"AI Agents in Pharma, from pilots to real-world use cases" Grünenthal Success Story

The pharmaceutical industry is entering a transformative era as artificial intelligence evolves from isolated pilots into robust, enterprise-level capabilities. This shift is redefining scientific workflows, decision-making processes, and the way companies engage with healthcare professionals. At the forefront of this evolution is Grünenthal, a global leader in pain research, whose AI journey illustrates how intelligent agents can drive efficiency, accelerate innovation, and elevate customer-centricity across the organisation. The conference is introduced by Alfonso López, Head of Pharma at ShowerThinking, who partnered with Grünenthal to co-create the event in Madrid. Alfonso emphasizes that AI has moved beyond experimentation and is now a strategic pillar shaping the future of pharmaceutical operations, scientific excellence, and engagement models. His introduction frames Grünenthal’s AI work as a blueprint for the industry’s next chapter. Grünenthal’s journey began with focused pilots aimed at solving critical bottlenecks in information management. Scientific and regulatory teams were navigating vast volumes of documentation—from clinical evidence to regulatory submissions. Early AI agents were deployed to summarise, compare, and interpret these complex materials, dramatically reducing analysis time while maintaining compliance and scientific rigor. These wins built organisational trust and paved the way for broader adoption. AI was then extended into R&D, where intelligent agents supported data exploration and early-stage research. By analysing preclinical datasets and uncovering correlations, AI became an analytical partner to researchers—enhancing scientific depth while freeing teams from manual data processing. Pharmacovigilance and medical affairs also benefited, with AI streamlining literature screening and safety case prioritisation, enabling earlier detection of potential risks while keeping experts firmly in control. A major strategic shift is occurring in Grünenthal’s customer engagement model, led by Nick Lagan, Global Head of Omnichannel. He highlights the growing expectation among healthcare professionals for personalised, relevant, and timely communication. Meeting these expectations requires overcoming foundational challenges in content creation, metadata quality, and orchestration—areas where AI agents now play an essential role. AI supports the creation of personalised, scientifically accurate content and significantly improves tagging accuracy, ensuring assets are discoverable and consistently classified. In the Medical, Legal, and Regulatory (MLR) process, AI pre-checks materials, flags risks, verifies references, and reduces repetitive feedback cycles. It also synthesises multichannel engagement data, enabling clearer insight generation and more precise next-best-action planning. Grünenthal’s pilots with Agentforce showcase how autonomous AI agents can support field teams, prepare personalised materials, interpret analytics, and orchestrate dynamic customer journeys. These advancements are reinforced by a strong governance framework that maintains transparency, compliance, and cross-functional alignment. AI is now embedded across Grünenthal’s operations—accelerating research, improving safety monitoring, and transforming engagement. Guided by leaders like Alfonso López and Nick Lagan, Grünenthal’s experience demonstrates how responsible, strategic AI adoption is reshaping the future of the pharmaceutical industry. ⚠️Participants of this video⚠️ Nick Lagan   / nicklagan   Alfonso López   / alopezrueda