Navigating the AI frontier: Leadership lessons from WBL

Reflections from the 16th Women in BioPharma Leadership Event.

Since 2018, Women in BioPharma Leadership has been a space not just for networking, but for shared exploration of the big forces shaping our industry. It is a community created to connect, inspire and elevate female leadership in life sciences.

At our latest event on May 21st, we welcomed over 30 leaders from across the BioPharma industry to our 16th Women in BioPharma Leadership (WBL) event, turning our attention to a topic generating both promise and uncertainty: the role of AI in the Pharmaceutical industry.

The session, which featured special guest speaker Natasha Gray, an esteemed digital health and life sciences strategist, provided both technical knowledge as well as strategic clarity; showing that AI can be both a catalyst for innovation and a very human leadership challenge.

Here’s what we learned, and what we believe leaders must carry forward.

Getting past the noise

One of the loudest themes in any conversation about AI is… noise. It’s easy to feel behind, to believe others have it figured out while you’re still getting your affairs in order. But we know from our work across the industry that most organisations, and people, are still early in their AI maturity. The leaders shaping this transformation are not those who feel most certain, but those who are most willing to explore, question, and evolve (and who understand the importance of change management to successfully bring others on board).

This isn’t about catching up, it’s about leaning in.

As Natasha shared with our network, the real barriers are rarely technical. What’s harder is translating AI capability into business strategy, building internal confidence and digital literacy across functions, and embedding governance that enables experimentation rather than restricts it.

The leaders at the forefront of this shift aren’t the ones with all the answers – they’re the ones who are being curious, who can see through the noise.

Understanding the three levels of AI impact

We asked our WBL network what AI is proving to be the most useful for (inspiration, speed, transcribing meetings) and what the biggest challenges standing in their way to using it more effectively are (compliance, confidentiality, fear of de-skilling and hallucinations).

It became clear that most people are at similar points on their AI adoption journey, facing familiar challenges, with only a select few confirming that they (& their organisations) are truly starting to realise the benefits of AI and drive the future possibilities.

The framework shared, really brought to life the 3 levels leaders should keep top of mine when considering how to impactfully implement AI across their teams and organisations.

1. Everyday efficiency – to create efficiency gains in routine tasks, and free up human energy to boost productivity. For example, you could use Microsoft Copilot to summarise meeting transcripts and provide a clear list of actions agreed, or a specialised tool to automate certain administrative tasks like Omega health did, saving over 15,000 employee hours per month.

2. Enhanced processes – to re-shape critical processes that enhance speed and accuracy. For example, using it to personalise learning journeys and engagement strategies or automate regulatory submissions. Or even implementing AI-driven pharmacovigilance systems that increase the speed and accuracy of adverse event detection.

3. Business model reinvention – where AI doesn’t just optimise, but opens up fundamentally new ways to deliver value. E.g., using AI to screen molecules and accelerate the drug discovery process, or enhance patient identification precision.

But being able to leverage AI in the most impactful way, requires confident navigation through ambiguity, cross-functional collaboration and purposeful experimentation, at all levels of the business, so you can learn to distinguish hype from meaningful innovation.

Making it practical: Prompting for progress

A guiding light we always return to is that technology should amplify the human, not replace it.

The same is true with AI. The real opportunity isn’t in having the perfect prompt, (although that is inherently useful) it’s about using AI as a companion in our work. To pressure test ideas, to draft faster and iterate smarter or to automate processes.

It’s not about relinquishing our expertise. It’s about elevating it, so that we can focus more on judgement, creativity, and strategic thinking.

To bring this to life, the event offered tools and examples that helped ground this conversation in day-to-day leadership. These included:

• Use cases across the pharma value chain, from discovery to commercial.
• A live example using ChatGPT to simulate an advisory board.
• A breakout session via Miro, where participants shared ways to overcome fears and lead through change.
• Tips for high-quality prompting – because how you ask shapes what you get. 
  • And if you’re already a dab-hand at prompting and want to progress to the next stage, why not consider Conor Grennan’s five magic prompts:

But more powerful than the tools were the reflections from the community: 

“I want to see AI used as an accessibility tool within our business.”
“It’s time to integrate AI into how we chart insights across a brand’s lifecycle.”
“Personalised medicines with fewer side effects – this feels like one of the most profound opportunities ahead.”

This is exactly why we created WBL: not just to hear from brilliant experts like Natasha Gray, but to reflect together on what we do next as leaders.

The leadership AI demands

As mentioned before, the most critical capabilities in this moment aren’t technical, they’re human, they’re cultural. Which means that Leaders need to cultivate, both in themselves and their teams, confidence, clarity, and curiosity:

• Confidence to explore AI even when you don’t have all the answers
• Clarity on where AI adds value and how it aligns to your strategic priorities
• Curiosity to test, learn, and lead from the front, not just react in response

As Natasha put it, “AI does the graft, so you can focus on the craft.” That’s a leadership mindset we fully endorse.

What’s your next step?

Every transformation starts with a small, intentional step. So we left attendees with a simple prompt:

What’s one thing you can do tomorrow to help your team navigate the AI transformation?

Whether it’s piloting a new tool, starting a conversation, or rewriting a process with AI in mind, the important part is moving from awareness to action.

We’re proud to support women leaders who are doing just that.

Now isn’t the time to watch change from the sidelines, it’s the time to step into leadership on the frontlines of innovation, even when the ground feels unsteady.

If you’d like to learn more about our future events and join the WBL community, please contact us or head to our LinkedIn group. We’d love to hear what’s on your mind as you help shape the future of the industry – and leadership.

The Women in Biopharma Leadership network was founded in 2018 with the specific purpose of bringing together the voices of like-minded senior women in the Pharma and BioTech industries.