Turning "we need an AI strategy" into one
Worked alongside the Digital Innovation team to define deliverables, navigate alignment, and build an AI roadmap executives could commit to.
Specialty Pharma's leadership had given the team a clear directive and not much else: build an AI strategy. We worked alongside their Digital Innovation team to define specific, achievable deliverables, navigate the internal alignment challenges that always come with this territory, and build a roadmap their executives could actually commit to and act on.
The challenge
"Build an AI strategy" is one of those mandates that sounds clear until you try to do it. The Digital Innovation team had the directive but not the framework. What does an AI strategy actually look like for a specialty pharma company? Which use cases matter? How do you sequence them? And critically, how do you get an executive team to commit to something when everyone has a different idea of what AI should do for the company?
What we did
We started with the organisation, not the technology. Before looking at a single AI use case, we mapped the internal landscape: who had influence, who had anxiety, who had budget, and who had the operational knowledge to know what would actually work. AI strategy in pharma is 20% technology and 80% organisational alignment.
From there, we worked with the Digital Innovation team to identify and prioritise use cases based on three criteria: business impact, technical feasibility, and organisational readiness. The last one is the one most strategies ignore, and it's the one that determines whether anything actually happens.
We built the roadmap in phases: quick wins that would build credibility, medium-term projects that would deliver measurable value, and longer-term bets that required the organisation to mature first.
The result
The executive team approved a phased AI roadmap with clear deliverables and timelines. More importantly, the strategy had internal buy-in because stakeholders had been part of building it, not just presented with it. The Digital Innovation team had a clear mandate, a sequenced plan, and the organisational support to execute it.
Contact
Interested in building AI capability across your organization? Get in touch with Jason Hill (jason@vertical.vc).