AI in Biotech Is Overhyped—and It's Costing Us Millions
By Jenna Levenson, PhD, RN, MS
AI is everywhere in biotech right now. Investors love it. Startups flaunt it. Conferences worship it.
But here’s the unpopular truth:
AI hasn’t delivered on even half the promises the biotech industry is selling.
Sure, it can screen molecules at lightning speed. It can predict targets, suggest trial sites, and even write your next protocol draft. But when it comes to actual clinical success—INDs approved, trials accelerated, drugs to market—the scoreboard still reads: Big Talk, Small Wins.
The Real Risk?
Startups are inflating valuations based on AI potential, not biotech results. And VCs? They're fueling the fire. Everyone wants to be first on the next "AI-meets-pharma" unicorn—meanwhile, teams are burning through budgets without a single viable candidate in the pipeline.
What AI Can Do:
Prioritize targets faster
Optimize trial designs
Generate synthetic data for rare diseases
Automate redundant regulatory documentation
What AI Can’t Do:
Replace wet-lab validation
Account for real-world patient complexity
Solve poor trial recruitment
Navigate FDA nuance
The gap between AI's theoretical value and actual impact is widening. And unless biotech companies get smarter, we risk another hype bubble—just like CRISPR, immunotherapy, and digital biomarkers saw before the market cooled.
What Needs to Change:
Founders: Stop selling AI as a cure-all. Start integrating it into a real translational strategy.
VCs: Start demanding AI validation like you do for drug targets. If your startup can’t show utility beyond a pitch deck algorithm, it’s not ready.
Regulatory teams: Get involved early. If AI is driving your protocol, regulators need to understand how—and why—it matters.
Biotech leaders: Invest in AI that augments—not replaces—human expertise. The future is hybrid, not fully autonomous.
AI will absolutely transform biotech—but not how most people think.
It won’t be because it replaces humans.
It’ll be because smart humans used it strategically.
Let’s cut through the noise, ditch the vanity metrics, and start building biotech companies that know the difference between hype… and history in the making.
Let’s Talk.