The data: Fifty-four percent of executives across healthcare and pharma marketing say AI is deeply embedded throughout their organizations, with content production (70%) as the top use case, according to a September MM+M-Publicis Health survey of 54 executives from agencies, manufacturers, distributors, publishers, and vendors.

As AI accelerates content production, medical, legal, and regulatory (MLR) teams are struggling to keep pace with approvals before materials reach consumers or healthcare professionals. Sixty-seven percent of executives say reviewers are struggling to keep up, while just 20% say they’re keeping up easily.

Why it matters: MLR bottlenecks could limit how quickly AI-accelerated content reaches the market. The same technology could also ease them by checking content against approved claims, verifying references, and flagging compliance issues, per IQVIA. Faster reviews would let companies produce more content without adding to already stretched review teams.

While 44% of executives report using AI to speed up reviews, only 30% say they have built AI review into workflows, per MM+M. An Eversana executive cautioned that the latter figure may reflect pilots and testing rather than full adoption. Even with greater adoption, complex reviews will still require human judgment, limiting how much of the process can be automated.

Implications for healthcare and pharma marketers: Because even minor content changes may require MLR approval, marketers could work with MLR teams to separate routine variations of previously approved content from materials that introduce new claims. AI could help flag materials that need closer scrutiny, freeing reviewers for more complex decisions. A more tailored process would cut repetitive work and help marketers get more personalized campaign variations to market faster, just as AI makes those variations easier to produce.

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