Bristol Myers Squibb is betting big on artificial intelligence, striking a strategic agreement with Anthropic to deploy its Claude platform across the company’s global operations in a major shift in how modern biopharma will run.

The collaboration will embed Claude across research, clinical development, manufacturing, commercial, and corporate functions, positioning it as a shared intelligence layer for more than 30,000 employees.

BMS is moving beyond conversational AI into what it describes as “agentic” systems—AI that doesn’t just respond to prompts but actively integrates into workflows, systems, and decision-making processes across the enterprise.

“For more than 160 years, BMS has pushed the boundaries of science to transform patients’ lives, and artificial intelligence is the single most powerful opportunity we have to accelerate that mission today,” said Greg Meyers, EVP and Chief Digital & Technology Officer, Bristol Myers Squibb.

“Most enterprise AI stops at the chatbot. The real prize is the untapped value still trapped behind decades of data silos, and this collaboration is how we reach it. Anthropic’s Claude gives us the agentic capabilities, pace of innovation, and security necessary to connect our systems and put that collective knowledge in the hands of every BMS employee to accelerate innovation for patients.

"The companies that lead the next decade of biopharma will be the ones that learn to operate fundamentally differently with AI, and BMS intends to be one of them."

Anthropic framed the deal as a move toward a unified intelligence layer across highly regulated life sciences operations.

"By giving employees access to Claude’s agentic capabilities — connected to thousands of data sources across the company — BMS is creating a single intelligence layer that can generate a clinical study report from underlying trial data, surface the right scientific context from decades of internal research, or trace the root cause of a manufacturing deviation in real time,” said Eric Kauderer-Abrams, Head of Life Sciences, Anthropic.

“In a regulated global enterprise, that means medicines reach patients faster — with BMS’ scientific depth and operational rigor accelerated by Claude agents at every step.”

The rollout will focus on three immediate areas: accelerating software engineering through Claude Code, embedding AI agents into drug discovery and development workflows, and connecting fragmented institutional knowledge across the organization.

In research, the system will be used to mine decades of proprietary scientific and clinical data to improve target identification across oncology, hematology, neuroscience, and immunology.

In clinical development, it will support regulatory documentation and trial reporting. In manufacturing, it will assist with quality investigations and batch release decisions. In commercial operations, it will help translate field insights into more targeted medical engagement.

The company says the goal is to break down long-standing data silos that slow drug development and decision-making, using AI agents that can operate across systems rather than within isolated tools.

BMS says the initiative builds on more than three years of internal AI investment and a multi-vendor strategy that already gives employees access to frontier models through proprietary platforms.