In the life sciences industry, innovation isn’t just about discovering the next breakthrough molecule — it’s about reimagining the entire system that gets medicines to patients faster. Few companies embody that transformation more visibly than AstraZeneca, a global biopharmaceutical leader operating in more than 100 countries. In 2024, the company reported $54 billion in revenue and invested $13 billion in research and development, advancing projects across oncology, cardiovascular, respiratory, and rare diseases.

At the center of this transformation lies a data-driven mission: To merge science and technology in ways that accelerate outcomes for patients, shareholders, and society. That mission defines the work of Brian Dummann, Vice President of Insights & Technology and Chief Data Officer at AstraZeneca, who leads a team charged with scaling the impact of data, AI, and technology across the enterprise.

In this first installment of a three-part interview, Dummann joins Nathan Turajski, Senior Director, Product Marketing at Informatica, to discuss how AstraZeneca is democratizing AI, building organizational readiness for next-generation innovation, and reimagining governance to go faster — responsibly.

Using AI to redefine speed in healthcare

Dummann’s team was formed with one clear purpose: To accelerate the impact of data and AI across AstraZeneca’s value chain, from drug discovery to delivery.

“I joined AstraZeneca about three years ago to lead a newly formed team focused on accelerating the impact of technology, data, and AI,” he explains. “Our team wakes up every day thinking about how we can accelerate outcomes not only for our shareholders, but for our employees, and most importantly, for the patients we serve.”

Data has long been foundational in pharmaceuticals — clean datasets enable clinical studies, regulatory submissions, and approvals. But Dummann believes the new wave of AI and generative technologies will fundamentally change the pace of innovation.

“It takes on average over five years to get a new medicine to market,” he says. “AI can help take steps out of that process.”

By applying AI to clinical design, manufacturing, and commercialization, AstraZeneca can compress discovery timelines, scale new modalities, and broaden patient access to life-saving treatments. “It’s about getting the right medicines to the right patients, faster,” Dummann adds.

A culture wired for curiosity and experimentation

At AstraZeneca, innovation is not limited to the R&D labs — Dummann describes a culture where curiosity fuels adoption and experimentation happens at every level.

“One of our core values as a company is innovation. Our business is wired to be curious — to push the boundaries of science. And to be pioneers in science, we’ve got to be pioneers in technology.”

That curiosity has created a healthy tension between demand and delivery. “I’ve got a company full of employees outside of the IT organization who are thirsty to get their hands on data and AI tools,” he says. “It’s a blessing and a challenge. They want new models, new platforms, and they want them now. It’s never fast enough.”

For Dummann, that impatience is a positive signal — it shows that employees see technology as a driver of AstraZeneca’s mission to improve lives through science.

Democratizing AI: Empowering three audiences

To sustain that momentum, AstraZeneca is deliberately democratizing innovation around AI, giving people across the enterprise the tools to experiment and scale. “We operate in empowered teams that can move at their own pace,” Dummann explains. “A big strategy for us is to democratize innovation around AI — not just AI itself.”

He defines three audiences at the core of this strategy:

• Developers who design and scale enterprise-wide AI solutions, orchestrating complex agent environments.
• Data scientists embedded in research, operations, and commercial teams who need fast access to models for experimentation.
• All employees, from HR to finance to legal, who can apply AI to improve day-to-day efficiency and insights.

To enable this, AstraZeneca provides access to a variety of commercial and open-source models within flexible environments that allow experimentation at scale.

“We’re not going to get all of our AI technology from one partner,” Dummann says. “We start with two or three tools, let the business weigh in, and learn from their feedback. We’re absolutely in a portfolio game — across models, platforms, and ecosystems.”

This pluralistic approach recognizes that innovation rarely comes from a single tool — it emerges when diverse technologies meet a motivated, data-literate workforce.

Rewiring governance for speed

Empowering employees to innovate is one thing; enabling them to do it safely and quickly is another. That’s where AstraZeneca’s AI Accelerator comes in — a cross-functional initiative designed to shorten the time between idea and implementation.

“The ultimate goal is to accelerate how we can experiment with AI and use it to innovate across all areas of our business,” he says. “We’ve built an AI Accelerator whose sole purpose is to work through how to accelerate the introduction of new technologies or quickly review use cases.”

Legacy processes, once measured in weeks or months, now need to operate in hours or days. The AI Accelerator brings together technology, legal, compliance, and governance teams to streamline assessments and approvals.

AstraZeneca is also rethinking its risk management framework. Traditionally, separate groups handled privacy, security, and AI governance independently. Dummann’s team is now unifying those touchpoints.

“If you fill out one assessment, that should cover multiple areas,” he explains. “Then we can determine where additional review is needed.”

Upskilling the enterprise: Empowerment meets accountability

As AstraZeneca moves faster, Dummann emphasizes that the company must also upskill employees to make responsible, first-line decisions.

“We’re now putting a lot more decision-making in the hands of our employees and empowering them,” he says. “With great power comes greater responsibility.”

That shift ensures that AI adoption scales safely — balancing empowerment with governance. Employees closer to the work can act quickly, while expert teams focus on high-risk, high-impact areas.

“We’re systematically looking at where we can redefine processes to go quicker,” Dummann says. “It’s about removing bottlenecks without removing accountability.”

For Dummann, AstraZeneca’s AI journey is still unfolding — but its direction is clear. “I can’t imagine a company more poised,” he says. “We have a culture that values curiosity, the infrastructure to support experimentation, and the vision to align technology with our mission of getting the right medicines to the right patients, faster.”

CDO Magazine appreciates Brian Dummann for sharing his insights with our global community.