AI Assistants, Agents and a New Era of AI in Life Sciences

Author: Harietta Eleftherochorinou, Vice President, AI Strategy and Operations, IQVIA

We are entering a new era of artificial intelligence (AI) in life sciences, where generative AI, conversational AI and AI agents are transforming day-to-day operations.

Imagine having the power to ask questions to the world’s most sophisticated global healthcare and life sciences data sources and get the precise answers you need — in a matter of seconds. Imagine having a dedicated assistant in some of the most complex workflows in life sciences. This is now possible with IQVIA AI Assistant.

Launched in September 2024 for use across select IQVIA products, IQVIA AI Assistant builds upon IQVIA’s rich legacy in developing AI over decades. Built on IQVIA Healthcare-grade AI™, a proven and trusted foundation on data privacy, security and regulatory compliance, IQVIA AI Assistant offers value to life sciences professionals delivering answers at the precision, speed and trust the healthcare and life sciences industry requires.

Pharma’s challenge: Bending time in bringing drugs to market

Bringing a drug to market is a complex, highly regulated and data-intensive undertaking that takes on average over a decade. Complicated operations require all those involved in intricate workflows to make informed decisions based on the data at hand to maximize value to patients. Every question, decision and data-driven workflow matters.

The widespread adoption of AI in life sciences promises to help professionals receive smarter, more efficient outputs from their data instantly. For decades, getting significant value out of AI required substantial time investment and expertise. Generative AI, foundational models, AI assistants and AI agents are bringing about a transformation in pharma that has not been witnessed in the past.

Paving the way in AI

Over the course of decades, IQVIA has paved the way in human data science, advanced analytics and AI, including predictive analytics, disease models, machine learning algorithms and natural language processing platforms. Key areas of AI application include:

• Identifying trends and making predictions related to clinical outcomes, disease progression, adverse events, risk of nonadherence and other relevant factors.
• Identifying which sites best align with the clinical trial design and recruitment goals.
• Improving patient safety by predicting potential adverse events.
• Improving patient adherence by identifying patients who are at high risk of adherence lapses (by analyzing factors such as side effects, comorbidities, cost issues and social determinants of health).

Most recently, IQVIA harnessed the capabilities of generative AI to develop IQVIA AI Assistant. This new generative AI capability enables life sciences professionals to use natural language prompts directly in their workflows, transforming how they obtain data-driven insights, summaries and recommendations from IQVIA’s unrivaled data assets.

IQVIA AI Assistant provides value to a wide variety of stakeholders, including market researchers, brand and marketing managers, sales professionals and content creators.

Introducing the first two commercial implementations of IQVIA AI Assistant

IQVIA AI Assistant is now available as an integrated feature for the first two of many IQVIA products: Orchestrated Analytics and ChannelDynamics® Verbatim. Additional products with IQVIA AI Assistant are planned for 2025 and beyond to bring this innovative capability to more customers. It can also be integrated into custom solutions to help customers improve the accessibility of their own data assets.

IQVIA Orchestrated Analytics with AI Assistant

IQVIA Orchestrated Analytics is a software ecosystem of applications for commercial analytics built on a unified data platform. It can deliver brand and territory analytics, competitive intelligence, customer insights and performance metrics. It is differentiated by its algorithms, which are trained on IQVIA’s vast data assets for unparalleled precision.

Integrating IQVIA AI Assistant enables customers to ask natural-language questions with its conversational interface. For example: 

• How are our brands performing in [territory]?
• Can you tell me more about [healthcare professional (HCP) name]?
• How am I doing against my competitors?

The answers to these and other questions can quickly be accessed using this highly intuitive interface within preferred workplace tools, such as email, Teams or mobile texts.

IQVIA Orchestrated Analytics with AI Assistant delivers fast, actionable insights and ensures top-tier security and data governance. It can also combine multiple tasks to address complex multistep business challenges, like market landscaping.

IQVIA ChannelDynamics Verbatim with AI Assistant

IQVIA ChannelDynamics Verbatim is a comprehensive global database of HCP “verbatim” marketing messages linked to performance and perception metrics at the brand, manufacturer, therapeutic area and indication levels. It allows brand teams to understand how their messaging resonates among HCPs and how it compares across different markets and the competition.

With the integration of IQVIA AI Assistant, customers can obtain real-time summaries and analyses by asking natural-language questions. Potential questions include the main reasons for increased intent-to-prescribe specific brands, common themes linked to NPS scores of 9 and 10, or whether messages are more positively received via tablets versus printed materials.

With IQVIA ChannelDynamics Verbatim with AI Assistant, users can obtain verbatim summaries, commercial message profile analyses, competitive and multicountry comparisons, and more.

IQVIA AI Assistant, your new expert assistant

IQVIA AI Assistant unlocks faster access to many of IQVIA’s widely used syndicated data repositories and world-class data-analytics capabilities to deliver answers with precision, speed and trust. IQVIA AI Assistant, an expert in life sciences, greatly enhances how users generate clinical and commercial insights to inform better, more effective strategies and operations.

To learn more, visit the IQVIA AI Assistant webpage.