Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform core functions across the life sciences value chain. But Ireland’s €116 billion life sciences sector will only benefit from this if we can keep ahead of what will be both a transformative opportunity, and a profound challenge.
“It is, at once, the greatest opportunity for competitive advantage and a significant new frontier for regulatory compliance. Successfully navigating this landscape is the defining leadership challenge of our time,” says Sinead Keogh, director of BioPharamChem Ireland and Ibec head of sectors.
McKinsey estimates GenAI alone could create between $60 billion and $110 billion in annual value for the global life science industries.
“This value will come from radically accelerating R&D, a process that traditionally takes 10-15 years and costs over $1 billion per drug. But for Ireland, AI is also a critical competitiveness shield. Faced with what our 2025 Manufacturing Report calls escalating geopolitical risk and trade uncertainties, adopting AI to drive productivity is not just an option, it is a core defensive strategy to protect our export-led model,” explains Keogh.
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The BioPharmaChem Manufacturing Report 2025 reveals that AI is now a top priority for 64 per cent of businesses, up from 54 per cent last year. The survey shows that 86 per cent of businesses are now actively planning AI initiatives, a significant increase from 75 per cent in 2024.
The driver is clear, with 100 per cent of those investing doing so to improve efficiency or productivity and 75 per cent aiming to improve innovation.
“This must be treated as a strategic leadership programme, not an IT project,” says Keogh, adding that we also need to “industrialise our talent pipeline”.
“We cannot scale technology without scaling our talent. The Government must invest in AI skills development by increasing matched funding for agile, industry-led platforms like Skillnet Business Networks and Springboard+. These are the proven mechanisms to deliver the AI fluency our workforce needs,” she says.
The State should implement enabling regulatory frameworks too. “We strongly advocate for sectoral AI regulatory sandboxes. This would allow companies to test and validate new AI solutions in a controlled environment, in partnership with regulators like the Health Products Regulatory Authority,” says Keogh. “Global competition is rife – if we do not embrace this challenge, we risk forfeiting the hard-won global position we currently hold.”
While for the general public interest in AI has been spurred by tools such as ChatGPT, in the life sciences sector it has given rise to in silico testing, simulating experiments in which AI and machine learning see patterns and make predictions based on data, explains Stephen O’Driscoll, head of research centres at Research Ireland.
Currently two research centres, Adapt and FutureNeuro, are working on a project to enhance the clinical outcomes for patients who suffer from motor neuron disease.
They are doing so “by bringing together data from clinical trials and studies from across multiple countries in one single source that can then be interrogated using machine learning and AI to find patterns in the data that could potentially lead to better outcomes for patients,” says O’Driscoll.
Another, InTeleCat, which is being run at the SSPC pharmaceutical research centre in Limerick, led by UCC in partnership with Eli Lilly, is focused on making drug manufacturing more efficient, economical and sustainable.
But while AI is boosting facets of the life sciences sector, there are worries that our digital and energy infrastructure is not keeping pace.
“Ireland is renowned as a hub for data centres but growth has slowed due to grid congestion, delays in planning permissions and concerns about how much power data centres use,” says Rhonda Doyle, country president of Schneider Electric Ireland.
AI is incredibly energy intensive, requiring large amounts of compute power to run workloads, consuming significant amounts of electricity in the process. It is expected to place significant energy demand on data centres and power grids in the coming years.
“The slight paradox to all of this is that AI technologies can be used to help create the AI-driven smart grids that are fundamental to the future of energy distribution,” Doyle points out.
“These smarter, more decentralised grids enable dynamic optimisation, helping to reduce waste and cut carbon emissions. They will also help us to transition to renewable energy assets like wind and solar to help power more energy-efficient data centres.”
It is vital that Ireland keep pace. “Ireland is recognised as the global leader in advanced manufacturing. This strong position has been built from us being at the forefront of previous innovations. We need to do the same now with AI,” says Paul Pierotti, data and analytics partner at EY Ireland.
“Given the strength of our manufacturing engineer and data scientist communities, Ireland is perfectly positioned to lead this transformation globally – we should be bullish about our capability,” he adds, pointing to the number of data plants being built abroad on which Irish engineers are currently working as further evidence.
But maintaining our position as a global hub for these sectors is vital. “We are already seeing many of the manufacturing leaders in Ireland get ahead of this by developing detailed plans and delivering the related use cases. The focus is also very much on realising short-term value while also planning the next wave,” says Pierotti.
“This is the right approach, given the technology continues to evolve. It is positive that there are IDA grants available to help start this journey. EY’s Digital Manufacturing AI Lab in Dublin is also playing its part by helping bring to life the AI use cases – and accelerate their delivery.”
