Life science organizations strive to balance innovation and operational value delivery. The Gartner Hype cycle, which is the lifecycle stages a technology goes through from the initial development to its commercial availability and adoption to its eventual decline and obsolescence, provides some key strategic inputs to the information leaders in the organization. They track key technologies’ maturity levels and adoption rates to guide their strategic commercialization planning and investments.

Digitalization across life sciences (pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device organizations) is accelerating, bringing about a new imperative to drive business improvement through digital innovation and make it stick. As we advance, the information managers in the life science organization will need to navigate a confluence of forces and evolve their commercial capabilities. These forces include shifting from the traditional sales-rep-based model to a more agile approach that provides more digital touchpoints and delivers seamless experiences across the customer journey. Another significant aspect is the heightened pressure from governments, taxpayers, and health systems to demonstrate therapeutic value and health outcomes. Empowered patients now seek greater control over their health through digital products and services; however, scaling data analytics initiatives accelerates strategic and tactical decision-making.

Such a hype cycle will support the information leaders by making them more agile in planning technological and business change with emerging capabilities. With the future being uncertain, information leaders must develop an adaptable, scalable, and resilient technology strategy to meet new business requirements on demand. Life sciences business professionals seek innovative and differentiating capabilities while driving operational effectiveness at scale. They do this under the significant regulatory compliance constraints associated with marketing and selling products for which quality, safety, and brand reputation are paramount. The information leaders perform strategic planning by evaluating technology risks and hype, assessing the readiness trajectories of key innovations, and identifying candidate vendors that support and drive commercial operations and go-to-market strategies.

Massive pandemic-driven disruptions have accelerated digital shifts that are likely to be permanent. Data and advanced analytics competencies are shifting to execution at scale after years of strategic ideation, pilots, and sandbox environments. As a result, technologies supporting these trends saw an immediate increase in adoption and continue progressing at an accelerated pace on their life cycle curve.

Interest in regulatory-compliant chatbots has accelerated to enable greater accessibility and improved responsiveness for medical information. Similarly, interest in augmented analytics has increased to improve decision-making and productivity. Both reflect a broader trend of growing innovations focused on personalized engagement and usage of advanced analytics and are integral to digital strategies. By selecting the right technologies, timing, and approaches, organizations can better meet the needs of their patients and healthcare providers while advancing digitization and analytics initiatives.