Here's the uncomfortable truth about AI in life sciences: While eight in ten companies now use generative AI, 80% report no tangible bottom-line benefits. Despite widespread experimentation, most organizations haven't realized measurable business value. McKinsey's latest research on agentic AI in life sciences reveals a transformative opportunity that's hard to ignore. According to their analysis, 75–85% of pharma and medtech workflows can be enhanced or automated by AI agents, potentially freeing up 25–40% of organizational capacity and boosting EBITDA by up to five points within five years. Yet despite widespread AI experimentation across the industry, most companies haven't realized measurable business value.
In my 25 years working with Pega, I've seen many technology waves promise transformation. What makes this moment different is that we're witnessing a fundamental shift in how AI works alongside people – moving from AI as a tool to AI as a coworker.
The AI paradox and its solution
Here's the challenge: While nearly eight in ten companies now use generative AI, 80% report no tangible bottom-line benefits. Function-specific AI pilots remain isolated. They analyze and predict; but rarely act. The breakthrough comes when companies implement a well-defined agentic AI strategy, orchestrating these capabilities across complex, regulated workflows. That's where AI agents change everything. These aren't simple chatbots; they're intelligent systems that can coordinate multi-step tasks, collaborate with humans, and execute workflows autonomously while continuously learning and improving.
Six battlegrounds for value creation
McKinsey identifies six critical areas where agentic AI will unlock the greatest value in life sciences. Agents in pharma R&D now automate data analysis, protocol drafting, and regulatory submissions, speeding up discovery. For clinical trials, they're orchestrating trial design and site management, cutting activation timelines from months to weeks. In medtech R&D, generative design and compliance agents are accelerating innovation while reducing risk.
The commercial impact is equally compelling. Agents are driving 4–8% higher revenues through AI-powered sales, marketing, and contract optimization. In operations and supply chain, they're coordinating procurement, manufacturing, and quality workflows with real-time decisioning. And critically, in IT transformation, they're helping companies avoid "AI sprawl" through low-code governance and agent-to-agent orchestration.
Why Pega is uniquely positioned
The key insight from McKinsey is that success requires moving beyond isolated pilots to what they call an "agent mesh," interconnected agents working seamlessly across domains. This is precisely where Pega's architecture excels.
Unlike vendors offering isolated AI copilots or domain-specific clouds, Pega uniquely supports organizations executing a full agentic AI strategy, delivering three capabilities that make the McKinsey vision real:
Unified case management
Pega connects end-to-end life sciences processes. When a global leader in biotechnology and diagnostics centralized its protein and antibody request fulfillment on Pega, they weren’t just automating 15–20 request pathways, they enabled real-time collaboration across 1,000 scientists, CROs, and core labs while decommissioning 5+ legacy systems.
AI orchestration with enterprise governance
Pega blends predictive, generative, and adaptive intelligence. Pega’s enterprise governance ensures every agent operates transparently, safely, and in line with regulatory requirements. You get the agility McKinsey emphasizes – without the chaos of shadow IT or disconnected tools.
Low-code agility for domain experts
Pega empowers scientists, marketers, and clinicians to build and refine workflows collaboratively. This isn’t about IT building everything from scratch; it’s about enabling the people who know the processes best, while maintaining auditability and scalability.
With Pega Infinity 25, AgentX™ API, and Blueprint™, organizations can transform existing workflows into agentic experiences within minutes. This isn't vaporware; these capabilities are production-ready today.
Real-world impact: Digital transformation in biopharma
At PegaWorld 2025, a pioneering biopharma company (that is driving advances in oncology and personalized healthcare) shared their journey implementing their "Centre-Out Orchestration" –with AI-powered decisioning across their enterprise platforms, global supply chain, manufacturing, and drug development operations.
The time to act is now
McKinsey urges life sciences leaders to take a "top-down, workflow-reimagined" approach rather than continuing with incremental pilots. Having worked with dozens of life sciences organizations through digital transformations, I can tell you that the leaders who act now will establish competitive advantages that will be difficult for laggards to overcome.
The winners in this next era will be those who orchestrate their agents, people, and processes together securely, compliantly, and at scale. This isn't about replacing human expertise; it's about amplifying it. Agentic AI represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reinvent the life sciences enterprise, accelerate breakthrough therapies to patients, and create sustainable competitive advantage.
With Pega, that future isn't aspirational, it's already here. The question isn't whether your organization should embrace agentic AI, but whether you can afford to wait while your competitors move ahead.
Ready to explore how agentic AI can transform your life sciences workflows? Use Pega Blueprint™ to discover your fastest path to agentic AI results.