24-25 AI Control

Biopharma commercial strategies have historically relied heavily on internal data, analysing past interactions to predict future outcomes.

For years, field execution has been driven almost exclusively by internal CRM databases, a methodology equivalent to navigating a busy highway by staring only at your own rearview mirror. As healthcare systems grow increasingly complex, relying on internal historical data is a competitive risk.

In the meantime, commercial leaders now have access to a wide range of data points, both internal and external, which can be harnessed by AI to give field organisations a distinct competitive edge.

The key challenge, however, is ensuring these vast streams of information do not simply translate into noise but instead deliver the high-impact insights needed to drive precise decision-making.

To orchestrate customer engagement and power AI effectively, commercial leaders must see the entire market landscape – not just their own data – through clean, high-value data signals.

When we speak with commercial leaders across the industry, four realities consistently emerge that teams must address to stay competitive.

1. Tightening HCP access and fast-changing
preferences require a dynamic approach

The reality facing modern commercial teams is stark. First, overall physician access continues to tighten: just 45% of HCPs are accessible to biopharmas, down from 60% in 2022. Furthermore, roughly half of those accessible physicians now limit their face-to-face engagement to three or fewer biopharma companies.

Second, beneath this restricted access, we have also observed shifting HCP engagement preferences. By analysing aggregated engagement data across 80% of industry CRM data, we see a clear trend: HCPs constantly change their channel preference.

Every 90 days, roughly half of HCPs in the top five EU countries change their interaction level or preferred way of engaging. An HCP who met with a field rep every week last quarter might suddenly switch to virtual-only contact, or the HCP might stop taking visits altogether. Over a 16-month period, nearly 30% of top-tier target prescribers drift into lower engagement tiers or drop off field schedules completely.

The underlying cause of this shift stems from changing clinic operational pressures, local administrative burdens and personal communication habits. When healthcare systems adjust their policies or when clinical reality for the dominant patient group changes, the HCPs’ willingness to engage with commercial teams changes quickly.

To keep up with this trend of changing channel preferences, biopharmas need to move from sourcing static lists to a more dynamic approach. This will help direct field capacity towards the HCPs who are actually open to engaging via the right channels.

2. Reliance on CRM data alone leaves blind spots for AI

Faced with a shrinking window of opportunity and rapidly shifting HCP habits, commercial organisations are rushing to deploy AI workflows designed to orchestrate in-person visits, emails and virtual channels in real time.
However, an AI engine is only as smart as the data fuelling it. When AI feeds solely on internal CRM logs, targeting remains limited to internal knowledge.

Internal CRM records show where field teams have already been, but they cannot show where an HCP is actively engaging across the broader industry. An AI algorithm relying exclusively on internal history will continue suggesting rep visits to an HCP who has quietly closed his or her doors to a brand, while ignoring a high-volume prescriber who is accessible and actively meeting with competitors.
Whether navigating the fragmented payer landscape in the US or strict country-level access policies across Europe, AI requires macro-level visibility into total industry activity, share of voice and real-time channel preferences to deliver true predictive precision.
Without this total-market context, even the most sophisticated AI engines simply automate outdated, reactive field behaviour.

3. Industry data reveals high-value prescribers your competitors may already see

When biopharmas fuel their orchestration engine with industry-wide HCP access data, field strategy fundamentally shifts from reactive to predictive. Macro-level transparency allows AI to pinpoint high-value prescribers who are actively engaging with the broader market but remain unreached by a specific brand.
For one top 20 biopharma company, this market clarity identified over 600 new high-value, highly accessible targets, unlocking a $9 million annualised sales uplift and an immediate 9x ROI.

Industry access data exposes critical visibility gaps regarding HCP accessibility:
• Clinicians labelled as ‘no-access’ in an internal CRM are frequently opening doors to competitors
• Across major markets, database churn is substantial; for example, from Q4 2025 to Q1 2026, the database of HCPs across the EU5 grew by 14.7% and decreased by 15.7%.

Without external market signals, field teams miss these new
market entrants and misjudge HCP availability based on outdated internal history.

4. Engagement trends vary significantly across regions and specialties

The availability of broader industry data points gives far deeper context into changing HCP habits and preferences and precisely how fast those changes happen.
By analysing industry HCP access data, we have quantified ‘HCP drift’, measuring how frequently physicians change their engagement preferences with biopharma companies over time.
How quickly habits shift varies significantly depending on geography and therapeutic area. In fast-moving markets like the UK, nearly two-thirds of HCPs (64.6%) change their meeting frequency every three months due to health system workload shifts.
France sees a similar amount of movement, with 57.9% of HCPs shifting availability quarterly. Germany, Italy and the US maintain a steady baseline where roughly half of all HCPs change visit habits every 90 days.

Specialty dynamics vary as well. Primary care settings like retail pharmacy (54.6% drift) and general practice (44% drift) experience rapid rotations in availability as clinic workload demands change. Specialists like cardiologists (32.7%) keep much more predictable schedules over long periods.

In fast-changing markets or high-turnover specialties, updating target lists once a year is not frequent enough. Yearly updates mean field teams waste time chasing HCPs whose availability changed months ago.

Addressing the commercial blind spots

In hindsight, the biopharma companies succeeding with AI and omnichannel today are not necessarily the ones who had the largest budgets; they are the ones leveraging data and insights to fuel decision-making and stay agile in an ever-changing industry.

When 52% of HCP engagement tiers shift every 90 days, static annual target lists are no longer a viable foundation.

By integrating industry-wide HCP access data and real-time engagement drift metrics, biopharma companies can stop navigating by their own historical footprints and begin executing against the actual market landscape.

It is the fundamental difference between guessing your next tactical move and executing a winning commercial strategy.