The Pistoia Alliance, a global, not-for-profit alliance that advocates for greater collaboration in life sciences R&D has released the results of its annual Lab of the Future survey.
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Survey concept.
The research was conducted in partnership with Open Pharma Research; more than 200 experts in pharma, biotech, software, services, academia and non-profits across Europe, the Americas and APAC responded. The results show use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to rise, with 77% expecting to use the technology in the next two years. AI remains the number one investment area (63%), stable for the third year in a row. However, skills shortages are increasing, with 34% citing a lack of people as a barrier to AI adoption, up from 23% in 2024.
“AI is evolving faster than any other lab technology with new models and approaches such as multimodal and agentic AI emerging every few months. This makes access to skills and expertise increasingly critical if companies are to keep pace with change and apply AI successfully to accelerate R&D,” comments Dr Becky Upton, president of the Pistoia Alliance. “A shortage of skilled people has become one of the biggest barriers to AI adoption in labs this year and as a result organisations are looking for more support in upskilling their people. This is why the Pistoia Alliance is expanding its training programs in AI and FAIR Data Governance to help the life sciences community adapt to this rapid evolution and apply AI responsibly.”
The research also uncovered several broader trends among respondents in how labs are evolving, which the Alliance’s experts analysed in a new industry report 2025 The Evolution of Labs.
- Rising demand for AI education: 51% want best practice guides, 45% want AI/ML courses, and 40% want skills training in recognition that skills have become a major bottleneck to AI adoption for a third of respondents.
- Cloud adoption climbing steadily: 80% now use cloud data platforms in the lab, up from 70% in 2023, likely driven by instrument vendors shifting software to the cloud and reduced security concerns as benefits of scale and accessibility become clearer.
- ELNs most widely used technology: Adoption rose to 81% in 2025, from 66% in 2024. This may reflect a renewal cycle, with companies reinvesting in modernized platforms as they recognize that robust, digitized data foundations are essential to support AI and analytics.
- Barriers to ensuring the best use of lab data easing overall: Data silos remains the top challenge (57%), but has fallen 9% since 2023; while cultural issues surrounding data sharing and collaboration persist at 34%.
- Management is holding back cross lab collaboration: While tools and systems for data sharing remain the biggest barrier to a culture of cross lab collaboration, insufficient management encouragement has risen to 20%, from 7% last year.
- Regulatory clarity improving: Only 9% now see regulation as a barrier to AI, down from 23% last year, suggesting clearer rules and greater confidence in compliance.
- Hype cools around emerging technologies: Compared to last year, adoption of digital twins has dropped to 17% (from 23%), while expected use of quantum in the next two years has slipped to 18% (from 20%), and wearables to 35% (from 41%).
- Collaboration on FAIR initiatives has delivered: While managing data standards and ontologies remains the area where help is most needed to make data FAIR (49%); the results show there are now plenty of use cases, benchmarks and best practices in place.
“Last year, the number one benefit of digitising the lab was seen as improving the efficiency and effectiveness of R&D. This year we have a new top benefit in accelerating innovation and new breakthroughs. It shows investment is becoming more focused, with companies moving beyond using technology just to speed up processes and instead looking at how technology can enable better science,” comments Dr Christian Baber, chief portfolio officer, The Pistoia Alliance. “The Alliance is supporting the industry to overcome both the cultural and technological challenges organisations face, through initiatives like our Future Labs Evolution, AI/ML and change management communities, so that together we can unlock the full potential of digital transformation to drive better outcomes for all.”
The full 2025 The Evolution of Labs Report is available for free download here.