AI tools for clinical trials, including Study Designer, AI Authoring and AI Digitizer. AstraZeneca signed a strategic collaboration with Evinova in Feb 2026 and opted in to share operational data with the platform.

    Source

Vendors and partners

  • Amazon Web Services

    Amazon Bedrock Agents behind Development Assistant · AWS says AstraZeneca built Development Assistant with its team and plans to extend the tool beyond clinical trials to other R&D domains.

  • MicrosoftBy 2024

    Microsoft Copilot for employees

  • Sferical AI and NVIDIAAug 2025

    Shared AI supercomputer in Sweden, co-founded by AstraZeneca · AstraZeneca founded Sferical AI with Ericsson, Saab, SEB and Wallenberg Investments; Sferical One, an NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD, has run since late summer 2026, and AstraZeneca's 2025 annual report lists a 20% holding.

  • Oracle Health and Life SciencesOct 2026

    Global AI collaboration on trial recruitment, earlier diagnosis and drug-safety monitoring · Non-binding term sheet with no financial terms; the first programme supports hypertension care and research in Abu Dhabi with M42.

  • Tempus and Pathos AIApr 2025

    Multimodal oncology foundation model · The agreements include $200 million in data licensing and model development fees to Tempus, and the finished model is shared among the three companies; AstraZeneca's 2025 annual report lists an 11.26% holding in Pathos AI. Pascal Soriot said in Jun 2026 that AstraZeneca uses AI models through the Tempus partnership.

  • OwkinMay 2026

    AI agents on Owkin's K Pro platform for drug development decisions · Three-year licence under which Owkin builds agents for competitive intelligence questions, integrated into AstraZeneca's IT infrastructure and decision workflows; financial terms not disclosed.

  • Modella AIQ4 2025

    Acquired: multimodal foundation models and AI agents for oncology R&D · AstraZeneca's full-year results say Modella AI was acquired in Q4 2025, and Modella AI announced the deal on Jan 13, 2026; the price was not disclosed.

  • insitroOct 2026

    AI drug discovery for MASH and cardiomyopathies · insitro receives $40 million upfront and up to about $1.46 billion in milestones.

  • CSPC PharmaceuticalsJun 2025

    AI-driven small molecule and peptide discovery · The Jun 2025 research deal paid $110 million upfront; a Jan 2026 weight management deal paid $1.2 billion upfront for eight programmes plus access to CSPC's AI peptide design and its monthly dosing technology.

  • Qure.aiBy May 2025

    AI reading of routine chest X-rays for lung cancer screening · AstraZeneca screens patients in low- and middle-income countries with Qure.ai's AI-enabled X-rays and sponsors the CREATE study with Qure.ai in Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico and Turkey (Apr 2026).

  • Stanford Medicine

    Strategic alliance on AI-driven discovery and trial design

Leadership

AI, data and platform leaders

AG

Anne-Claire Gerbaldi

SVP, Chief Digital, Data and AI Officer

Anne-Claire Gerbaldi leads AstraZeneca's Enterprise AI unit: Jorge Reis-Filho thanked Gerbaldi for his appointment in the unit in Dec 2025, and a job posting says the head of its process and innovation centre reports to the SVP, Chief Digital, Data and AI Officer. Gerbaldi spoke as SVP, Chief Digital, Data and AI Officer at the AI Summit London on Jun 10, 2026 and for AstraZeneca on the Oracle collaboration in Oct 2026. A conference speaker biography says Gerbaldi earlier held senior AstraZeneca roles in global portfolio and project management, strategic planning, business development and deal finance; AstraZeneca has not announced her start date.

CG

Cassie Gregson

Vice President, Head of AI Enterprise Process and Innovation Center (EPIC), Enterprise AI unit

Cassie Gregson announced in Dec 2025 that she had become head of AstraZeneca's AI Enterprise Process and Innovation Center after about a year as Global Vice President, R&D IT, whose team built Development Assistant with AWS. A job posting for the role describes it as covering AI for enabling units, enterprise process and innovation, user experience, and AI learning and development.

TD

Tom Diethe

Executive Director, Head of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence, BioPharmaceuticals R&D

Tom Diethe heads the Centre for Artificial Intelligence in AstraZeneca's BioPharmaceuticals R&D, the title AstraZeneca gave him in Oct 2025, and co-wrote AstraZeneca's Oct 2025 account of MapDiff, an AI framework for protein design developed with the University of Sheffield.

JW

Jim Weatherall

Vice President, Head of Enterprise Data Enablement, Enterprise Data Unit

Jim Weatherall held the title Vice President, Head of Enterprise Data Enablement, Enterprise Data Unit, when he co-wrote AstraZeneca's Sep 2025 article on its AI alliance with Stanford Medicine.

Executives

PS

Pascal Soriot

Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer

Pascal Soriot has been CEO of AstraZeneca since Oct 2012 and was earlier COO of Roche's pharmaceuticals division and CEO of Genentech. Soriot announced the Enterprise AI unit in Dec 2025, and AstraZeneca's remuneration report cited his sponsorship of learning programmes including Thriving in the Age of AI. Soriot said on the Oct 30, 2026 results call that AI lets AstraZeneca grow without adding as many people as it otherwise would.

AS

Aradhana Sarin

Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer

Aradhana Sarin has been CFO of AstraZeneca since Aug 2021 after serving as CFO of Alexion. AstraZeneca's 2025 remuneration report says Sarin led teams testing AI for invoice matching and journal entry, to be scaled across the company. Sarin said on the Oct 30, 2026 results call that AstraZeneca began changing many non-research processes about a year earlier so that AI could be embedded in them, one reason it launched the Reshaping for Sustainable Growth programme.

PC

Pam Cheng

Executive Vice-President, Global Operations, IT and Chief Sustainability Officer

Pam Cheng became AstraZeneca's Executive Vice-President, Operations and IT in Jun 2015 after 18 years at Merck/MSD and took on sustainability in Jan 2023. Cheng's Operations function runs the Wuxi and Swedish plants whose productivity gains AstraZeneca credits to digital and AI tools together.

SB

Sharon Barr

Executive Vice-President, BioPharmaceuticals R&D

Sharon Barr has led BioPharmaceuticals R&D since Aug 2023 and was previously SVP and head of research and product development at Alexion. Barr announced AstraZeneca's AI drug discovery deals with CSPC in Jun 2025 and insitro in Oct 2026.

SG

Susan Galbraith

Executive Vice-President, Oncology Haematology R&D

Susan Galbraith, a clinical oncologist, has led Oncology Haematology R&D as Executive Vice-President since Jul 2021 and wrote in Nov 2025 that AstraZeneca has embedded data and AI across oncology R&D. AstraZeneca's oncology R&D organisation, which Galbraith leads, describes its AI strategy as built on multimodal foundation models from the Tempus and Pathos collaboration and the Modella AI acquisition (Mar 2026).

AI org map

Central Enterprise AI unit since Dec 2025; AI and data teams inside R&D, IT and the businesses

AstraZeneca created a dedicated Enterprise AI unit in Dec 2025, announced by Pascal Soriot, to unify AI work across R&D, Commercial, Operations and corporate functions and deliver a single data foundation. Anne-Claire Gerbaldi, SVP and Chief Digital, Data and AI Officer, leads the unit, which includes an AI Science Innovation group and an AI Enterprise Process and Innovation Center under Cassie Gregson, while AI teams also sit in BioPharmaceuticals R&D, Oncology Haematology R&D and the IT organisation that reports to Pam Cheng, Executive Vice-President for Global Operations and IT.

AstraZeneca's AI workforce sits in a central Enterprise AI unit formed in Dec 2025, which includes an AI Science Innovation group and an AI Enterprise Process and Innovation Center, in R&D groups such as the Centre for Artificial Intelligence in BioPharmaceuticals R&D and the Oncology Data Science and AI team, and in IT teams for R&D and Commercial. AstraZeneca says more than 600 data science and AI experts support R&D (Aug 2026) but has published no company-wide count of AI staff or of the Enterprise AI unit.

Reporting lines

  • Chief Executive Officer

    Pascal Soriot

    • Enterprise AI unit

      Anne-Claire Gerbaldi, SVP, Chief Digital, Data and AI Officer

      Formed Dec 2025; AstraZeneca has not published whom the unit's head reports to, and Gerbaldi is not on the Senior Executive Team

      • AI Science Innovation

        Led by Jorge Reis-Filho from Dec 2025 until he left in Aug 2026; no successor found in public sources

      • AI Enterprise Process and Innovation Center (EPIC)

        Cassie Gregson, VP

        A job posting says the head reports to the SVP, Chief Digital, Data and AI Officer and sits on the Enterprise AI and HR leadership teams

    • Global Operations and IT

      Pam Cheng, EVP

      Senior Executive Team member; runs operations, IT and sustainability

      • R&D IT

        Built Development Assistant with AWS; led by Cassie Gregson until Dec 2025, with no successor found in public sources; the line to Pam Cheng is inferred from her IT remit, not published

    • BioPharmaceuticals R&D

      Sharon Barr, EVP

    • Oncology Haematology R&D

      Susan Galbraith, EVP

      • Oncology Data Science and AI

        Led by Jorge Reis-Filho until Dec 2025; current head not published

    • Finance and Global Business Services

      Aradhana Sarin, CFO

      Testing AI for invoice matching and journal entry (2025)

AstraZeneca's Apr 2025 upskilling article named Cindy Hoots as SVP, Chief Digital Officer and CIO, and Brian Dummann as Chief Data Officer. Hoots held the Chief Digital Officer and CIO roles from Jan 2020 until Apr 2026, according to her Zoom board biography, and Anne-Claire Gerbaldi was speaking as SVP, Chief Digital, Data and AI Officer by Jun 2026; AstraZeneca has not said whether Gerbaldi took over Hoots's remit, who holds the CIO role now, or whom Gerbaldi reports to. Jorge Reis-Filho, who led Oncology Data Science and AI and then the Enterprise AI unit's AI Science Innovation group, left in Aug 2026 to become Chief Strategy Officer of Foresite Labs. The Senior Executive Team listed in the 2025 annual report (Feb 10, 2026) and on AstraZeneca's leadership page includes no digital or AI executive, and Pam Cheng's title still covers IT.

Where the AI workforce sits

  • R&D data science and AI

    AstraZeneca's count of data science and AI experts supporting R&D (Aug 2026); the share of total AI staff is not disclosed.

    600+ people
  • Enterprise AI unit

    Formed Dec 2025 and hiring in Cambridge, UK and Barcelona in Oct 2026.

    Not disclosed
  • IT for R&D, Commercial and enabling functions

    R&D IT and Commercial IT build tools such as Development Assistant and Velocia.

    Not disclosed

Named people

Executive sponsors
  • Pascal Soriot

    Chief Executive Officer · Announced the Enterprise AI unit (Dec 2025)

  • Aradhana Sarin

    Chief Financial Officer · Led AI testing in finance (2025)

  • Pam Cheng

    EVP, Global Operations, IT and Chief Sustainability Officer

Enterprise AI unit

Oct 2026 job postings describe an AI Science Innovation group with an Applied AI Research team, and AI engineering roles for enabling functions such as HR, Finance and Legal. Jorge Reis-Filho, Chief of AI for Science Innovation from Dec 2025, left in Aug 2026.

  • Anne-Claire Gerbaldi

    SVP, Chief Digital, Data and AI Officer

  • Cassie Gregson

    VP, Head of AI Enterprise Process and Innovation Center (Dec 2025) · Global VP, R&D IT before Dec 2025

R&D data science and AI
600+ data science and AI experts support R&D (Aug 2026)
  • Tom Diethe

    Head of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence, BioPharmaceuticals R&D (Oct 2025)

  • Jim Weatherall

    Head of Enterprise Data Enablement, Enterprise Data Unit (Sep 2025)

R&D and Commercial IT
  • Vaishali Goyal

    Senior Director, R&D IT · Development Assistant

  • David Morgan

    Executive Director, Commercial IT, Medical, Market Access and Patient · Velocia

Medical evidence generation
  • Alex Bedenkov

    Vice President, Global Evidence, BioPharmaceuticals · Velocia

  • Deepa Lalla

    Vice President, Evidence Generation to Publications · Velocia

Use cases

AstraZeneca reports AI across drug discovery, clinical development, medical evidence, commercial screening programmes, manufacturing, finance and recruiting, with AI enabling more than 90% of its small molecule discovery pipeline (Feb 2026) and about 1,000 AI pilots running across the company (Apr 2026). AstraZeneca has published no business return credited to AI alone for any use case: the output and productivity gains it reported at its Wuxi, China plant and in Swedish production (Feb 2025) are credited to digital and AI tools together, with no share for AI. AstraZeneca reports no firm-level return or cost saving from AI; Pascal Soriot said in Oct 2026 that AI lets AstraZeneca grow without adding as many people, without giving a figure.

Use caseAreaStatusROI
Digital and AI tools at the Wuxi plant

AstraZeneca's plant in Wuxi, China runs more than 30 digital tools and AI solutions on selected processes and products, and the World Economic Forum named Wuxi a lighthouse manufacturing site in 2024. AstraZeneca reported in Feb 2025 that the tools together raised output 55% and productivity 54% on those processes, without separating the part due to AI.

OperationsIn production
Digital and AI tools in Swedish production

AstraZeneca's Swedish operations, which make a significant part of its global production, use digital and AI solutions and were named a World Economic Forum lighthouse site in 2024. AstraZeneca reported in Feb 2025 that digital and AI solutions together raised Swedish productivity 56%, without separating the part due to AI.

OperationsIn production
Agentic AI in synthetic drug development

AstraZeneca uses an agentic AI platform that combines scientific knowledge and simulation models to shorten synthetic drug development timelines, part of a push to scale AI across its supply network.

OperationsIn production
AI in small molecule discovery

AstraZeneca applies AI across more than 90% of its small molecule discovery pipeline, including REINVENT, which predicts molecular properties and optimises molecules before synthesis.

R&D discoveryIn production
AI in biologics design

AstraZeneca uses AI for antibody library generation, molecule optimisation and candidate prioritisation in biologics discovery, paired with lab automation, and reports early results in de novo antibody design.

R&D discoveryIn production
MILTON disease prediction

MILTON combines health records with genetic and protein data to predict the risk of more than 1,000 diseases and strengthen genetic association studies used to find drug targets.

R&D discoveryIn production
Partnered AI drug discovery

AstraZeneca pays partners to apply their AI discovery platforms: CSPC for oral small molecules and peptides (Jun 2025 and Jan 2026) and insitro to find targets and design medicines for MASH and cardiomyopathies (Oct 2026).

R&D discoveryAnnounced
Multimodal oncology foundation models

AstraZeneca is building oncology foundation models that combine images, omics and clinical text, through the Tempus and Pathos collaboration and the Modella AI acquisition, to inform target discovery and clinical development.

Oncology R&DPilot
Computational pathology (QCS)

AstraZeneca's QCS models score biomarkers in tumour tissue for patient selection; a TROP2 companion diagnostic built with Roche Tissue Diagnostics and Daiichi Sankyo received FDA Breakthrough Device Designation in 2025.

Oncology R&DPilot
Development Assistant

Development Assistant lets AstraZeneca clinical, regulatory, safety and quality teams ask questions in plain language and get answers with source tables from the Drug Development Data Platform.

Clinical developmentIn production
Velocia for medical evidence

Velocia connects multi-agent tools across the evidence generation process, from study design to publication, with human review at each step.

Clinical developmentPilot
Trial design and documents with Evinova

AstraZeneca uses Evinova's platform, including AI-driven study design and authoring, for its clinical trials and shares operational data with it under a Feb 2026 collaboration.

Clinical developmentIn production
AI-driven patient data collection and digital consent

AstraZeneca added AI-driven patient data collection and digital consent to clinical trial operations in 2025, shortening consent forms by 35%, moving 19 studies to new systems and cutting processing time from ten weeks to two.

Clinical developmentIn production
Trial recruitment and safety monitoring with Oracle

AstraZeneca and Oracle plan projects on trial recruitment, earlier diagnosis, drug-safety monitoring and real-world evidence, starting with hypertension care in Abu Dhabi.

Clinical developmentAnnounced
AI chest X-ray screening for lung cancer

AstraZeneca works with health systems and technology companies, among them Qure.ai, to run AI on routine chest X-rays to flag high-risk lung nodules, with more than six million AI-enabled X-rays in more than 20 markets by 2025.

CommercialIn production
Content creation and physician interactions

AstraZeneca deploys AI in Commercial to raise efficiency, produce marketing content and make interactions with physicians more relevant.

CommercialIn production
Invoice matching and journal entries

AstraZeneca's finance teams tested AI for invoice matching and journal entry in 2025, with plans to scale the projects across the company.

FinancePilot
AI tools in recruiting

AstraZeneca's talent acquisition teams use AI to automate interview scheduling and write job adverts, cutting administrative work (2024 annual report).

Human resourcesIn production
Copilot and the AI agent builder

AstraZeneca employees use Microsoft Copilot, researchers use generative AI tools for hypothesis generation and protocol authoring, and employees with a set level of AI accreditation got early access to an AI agent builder in 2025, building more than 1,500 agents in the first two months.

Company-wideIn production

Adoption

AstraZeneca spread AI first through R&D, where AI and data science were used in 85% of small molecule programmes by Feb 2025 and more than 90% of the small molecule discovery pipeline was AI-enabled by Feb 2026. AstraZeneca's AI training programme recorded more than 10,000 enrolments in 2024, more than 12,000 participants by Apr 2025, more than 37,700 by Oct 2025, and more than 50,000 participants with more than 102,000 certificates during 2025, against 96,100 employees; CFO Aradhana Sarin said in Apr 2026 that more than 17,000 employees were certified in AI and about 1,000 AI pilots were running. AstraZeneca has published no count of employees with access to a general assistant or using one each week; in 2024, 92% of 1,200 surveyed Microsoft Copilot users said they were saving time.

By the numbers

Small molecule discovery pipeline AI-enabled
90%+
2025 annual report, Feb 2026; AI and data science were used in 85% of small molecule programmes a year earlier
Active AI pilots
About 1,000
Running across AstraZeneca, CFO Aradhana Sarin to Fortune, Apr 2026
Employees in AI training (2025)
50,000+
Thriving in the Age of AI programme, out of 96,100 staff; more than 102,000 certificates awarded in 2025, and more than 17,000 employees certified by Apr 2026
Data science and AI experts in R&D
600+
AstraZeneca AI and data page, Aug 2026
AI-enabled chest X-rays
6M+
In more than 20 markets for early lung cancer screening (2025 annual report, Feb 2026)
Employees
96,100
End of 2025, up from 94,300 a year earlier (2025 annual report)

Rollout, first pilot to today

  1. Nov 2023

    AstraZeneca launched Evinova, a separate health-tech business selling digital trial tools already used in AstraZeneca trials in more than 40 countries.

    Evinova

  2. 2024

    AstraZeneca opened a generative AI accreditation programme to all employees and recorded more than 10,000 enrolments in its first year.

    2024 Annual Report

  3. Feb 2025

    AstraZeneca reported AI and data science in 85% of its small molecule programmes, employee use of Microsoft Copilot, and lighthouse plants in Wuxi and Sweden using digital and AI tools.

    2024 Annual Report

  4. Apr 2025

    More than 12,000 AstraZeneca employees had taken part in the AI upskilling programme, which added Platinum and Diamond levels for agentic AI.

    AstraZeneca

  5. Apr 2025

    AstraZeneca signed multi-year agreements with Tempus and Pathos to build a multimodal oncology foundation model.

    Pathos AI

  6. Aug 2025

    AstraZeneca co-founded Sferical AI with Ericsson, Saab, SEB and Wallenberg Investments to run a shared NVIDIA supercomputer in Sweden.

    Sferical AI

  7. Oct 2025

    More than 37,700 AstraZeneca employees had joined Thriving in the Age of AI in 2025, and employees built more than 1,500 agents in the first two months of the AI Agent Builder, open to those with a set accreditation level.

    AstraZeneca

  8. Dec 2025

    AstraZeneca created a dedicated Enterprise AI unit and acquired Modella AI during the fourth quarter.

    2025 Annual Report

  9. Feb 2026

    AstraZeneca reported more than 90% of its small molecule discovery pipeline AI-enabled, more than 50,000 employees in its AI programme in 2025, and an AI agent builder for teams.

    2025 Annual Report

  10. Apr 2026

    AstraZeneca had certified more than 17,000 employees in AI and had about 1,000 AI pilots running, according to CFO Aradhana Sarin.

    Fortune

  11. Oct 2026

    AstraZeneca described Velocia, whose first multi-agent solutions are being validated on real studies in 2026, Sferical AI launched Sferical One for drug discovery work, and Anne-Claire Gerbaldi spoke for AstraZeneca on the Oracle collaboration as Chief Digital, Data and AI Officer.

    AstraZeneca

Economics & controls

Spend and ROI

Technology and R&D spending

AstraZeneca does not disclose a technology budget or AI spending. AstraZeneca's R&D expense was $14.2 billion in 2025 on Total Revenue of $58.7 billion, and CFO Aradhana Sarin wrote in the 2025 annual report that AI requires investment in data foundations, technology and people.

What AI deals cost

AstraZeneca's disclosed AI partnership payments are deal terms, not running costs: $110 million upfront to CSPC for AI-enabled research (Jun 2025), $1.2 billion upfront to CSPC for eight weight management programmes plus access to its AI peptide design and monthly dosing technology (Jan 2026), and $40 million upfront to insitro with up to about $1.46 billion in milestones (Oct 2026). The Tempus and Pathos agreements include $200 million in fees to Tempus, and AstraZeneca has not disclosed the Modella AI price or its investment in Sferical AI, in which it holds 20%.

Reported ROI

AstraZeneca reports no financial return credited to AI alone, for any use case or for the company. The plant gains AstraZeneca reported in Feb 2025, output up 55% and productivity up 54% on selected processes at Wuxi and productivity up 56% in Swedish production, are credited to digital and AI tools together, with no share given for AI, and the 2025 annual report does not repeat them. Pascal Soriot said in Feb 2026 that the Evinova collaboration should bring significant productivity gains, AWS says Development Assistant drives significant cost savings, CFO Aradhana Sarin said in Apr 2026 that value comes from moving AI pilots into production, and Soriot told CNBC in Jun 2026 that the value of AI in the industry is productivity improvement, but none gives a figure.

Productivity markers

AstraZeneca reported in Feb 2025 that 92% of 1,200 surveyed Microsoft Copilot users experienced time savings, and an AWS case study says Development Assistant cut answers that took hours to minutes. AstraZeneca's Global Business Services reported $40 million in annual savings in 2025, and process documentation that AstraZeneca calls a foundation for AI readiness yielded more than 70 optimisation initiatives and contributed to a 9% rise in organisational productivity; AstraZeneca does not credit these gains to AI.

Headcount

AstraZeneca employed 96,100 people at the end of 2025, up from 94,300 a year earlier, and has not tied any headcount change to AI. AstraZeneca's Oct 30, 2026 results announced a Reshaping for Sustainable Growth programme to redeploy resources over three years, costing up to $2.0 billion in one-time restructuring costs and targeting $1.5 billion in annualised pre-tax run-rate benefits, with activities essentially complete by the end of 2029. On the results call, CFO Aradhana Sarin named AstraZeneca's work since about a year earlier to change non-research processes so AI could be embedded among the reasons for starting the programme, and Pascal Soriot said AI lets AstraZeneca grow without adding as many people as it otherwise would; AstraZeneca has not said how much of the $1.5 billion comes from AI. AstraZeneca said in Oct 2026 that its more than $1 billion Massachusetts investment, including a Kendall Square R&D centre with labs that integrate robotics, automation and agentic AI, will grow its workforce in the state by more than 50%.

Governance and risk

Principles and framework

AstraZeneca was among the first drugmakers to publish data and AI ethics principles, covering explainability, fairness, accountability, human-centric benefit, and privacy and security. AstraZeneca's Enterprise AI Governance Framework, aligned with the EU AI Act and the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, sets policies and guardrails for building, buying, deploying and using AI, including procurement, third-party due diligence and employee usage (Feb 2025).

AI as a principal risk

AstraZeneca's 2025 annual report lists failure to collect and manage data or AI in line with legal and regulatory requirements and strategic objectives as a principal risk, including failure to identify, prioritise and scale the right AI opportunities. AstraZeneca names the Enterprise Data Council, the Enterprise AI Governance Framework and Standard, and its data privacy framework and impact assessments as controls.

Data boundary

AstraZeneca's Enterprise Data Office and Enterprise Data Council run data governance, and privacy concerns go to Senior Executive Team data governance boards. AstraZeneca says it reviews third-party AI providers' data protection standards. The Oracle collaboration uses de-identified real-world data, AstraZeneca receives no patient-identifiable information, and each project proceeds only once legal, privacy, regulatory, ethical and institutional safeguards are in place (Oct 2026).

Human oversight of agents

AstraZeneca built Velocia under its risk-based AI Governance Framework with human oversight, traceability and review at each step, following the EMA and FDA guiding principles for AI in drug development published in Jan 2026. Development Assistant passed cybersecurity and AI governance checks before production, and Enterprise AI job postings in Oct 2026 describe model registration, approval workflows, drift and bias monitoring, AI red-teaming and EU AI Act risk classification.

Board and security oversight

AstraZeneca's Science Committee held sessions in 2025 on multimodal foundation models for clinical development and data access for AI, as part of a multi-meeting review of AI's effect on R&D. AstraZeneca added emerging AI scenarios and its new AI standards to mandatory cybersecurity training in 2025 and reported no material cybersecurity incidents that year.

Recent signals

  1. Oct 30, 2026

    AstraZeneca launched a Reshaping for Sustainable Growth programme targeting $1.5 billion in annualised pre-tax run-rate benefits; on the results call Aradhana Sarin cited work to embed AI in non-research processes as a reason, and Pascal Soriot said AI lets AstraZeneca grow without adding as many people.

    Q3 2026 call transcript

  2. Oct 20, 2026

    AstraZeneca and Oracle Health and Life Sciences announced a global AI collaboration on trial recruitment, earlier diagnosis and drug-safety monitoring under a non-binding term sheet, with Anne-Claire Gerbaldi speaking as Chief Digital, Data and AI Officer.

    AstraZeneca

  3. Oct 15, 2026

    AstraZeneca signed a drug discovery deal with insitro to apply its AI platform to MASH and cardiomyopathies, paying $40 million upfront with up to about $1.46 billion in milestones.

    AstraZeneca

  4. Oct 15, 2026

    AstraZeneca described Velocia, a multi-agent AI system for medical evidence generation built on its enterprise AI and data platforms, with its first solutions in validation on real studies.

    AstraZeneca

  5. Oct 15, 2026

    Sferical AI launched Sferical One, a shared NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD in Sweden built for AstraZeneca and other founders, naming drug discovery at AstraZeneca among the areas the companies are beginning to explore on it.

    Sferical AI

  6. Oct 5, 2026

    AstraZeneca opened an R&D centre in Kendall Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts for nearly 2,000 researchers, with labs that integrate robotics, continuous automation and agentic AI.

    AstraZeneca

  7. Aug 19, 2026

    Foresite Labs named Jorge Reis-Filho, AstraZeneca's Chief of AI for Science Innovation in the Enterprise AI unit, as its Chief Strategy Officer; no AstraZeneca successor appears in public sources.

    Foresite Labs

  8. Jun 5, 2026

    Pascal Soriot told CNBC that AstraZeneca built an agent combining clinical and lab data to estimate the chance a Phase III trial succeeds, using models from its Tempus partnership, on trials that cost $300 million to $500 million each.

    CNBC

  9. May 13, 2026

    Owkin signed a three-year licence with AstraZeneca to build AI agents on its K Pro platform for competitive intelligence in drug development decisions, integrated into AstraZeneca's IT infrastructure.

    Owkin

  10. Apr 30, 2026

    CFO Aradhana Sarin told Fortune that AstraZeneca had certified more than 17,000 employees in AI and had about 1,000 AI pilots running, and that value comes from moving pilots into production.

    Fortune

  11. Feb 18, 2026

    Evinova announced strategic collaborations with AstraZeneca, Astellas and Bristol Myers Squibb on its AI platform for clinical development, with each sharing operational data.

    Evinova

  12. Feb 2026

    AstraZeneca's 2025 annual report said more than 90% of its small molecule discovery pipeline is AI-enabled and more than 50,000 employees took part in its AI programme in 2025.

    2025 Annual Report

  13. Jan 30, 2026

    AstraZeneca agreed to pay CSPC $1.2 billion upfront for eight weight management programmes and access to CSPC's AI-driven peptide discovery platform.

    AstraZeneca

  14. Jan 13, 2026

    Modella AI announced its acquisition by AstraZeneca, which AstraZeneca's full-year results place in Q4 2025, to bring its pathology foundation models and AI agents into oncology R&D.

    Modella AI via BioSpace

  15. Dec 2025

    Pascal Soriot announced a dedicated Enterprise AI unit to deliver a single data foundation and speed up high-value AI initiatives across AstraZeneca.

    2025 Annual Report

Quick answers

How does AstraZeneca deploy AI?
AstraZeneca deploys AI through an Enterprise AI unit formed in Dec 2025, with Anne-Claire Gerbaldi as Chief Digital, Data and AI Officer, building agentic tools such as Velocia on its own data platforms, using Microsoft Copilot and Amazon Bedrock, and partnering with Tempus, Pathos and insitro on foundation models and drug discovery. AI enables more than 90% of AstraZeneca's small molecule discovery pipeline, and about 1,000 AI pilots were running in Apr 2026. AstraZeneca reports no financial return credited to AI alone.
What does AstraZeneca use AI for?
AstraZeneca reports AI across drug discovery, clinical development, medical evidence, commercial screening programmes, manufacturing, finance and recruiting, with AI enabling more than 90% of its small molecule discovery pipeline (Feb 2026) and about 1,000 AI pilots running across the company (Apr 2026). AstraZeneca has published no business return credited to AI alone for any use case: the output and productivity gains it reported at its Wuxi, China plant and in Swedish production (Feb 2025) are credited to digital and AI tools together, with no share for AI. AstraZeneca reports no firm-level return or cost saving from AI; Pascal Soriot said in Oct 2026 that AI lets AstraZeneca grow without adding as many people, without giving a figure.
Who leads AI at AstraZeneca?
AI at AstraZeneca is led by Anne-Claire Gerbaldi (SVP, Chief Digital, Data and AI Officer); Cassie Gregson (Vice President, Head of AI Enterprise Process and Innovation Center (EPIC), Enterprise AI unit); Tom Diethe (Executive Director, Head of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence, BioPharmaceuticals R&D). Ownership of AI on the org chart: SVP, Chief Digital, Data and AI Officer; Enterprise AI unit since Dec 2025.
What AI platform does AstraZeneca use?
AstraZeneca builds agentic tools on its own enterprise AI and data platforms, among them Development Assistant for clinical data and Velocia for medical evidence, and in 2025 gave employees who reach a set level of AI accreditation early access to an AI agent builder; more than 1,500 agents were built in the first two months.
Which AI models does AstraZeneca use?
AstraZeneca uses several providers: Microsoft Copilot (2024), Amazon Bedrock Agents for Development Assistant, in-house foundation models in R&D, models from its Tempus partnership, and Modella AI's models after buying the company in Q4 2025.
How many AstraZeneca employees use AI?
More than 50,000 of AstraZeneca's 96,100 employees took part in its Thriving in the Age of AI programme in 2025, more than 17,000 were certified in AI by Apr 2026, and AI enables more than 90% of the small molecule discovery pipeline (Feb 2026).
How far has AI spread at AstraZeneca?
AstraZeneca sits at Scaling: AI enables more than 90% of its small molecule discovery pipeline, agentic tools such as Development Assistant run in production on clinical, regulatory, safety and quality data, about 1,000 AI pilots were running in Apr 2026, and AstraZeneca formed a dedicated Enterprise AI unit in Dec 2025 with Anne-Claire Gerbaldi as Chief Digital, Data and AI Officer. AstraZeneca meets the reach test only in part: more than 50,000 of its 96,100 employees joined its AI training programme in 2025 and trained employees got an AI agent builder, but AstraZeneca has not said how many employees use a general AI assistant. AstraZeneca falls short of Embedded because it reports no weekly usage figure and no financial return credited to AI alone; its only published gains, at two plants, are credited to digital and AI tools together, and Pascal Soriot's Oct 2026 remark that AI lets AstraZeneca grow without adding as many people came with no figure.

Open questions

  • When did Anne-Claire Gerbaldi become AstraZeneca's Chief Digital, Data and AI Officer, whom does Gerbaldi report to, and did Gerbaldi take over the remit Cindy Hoots held until Apr 2026?
  • How many people work in AstraZeneca's Enterprise AI unit, who replaced Jorge Reis-Filho at the head of its AI Science Innovation group, and how does the unit divide work with IT under Pam Cheng?
  • How many AstraZeneca employees can use Microsoft Copilot or another general AI assistant, and how many use one each week?
  • What does AstraZeneca spend on AI each year, and what did it pay for Modella AI and its 20% stake in Sferical AI?
  • What business return do AstraZeneca's deployed AI tools deliver, such as Development Assistant, REINVENT, the AI agent builder and AI in commercial content?
  • Which models does Development Assistant use on Amazon Bedrock, and which providers sit behind Velocia and the Enterprise AI platforms?
  • How much of AstraZeneca's AI training and inference will move to Sferical One, and does AstraZeneca run AI in its own data centers?
  • Which targets sit behind the Enterprise AI unit's aim of significant improvements across the value chain by 2030?
  • How much of the Wuxi and Swedish productivity gains comes from AI as opposed to other digital tools, and have they been updated since Feb 2025?
  • How many of AstraZeneca's roughly 1,000 AI pilots (Apr 2026) have moved into production, and what do they return?
  • How much of the $1.5 billion in annualised run-rate benefits targeted by AstraZeneca's Reshaping for Sustainable Growth programme (Oct 2026) comes from embedding AI in its processes?
  • By when does AstraZeneca expect to meet its 100% workforce AI proficiency commitment?

Sources

AstraZeneca

Data confidence

Confirmed
Stated in a primary or reputable public source.
Estimated
Derived or approximated from public reporting.
Unconfirmed
Reported, but not yet corroborated.

AstraZeneca profile · Enterprise AI diffusion report by Imagine · facts checked against their sources on Nov 1, 2026