The AI in life science market is projected to grow from approximately USD 21.58 billion in 2026 to USD 69.34 billion by 2031, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26.3%, according to a new report from MarketsandMarkets. The growth is driven by the shift from conventional analytics to data-oriented and agentic AI architectures that automate tasks such as literature search, hypothesis formulation, and patient segmentation.
Market breakdown
In 2025, pharmaceutical companies accounted for the largest share (37.5%) of the AI in life science market. End-to-end solutions held the same share (37.5%) by solution type. North America led geographically with 48.9% of the market, owing to early adoption across the entire product cycle — discovery, approval, post-approval, and post-market activities — as well as advanced data infrastructure and a concentration of AI-native life sciences startups.
Fastest-growing tool: NLP
By tool, the natural language processing (NLP) segment is expected to register the fastest growth during the forecast period. A 2025 systematic review of EHR-based cognitive impairment detection (PMC11873039) reported that NLP applications achieved a median sensitivity of 0.88 and a specificity of 0.96. The US FDA hosted a precisionFDA GenAI Challenge from January 10 to February 28, 2025, signaling increased regulatory interest in language-based AI in healthcare. Notable product launches include Anthropic's "Claude for Healthcare" (early 2026) and Microsoft's Dragon Copilot (March 2025), an AI voice recognition tool for healthcare documentation.
Cloud-based deployment dominates
Cloud-based solutions held the largest share of the AI in life sciences market in 2025. According to ZipDo.co, 81% of biotech startups rely on cloud-based platforms to integrate multi-omics data for drug discovery. In April 2026, Amazon Web Services released "Amazon Bio Discovery," a cloud-based AI solution for drug discovery workflows.
Key vendor moves
Oracle Corporation released the Oracle Life Sciences AI Data Platform in January 2026, combining more than 129 million de-identified medical records with generative AI and agentic intelligence. IQVIA Holdings Inc. introduced AI agents in June 2025 to optimize workflows in clinical and commercial operations, including target identification and clinical data analytics.
Bottom line
The AI in life science market is moving from analytics to autonomous systems. The combination of agentic AI, cloud-native infrastructure, and NLP advances is reshaping drug discovery, clinical trials, and post-market monitoring. Organizations that invest in these capabilities now are likely to gain a significant operational edge by 2031.