How Is AI Affecting Life Science Careers?

Generative AI (Artificial Intelligence) is taking the world by storm, including the world of healthcare and life sciences. Is this development being welcomed by STEM professionals? Or is AI bringing its own set of issues to the life sciences field? Keep reading to find out!

Benefits of AI for Life Science Careers

Drug Discovery & Development

Productivity is one of the most recognised benefits of AI across all industries, and healthcare is no exception. AI is able to sift through millions of data sets simultaneously, so data analyses that would previously have taken weeks can now be performed almost instantaneously. This in turn has accelerated the discovery of new molecules and shortened the path to drug discovery and disease detection.

AI algorithms can also examine information from multiple sources at once, e.g. scientific literature, clinical trial data, conference abstracts and public databases. The AI algorithm can then use this information to identify different therapies for specific health conditions in a fraction of the time that this research would usually take, thus cutting down the drug discovery and development time to months rather than years. 

Clinical Trials

Recruiting patients for clinical trials can take months or even years. In fact, as many as 86% of trials pre-AI were cancelled entirely as researchers couldn’t put together a sufficient patient sample. Drug developers now can use AI to search billions of sets of DNA sequencing data, medical records and demographics at once in order to find eligible candidates.

This significantly reduces the time spent on patient recruitment, as well as reducing the cycle times and costs associated with clinical trials – all while improving the outcomes! 

Supply Chain Management

Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies can use sensors in their facilities to gather insights on the manufacturing process, machine performance and quality control. AI can then stream this sensor data to analytics engines, which can identify patterns that humans are unable to see. This allows companies to quickly identify any issues and fix them before they become a bigger problem. 

Companies can also employ AI and predictive analysis to forecast demand and optimise their inventory levels, leading to smoother operations and more efficient distribution and manufacturing.

Assistive Technology

AI is not only reshaping the digital side of life sciences, but also the physical realm – particularly the development of medical devices. Researchers are now able to use AI and biological signals to develop a vast array of medical hardware, including AI-powered prosthetics and implants. 

In 2023, a paralysed man was fitted with two AI implants, one in his brain and the other in his abdomen. The brain implant uses AI to read his thoughts and his intentions to move, and is then able to transfer these to the second implant, which can stimulate the right muscles to make parts of his body move. This is a life-changing and revolutionary development that would not be possible without artificial intelligence. 

Concerns Surrounding AI in Life Sciences

As we’ve seen, the integration of AI into healthcare is revolutionising many key processes and areas of study. However, this type of artificial intelligence is still a relatively new technology, and there remain many practical and ethical questions about its processes that cannot be answered right now. 

For example, many people have questioned what the use of AI in healthcare means for patient privacy. If AI is going to continue transforming the life sciences, continuous monitoring and strong regulations will be needed to preserve patient autonomy and prioritise informed consent.  

Also, AI algorithms are not free from bias and can actually magnify certain disparities that already exist in modern healthcare. If the data used to train the AI is biased in one direction or another, the results will be too. This highlights the importance of training AI with diverse, real-life data that is thoroughly verified before use. 

AI is predicted to grow by 42% per year over the next decade, so there is no doubt that AI-powered breakthroughs in healthcare will keep coming thick and fast. As long as developers are able to find a balance between innovation and ethics, the integration of AI into healthcare should be incredibly beneficial and will continue to revolutionise patient treatments for many years to come.