New poll of life science professionals shows multimodal AI ranked the top area for cross-industry collaboration

The Pistoia Alliance, a global, not-for-profit alliance that advocates for greater collaboration in life sciences R&D, has announced plans to establish a new initiative to advance the safe adoption of agentic AI. The announcement follows research conducted at the Alliance’s European conference that found life science professionals expect agentic AI to be among the most disruptive technologies in the next 2-3 years. The agentic AI project will bring together experts from pharma, biotech and technology companies to shape standards and protocols for AI agents. Initial seed funding has been provided by Genentech, and the Alliance is now seeking additional project sponsors. The initiative sits under the Alliance’s strategic priority to Harness AI to Expedite R&D and alongside its AI/ML Community of Experts, which is actively seeking further funding to continue supporting responsible AI adoption across the industry.

Agentic AI can accelerate multi-step processes such as target prioritization and compound optimization by chaining reasoning, tool use and execution. However, full autonomy creates a “black box” around AI that undermines trust, reproducibility and regulatory compliance. In life sciences, where evidence must be validated, there is a pressing need for auditable agent workflows shaped by subject matter experts and approved data sources to ensure reliable results. This view was echoed in a Pistoia Alliance webinar poll of 253 professionals, where the top priority for pre-competitive collaboration was shown to be multimodal AI – integrating text, image, molecular and tabular data – further underlining the urgency of establishing shared frameworks to guide safe adoption.

“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 Dr Becky Upton, President of the Pistoia Alliance. “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. That’s why we are bringing together diverse groups and individuals to collaborate effectively, so that agentic AI can truly benefit the entire industry and patients alike.”

The project aims to initially focus on two key deliverables: building on existing work to develop a life sciences & healthcare specific agent-agent communication protocol and AI agent standard. Outputs will include whitepapers, guidelines, reference implementations and scientific publications to support adoption. By joining as sponsors, members gain early access to draft frameworks, the opportunity to shape project direction, and the ability to co-author outputs and promote 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. “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.”