AI-First in Pharma: Altimetrik’s Vision for the Future of Life Sciences

AI-First Is the Future of Pharmaceuticals: Ramji Vasudevan

The Pharma Letter has published an expert view by Ramji Vasudevan, Head of Life Sciences at Altimetrik, titled “AI-first is not a strategy. It’s how the next generation of pharmaceuticals will operate.”

In the article, Ramji explains why pharmaceutical companies must move beyond pilots and embrace AI-first operations as a foundation for growth. He highlights Altimetrik’s own journey including the creation of Alti AI Adoption Lab, an AI innovation engine that accelerates experiments across drug discovery, clinical development, manufacturing, supply chain intelligence, and commercial analytics. By reducing time-to-value for AI initiatives by over 30%, Alti AI Adoption Lab demonstrates how pharma can achieve faster, scalable results.

Ramji also stresses that the real shift is cultural, not just technological requiring leadership to integrate AI deeply into core processes while empowering employees to adopt new AI-driven capabilities. With agentic AI on the horizon, he calls on pharma leaders to take decisive action or risk being outpaced by AI-native competitors.