AI’s Impact on the Pharma Workforce and Hiring: From Obsolescence to Opportunity

Pharma is entering a period of unprecedented workforce change. Analysts forecast 90,000 traditional roles will vanish while 120,000 new jobs will emerge, demanding fresh skills

This session takes participants on a clear journey from workforce transformation to talent acquisition evolution. We begin by mapping the forces driving job obsolescence, and show where the new opportunities will arise, from bioinformatics to AI-enabled quality control.

We then explore how AI is not only reshaping what jobs exist, but also how people are hired. Intelligent recruitment tools now screen CVs, assess skills, and even predict cultural fit, bringing potential benefits in speed and scale, but also introducing new risks around bias, transparency, and fairness. We will examine best practices and cautionary tales from across pharma and other regulated industries, highlighting strategies to ensure AI-enhanced hiring promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion rather than undermines it.