Review of JPM 2026

JPM 2026 made one thing clear: AI in drug discovery is no longer “the story” — it’s the infrastructure

San Francisco’s J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference has always been a barometer of what capital actually wants. This year, the signal for AI/ML-driven discovery companies wasn’t “tell us your model.” It was: show us your operating system.

Across the week’s announcements and conversations, AI showed up less as a shiny differentiator and more as core infrastructure—something pharma expects to industrialise, regulate, and plug into end-to-end R&D. And that changes how platforms should position themselves in 2026.

Key takeaways for AI discovery leaders

• Big pharma is moving from “AI pilots” to compute + workflow industrialisation (the Nvidia–Lilly lab is the clearest tell).
• Regulators are accelerating alignment on responsible AI principles, raising the bar on governance, traceability, and lifecycle management.
• Investors are still cautious—but increasingly willing to back platforms that can prove ROI, data advantage, and integration readiness, especially as dealmaking momentum continues.