AIO Circle request access
AIO Circle · Discovery

The Savoy, London · 12–13 May 2027

The portfolio decisionhas no owner.

Who governs.  ·  Who decides.  ·  Who is accountable.

The gap · Discovery

AI is findingwhat governs it does not.

AI is compressing the DMTA cycle, expanding the tractable universe, identifying targets before clinical validation. The governance question is not whether AI works in discovery — it is who decides which AI outputs become investment decisions, and who is accountable when they do not.

The CSO signs the portfolio decision. The AI model identified the candidate. The algorithm ranked the indication. Nobody has formally governed the handoff between them.

Capital and platform did not replace the executive layer that closes the loop. The CagriSema readout in December 2024 named the question the field had been avoiding.

The imperative · three premises

01
The portfolio has no governor.

AI is now generating candidate prioritisation at a scale no single scientific leadership team can review without algorithmic support. The organisation that deploys AI to find candidates without governance over which candidates become investments has created a structural accountability gap.

02
The regulatory posture is forming.

FDA and EMA are developing frameworks for AI-generated evidence in regulatory submissions. The organisations building the governance architecture now — the validation standards, the data provenance layer, the decision accountability structure — will define what the regulator accepts. Those that wait will inherit the standard they did not shape.

03
The data is the decision.

Every AI recommendation in discovery is downstream of the data it was trained on. If that data reflects historical bias in target selection, therapeutic area prioritisation or patient population design, every governance model built on top inherits that bias. The discovery organisations closing the gap are auditing the data architecture before the model runs.

The Conversation · AIO Circle 2027

90 minutes.London. The Savoy.

AIO Circle convenes the leaders preparing for the AI governance role — in London, the conversation is built around drug discovery and R&D. The people in the room are the CSO, the Head of AI in Drug Discovery, the VP R&D who owns the portfolio decision.

Co-located with DDIF 2027 at The Savoy, London. The discovery governance conversation sits inside the largest gathering of drug discovery leadership in Europe.

30
Curated leaders · by invitation only
90
Minutes · two talks · one panel
70%+
VP-level and above · principals only
The Savoy, London
12–13 May 2027
Co-located with DDIF 2027
Next conversation scheduled
The Savoy, London · 12–13 May 2027
View the Conversations →

Previous voices · Discovery

Who has held it.

2026 faculty. Not confirmed for 2027. Announced in cadence with the programme.

LM
Dr Laura Matz
Chief Science & Technology Officer
Merck KGaA, Darmstadt
DDIF 2026 · AIO Panel
JH
Joanna Holbrook
Former Therapy Area Head, Cardiometabolic
Novo Nordisk · Former CSO, Biomodal
DDIF 2026 · AIO Panel
GP
Garry Pairaudeau
CEO & Co-founder
DaltonTx
DDIF 2026 · AIO Panel
SB
Sharon Benzeno
Chief Commercial Officer, Immune Medicine
Adaptive Biotechnologies
DDIF 2026
UG
Uwe Gottschalk
Operating Partner · Forum Co-Chair
Keensight Capital · Former CSO, Lonza
DDIF 2026 · BILS/AIO 2026
HP
Dr Harsukh Parmar
Former SVP, Global Head R&ED
EMD Serono / Merck KGaA
DDIF 2026 · BILS/AIO 2026

2027 faculty announced in cadence with the programme.  View confirmed voices →

AIO Circle · 2027

The discoverygovernance conversation.

Request a place →

By invitation · by nomination · by direct introduction.