News
Medical Affairs Doesn’t Need to Predict AI’s Future – Law Already Did
4 June 2026
New InnoStrat whitepaper explores what Medical Affairs leaders can learn from a profession that is 18–24 months ahead in AI adoption.
Medical Affairs organisations are under increasing pressure to determine how AI should be adopted, governed, and integrated into everyday workflows. Yet while many teams are still debating policies, training requirements, and approved use cases, another highly regulated profession has already travelled much of that path.
Law firms are estimated to be approximately 18–24 months ahead of Medical Affairs in AI adoption.
That matters because the two professions share a surprisingly similar operating model. Both rely on interpreting authoritative source material, applying it to specific situations, and producing outputs that must pass formal review before they can be relied upon. In Law, that review comes from courts and professional bodies. In Medical Affairs, it comes through MLR review and medical signatory processes.
In our new whitepaper, “Same Risk, Different Robe: What Law’s AI Experience Tells Medical Affairs,” we examine the legal sector’s experience and identifies the lessons most relevant for Medical Affairs leaders.
Among the key findings:
- AI adoption consistently outpaces organisational governance.
- Restricting AI without providing approved alternatives encourages shadow use of consumer tools.
- The most successful applications are document- and research-focused workflows, including summarisation, drafting, and information retrieval.
- Verification—not generation—becomes the dominant effort and risk area.
- Accountability remains with the human reviewer, regardless of the technology used.
- Internal governance cannot wait for regulators to provide complete clarity.
The whitepaper also translates these observations into practical Medical Affairs controls, including governance frameworks, approved-tool strategies, verification requirements, reviewer accountability, and implementation sequencing.
According to our experience, many Medical Affairs organisations are currently facing the same challenge that legal firms experienced earlier: adoption is occurring, but uncertainty around approved use and governance is creating risk and slowing progress.
The question is no longer whether AI will become part of Medical Affairs. The question is how organisations can adopt it safely, effectively, and with appropriate oversight.
For additional information or to discuss how these insights apply to your organisation, contact us at info@innostrat.net.
