Welcome to edition twelve of The Beghou Biopharma Review by Marc Iskowitz.
I haven’t made it to any industry conferences yet this year. But my Beghou colleagues have been all over the event circuit the last few weeks, hitting the stage as presenters, leading discussions as moderators, or just being attentive and curious attendees. These meetings covered a variety of themes, from AI engineering (Databricks) and incentive compensation (COM•X) to omnichannel’s next iteration (Future Pharma). As such, I initially aimed to share a broad collection of recaps for your summer reading list.
What I ended up with was something more like a curated playlist reflecting a common theme across gatherings: The gap between ambition and impact often comes down to how well the solution fits into the realities of the people expected to use it. This throughline can be felt in the technology driving biopharma commercialization, the day-to-day field activities where AI struggles to gain a foothold, and the push to realize omnichannel’s true vision of creating connected customer experiences.
What does it take to make AI work in the real world?
The Databricks Data + AI Summit 2026 (June 15-18, Moscone Center, San Francisco, CA) was geared toward those in the trenches of data and technology development, so its agenda reflected what matters most to this community. That’s why I found the post-event recap by Beghou’s Himavanth Nomula, Data Engineer, so captivating.
Himavanth reflected on one of the meeting’s recurring themes: AI is advancing quickly, but making it dependable still comes back to the fundamentals data teams have always cared about. For him, the conference provided a valuable reminder that many teams are wrestling with the same practical questions: How do we make AI trustworthy? How do we govern it? How do we build systems that can be observed, maintained, and improved over time?
To sum up Himavanth’s reflections: The future of agentic AI is exciting, but its success still depends on trusted data, clear ownership, reliable deployment patterns, and maintainable systems. Check them out.
As AI transforms the field, IC is evolving too
At COM•X Network San Diego’s Q3 networking event (June 25, Farmer & Seahorse, San Diego, CA), Beghou's Nicole Ventrone, Partner, convened a roundtable on what it will take for AI to succeed among field forces. The conversation ranged from trust and adoption to field enablement and incentive compensation (IC), with participants emphasizing that technology alone won't change behavior.
To prime the discussion, Nicole shared a sneak peek of findings from the Commercialization That Works: Field Force Pulse Survey of 100 U.S.-based pharma and biopharma field professionals across sales, medical, and account-focused roles. The results showed a field force ready to embrace data and AI but understandably pragmatic about adoption:
As commercialization teams redesign field workflows around AI, they're also rethinking how performance is measured, rewarded, and reinforced.
The latter theme was explored further in our latest article on IC. Go deeper.
Connected teams, not more channels, will define commercialization’s next era
Omnichannel’s true vision had involved the ability to create connected, relevant, and adaptive customer experiences across stakeholder ecosystems. While the technology finally exists to realize this, many commercialization initiatives are falling short. At Future Pharma (June 1-2, Renaissance Seaport District, Boston), Beghou's Marcos Mendell and Erica Fowler Butler, PhD explored why. Their takeaway: Success depends on designing solutions that fit how cross-functional teams actually work. When data, workflows, and decision-making are aligned with real-world behaviors, organizations are far more likely to translate digital ambition into commercial impact.
Marcos's piece “Beyond Omnichannel” sparked discussion ahead of the workshop. Read it here.
What’s next...
As part of our ongoing partnership with the First-Time Launch Alliance (FTLA), we’re co-authoring a whitepaper on how first-time launch teams can build an AI-enabled commercialization foundation that enables them to punch above their weight. It includes a practical roadmap for sequencing data readiness, prioritizing the right AI use cases, and right-sizing data investments for a first-time launch. It’s expected to be published in early August.
Our Commercialization That Works research series continues with two new industry surveys: an AI Enablement survey conducted with 100 biopharma and pharma professionals across finance, IT, sales, medical affairs, marketing, and analytics and a Field Force Pulse Survey conducted with 100 biopharma and pharma field-facing professionals.
As mentioned above, initial findings have been presented at recent conferences, and more detailed findings from both surveys will be published in the coming months.
That’s it for now. If you’re looking for more context on any of these stories, drop me a line at marc.iskowitz@beghou.com