Transforming pharma from within

How Sanofi accelerated their AI-transformation with OAO

Learn how Sanofi accelerated their AI-transformation with OAO

.. In a way that was recognized at World Economic Forum in Davos, 2026

1400

Employees activated

20%

AI Readiness uplift

Single digit %

Global sales increase

The Situation

Sanofi has set itself an ambitious goal: to become the first biopharma company powered by AI at scale – to significantly reduce the time from initial discovery to commercialization of treatments and vaccines, accelerating delivery to patients. Understanding that this is an enterprise-wide transformation with people at the center, leadership was on the lookout for an approach to activate and engage the entire organization – changing how employees work, collaborate, and innovate with AI as a core enabler.

Industry

Biopharma

Headquarters

Biopharma

The Solution

OAO and Sanofi have been partnering since 2022. OAO deployed its multi-agent system across all hierarchy levels, serving as the enterprise's transformation engine and drive cultural shift.

Activating employees at scale

So far, 1,400 employees interacted with OAO's conversational AI agents in personal 1:1 workshops. Employees learned what AI means for their role, identified real challenges in their daily work, and developed concrete ideas for AI-related innovations. One example of an individually developed AI idea: an AI tool to help detect promising molecules earlier in the discovery process. Combined, the digital-workshops have generated 170,000 reflections and more than 1,300 AI ideas across the company’s value chain.

Equipping leaders with organizational intelligence

Sanofi's top 150 leaders regularly worked with OAO’s agents in their own 1:1 workshops. Here, these agents synthesized thousands of employee reflections and ideas, benchmarked AI readiness across internal teams with 12 KPIs, and coached leaders on how to address their specific transformation challenges – for example by increasing transformation urgency or sharpening the AI vision in their area. One simple but powerful action to increase transformation urgency: a monthly “red flag Friday” that reveals where transformation initiatives are stalling.

Enabling executive decisions with ground-truth data

The global Executive Committee hold yearly workshops with their own OAO agents to review consolidated insights from all business units. What are the biggest transformation challenges? How do the top 150 leaders want to address them? Where does AI innovation have the biggest potential? On this basis, the Executive Committee defined the key transformation priorities across the business units and selected the most promising innovation bets.

OAO has been a valued strategic partner to Sanofi since 2022, equipping us with critical digital and data-driven learning capabilities that enhance our understanding and execution of our modernization. Their expertise has played a pivotal role in demystifying and accelerating our journey toward scaling AI across the organization.

Emmanuel Frenehard, Executive Committee, CDO, Sanofi 

The Solution

A mobilized organization taking ownership: Over 1,400 employees actively engaged to unleash 1,300 AI innovations and develop 450 transformation initiatives.

Transformation momentum: 20% AI readiness uplift with transformation efforts and improved clarity around AI priorities.

Measurable business impact: Single-digit % increase in global sales, with a 10:1 return on investment across deployed use cases.

Several of these AI use cases have already been scaled across Sanofi, including an omnichannel commercial engine now operating across 22 markets, and a biologics discovery platform shortening time from discovery to clinical trial.

Most importantly, this practice demonstrates a strong company-wide culture shift: embedding AI agents into everyday thinking, decision-making, and strategic planning. A novel, enterprise-wide AI transformation to accelerate discovery to patient impact and create impactful commercial results.

The Recognition

OAO’s AI-transformation with Sanofi was recognized at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026 as part of the MINDS programme, spotlighting groundbreaking AI-enabled transformations creating real-world value.

Read the official WEF publication here. 