Novartis Chief Tempers AI Expectations for Drug Discovery, Citing Multi-Year Timeline

Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan cautioned that artificial intelligence will transform pharmaceutical research only gradually, emphasizing that productivity gains from AI in drug discovery will "come in phases" rather than delivering immediate breakthroughs. Speaking on the gap between rapid software development and the slow realities of medicine, Narasimhan noted that "medicine is very different to coding, and this will take time to unfold," signaling the biotech industry's increasingly pragmatic view of AI's long-term potential.