Small biotech firms quicker to 'latch onto' AI than big ones, says Tencent Healthcare President

HONG KONG - Small biotech firms "latch onto" AI more quickly than bigger firms, the head of Chinese tech giant Tencent's healthcare division said on Thursday, as more businesses embrace AI to improve efficiency.

Pharmaceutical companies are also increasingly turning to AI to accelerate research and development, betting on new modeling tools and automated labs to improve efficiency and slash costs as well as drug development timelines.

Drugmakers including Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have announced AI-related collaborations with technology firms.

"When you have less people, when you need to do more, you tend to figure out more efficient ways of doing things," Tencent Healthcare President Alex Ng told Reuters.

"AI is definitely something that they latch onto very quickly," he said. For very big pharmaceutical companies, however, with elaborate organisation and specified workflows, just adding an AI will sometimes not be successful, Ng said.

Industry forecasts suggest that the use of machine learning to optimize target discovery, design molecules and streamline clinical trial planning could halve early-stage development timelines and costs within the next three to five years, Reuters has previously reported.

Ng also said people have become more positive about embracing AI and what it can accomplish as the technology improves.

"I think the culture and the environment and the discussion has changed so much that I think a lot of people are a lot more positive," Ng said.

(Reporting by Andrew Silver in Shanghai, additional reporting by Hong Kong newsroomEditing by Tomasz Janowski)

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This story was originally published May 28, 2026 at 8:31 AM.