That was the challenge we worked on with our partner. Despite initiatives to explore AI, the efforts were fragmented and rarely moved beyond pilot stage. Without a cohesive strategy, valuable opportunities risked being lost. To stay competitive in an increasingly contested rare disease market and deliver on its vision, our partner needed a clear approach to prioritize, scale, and align AI initiatives with business goals.

That was the challenge we worked on with our partner. Despite initiatives to explore AI, the efforts were fragmented and rarely moved beyond pilot stage. Without a cohesive strategy, valuable opportunities risked being lost. To stay competitive in an increasingly contested rare disease market and deliver on its vision, our partner needed a clear approach to prioritize, scale, and align AI initiatives with business goals.

We worked closely withour partner to bring structure and direction to their AI journey. Through ahighly collaborative process, anchored in workshops with stakeholders,executive interviews, and industry benchmarking,we co-developed a strategy that balanced ambition with practicality, ensuringit was rooted in the partner’s broader objectives and organizational realities.

Our approach unfolded in three clear phases:

1. Assessing AI maturity by benchmarking against industry leaders to highlight strengths and gaps
2. Identifying high-value use cases mapped directly to strategic priorities, feasibility, and cross-functional synergies
3. Designing a commercial AI roadmap to guide execution, governance, and capability building, ensuring the strategy could translate into tangible action

We worked closely withour partner to bring structure and direction to their AI journey. Through ahighly collaborative process, anchored in workshops with stakeholders,executive interviews, and industry benchmarking,we co-developed a strategy that balanced ambition with practicality, ensuringit was rooted in the partner’s broader objectives and organizational realities.

Our approach unfolded in three clear phases:

1. Assessing AI maturity by benchmarking against industry leaders to highlight strengths and gaps
2. Identifying high-value use cases mapped directly to strategic priorities, feasibility, and cross-functional synergies
3. Designing a commercial AI roadmap to guide execution, governance, and capability building, ensuring the strategy could translate into tangible action

The engagement produced five concrete deliverables:

1. A structured AI maturity assessment
2. A comprehensive view of the data ecosystem landscape, clarifying feasiblity for AI adoption
3. A prioritized portfolio of AI use cases tied to commercial objectives
4. A governance model with well-defined roles, responsibilities and governance levels across strategic, tactical, and operational layers
5. A unified,actionable AI roadmap outlining next steps for implementation and scaling

The project enabled our partner to move from fragmented AI experiments to a unified, value-driven strategy. The maturity assessment gave leaders a clear view of their current position against industry benchmarks along with concrete recommendations for operating model design, governance, and key roles. Combined with the data ecosystem assessment, this created a realistic foundation for prioritization. The resulting portfolio of use cases and unified roadmap gave teams clarity on where to begin, how to allocate resources, and how to build toward scalable impact, creating alignment across functions and turning ambition into actionable next steps.

‍

The new AI strategy laid the groundwork for scaling use cases into adjacent areas such as market access and medical functions. By creating a repeatable approach to evaluate and prioritize opportunities, the company can now generate more consistent, data-driven insights across functions.

In rare diseases, where data points are often limited and fragmented, this alignment is especially powerful. It enables a deeper understanding of markets and treatment landscapes, helping to raise awareness among healthcare professionals and improve visibility of therapeutic options. Beyond efficiency gains, the strategy positions the company as an innovator while ultimately supporting faster access and better outcomes for patients.