Agentic AI Collaborative Initiative Announced by Pistoia Alliance

At the European conference of the Pistoia Alliance, a global nonprofit, early in 2025, a theme emerged: that agentic artificial intelligence (AI) is viewed by life sciences professionals as potentially being among the most disruptive emerging technologies over the next two to three years (1). Agentic AI has the potential, according to the Pistoia Alliance, to accelerate multi-step processes, such as target prioritization and compound optimization, by joining together reasoning, tool use, and execution.

However, the Pistoia Alliance said in a Sept. 4, 2025 press release that surrendering full autonomy to AI creates a sort of “black box” that may undermine trust, capacity for reproducibility, and regulatory compliance (1). It is for those reasons—with the overarching mission of safely adopting agentic AI—that the nonprofit is establishing a new initiative bringing together experts from the pharmaceutical, technology, and biotech industries to help shape certain standards and protocols under which AI agents will be allowed to perform.

How will the initiative encourage responsible AI use?

With Genentech providing the initial seed funding for the project, the Pistoia Alliance said it is currently seeking both additional partners and funds (1). The nonprofit has stated strategic priorities to harness AI and expedite R&D and is calling upon an AI and machine learning (ML) community of experts to continue building support for the industry-wide responsible adoption of AI.

“Our members see agentic AI as one of the most impactful technologies set to change how they work and innovate, but they also recognize the risks if adoption happens without the right guardrails,” said Becky Upton, PhD, president of the Pistoia Alliance, in the press release (1). “The Alliance is uniquely positioned to lead this work, drawing on more than eight years’ experience in pre-competitive collaboration around AI, from benchmarking frameworks for large language models to a pharmacovigilance community focused on responsible AI deployment. We know that more expert minds focused on the same topic will advance the safe and successful use of AI technologies.”

What are priorities for the industry?

As part of a recent webinar, the Pistoia Alliance said it polled more than 100 pharma professionals, and the consensus top priority for pre-competitive collaboration was the creation of shared validation frameworks and metrics, for model robustness and bias (1). Shared frameworks urgently need to be established, according to the Pistoia Alliance, for the safe adoption of AI because when evidence must be validated, auditable agent workflows that are shaped by subject matter experts and reputable data sources are necessary for the production of reliable results.

“This initiative will address the common issues we all face in integrating AI developments into a cohesive ecosystem that improves output quality,” said Robert Gill, the Agentic AI program lead at the Pistoia Alliance, in the press release (1). “It will enable members to link standalone AI applications into a dynamic network and build workflows where multiple agents can reason, plan and act together. By becoming sponsors, organizations can act as first movers—shaping the standards, gaining early access to outputs, and ensuring they are at the forefront of the next wave of AI innovation in healthcare.”

Want to make your voice heard?

Pharmaceutical Technology® Group is asking its audience within the bio/pharmaceutical industry to share their experiences in a survey that seeks perspectives on new and rapidly evolving technologies as automation, advanced analytics, digital twins, and AI (2). The survey can be accessed directly at this link.

References

1. Pistoia Alliance. Pistoia Alliance Unveils Agentic AI Initiative and Seeks Industry Funding to Drive Safe Adoption. Press Release. Sept. 4, 2025.
2. Cole, C. Digital Transformation in Pharma Manufacturing: Industry Perspectives Survey. PharmTech.com, Aug. 27, 2025.