Latest news with #CRO
Forbes
a day ago
- Business
- Forbes
Filling The Growth Leadership Skill Gap
Stephen Diorio The Next Generation of Growth Leaders Needs a Revenue Operations Curriculum and Skillset There's a gap in the curriculum at business schools in the science and management of revenue growth. For starters, the vast majority of business schools and executive education programs fail to include business development, sales management and leadership in their core curriculum. This issue is compounded by the failure to connect the disciplines of marketing, product management, finance and increasingly technology and analytics in a real world operational context towards the end of revenue and profit growth. Consequently, most business school curriculum, as currently constructed, fails to prepare students and executives to manage a growth digital, data-driven, and capital intensive team sport. This has become a problem as discipline of Revenue Operations has emerged as one of the fastest growing professions and executives with Chief Revenue Officers (CRO) and 'CXO' titles and a broad remit to manage the growth resources, assets, processes and functions become fixtures in the C suite. Why? Because Revenue Operations (or RevOps) is unique in the business world. It blends many traditional management disciplines taught in a siloed fashion - marketing, product management, sales, finance, IT – into a coherent system for managing company teams, assets, processes and system to generate more reliable, scalable and profitable revenue growth. Another problem is Revenue Operations is inconsistently defined. Its leaders can have many titles. The most familiar is the CRO. But as almost every business (over 90% of B2B businesses according to the book Revenue Operations) reconfigures their management systems to connect these functions on some meaningful way – all sorts of 'CXO' titles emerging. The can include Chief Operations, Commercial, Growth, Customer and Transformation officers. And many more. But these advances in modern growth engines – and the organizations, systems and analytics within them - are getting out in front of management science and skills required to run them. For example, the CRO role is expanding so fast that job postings for CRO will subsume the traditional VP of Sale and Marketing role in business. But to succeed as a CRO, sales leaders are going to need to understand Revenue Operations, according to Warren Zenna, the Founder of the CRO Collective. 'VPs of Sales have and will always play an important role on the revenue team, but the functionally-siloed sales leadership position is becoming antiquated,' says Zenna. 'But as commercial models evolve, companies need leaders who can drive alignment across marketing, sales, customer success. This makes RevOps a strategic competency underlying the CRO role.' The same goes for the dozen or more specialized functions that are now essential to run the modern revenue engine. 'Revenue Operations teams are full of very smart people who are brilliant in their own domain, such as marketing operations, sales training, territory and quota planning and CRM administration,' says Ashmi Pancholi, who has over a decade of experience leading RevOps teams at GE, Amazon, and Affirm. 'What holds many revenue teams back is that the individual players on those teams don't understand how those domains connect and work together to drive reliable, scalable and profitable growth,' adds Pancholi. The interconnected nature of growth, and the number of disciplines involved is why RevOps is fundamentally different than any other growth role out there, adds Matt Volm, the CEO of the RevOps Coop, a community of over 15,000 professionals in the field. 'RevOps spans over a dozen established but discrete roles and domains across the revenue team. For example, Marketing Ops just focuses on the marketing function, sales enablement just on training and developing new sales reps, CRM admins ensures the data around accounts, opportunities and buyers is correct and reliable.' What Matt Volm is referring to is the fact that the management of growth has expanded to over a dozen such domains, each with its own job function, association, skill set and technology stacks. They include the deal desk, bid and proposal management, CRM administration. the operations, training and enablement teams that support marketing, sales and customer success, data and financial analysts. 'In all it takes forty five different competencies to run the modern revenue engine,' adds Volm. 'Very few managers, leaders and professionals understand them all, much less how they connect to generate scalable, profitable, and reliable growth. And as of now, they don't teach that in business schools. They don't include that in job descriptions. And they certainly don't incentivize people to do all those things with legacy metrics.' THE MODERN REVENUE ENGINE The Revenue Operations Certification, Revenue Operations Associates This professional education 'gap' is leaving the next generation of growth leaders with key deficiencies in critical areas like financial acumen, strategic perspective, P&L fluency and change management. Those gaps are a big reason they struggle to communicate their value to leaders, gain cooperation with peers, and garner the budgets, investment, and resources they need to deliver value. To a large degree this is a vocabulary and community issue. 'RevOps people struggle because they don't speak the language of business everyone in the C suite and board room speaks,' says Steven Busby, CEO of Revenue Operations Associates. 'This is because they didn't get the same education, work in consulting or join an established tribe in the company ecosystem.' That is a problem Matt Volm and the thousands of Revenue Operations practitioners and leaders are looking to solve with peer to peer networking, best practices sharing and certification programs. 'I started RevOps Co-op to build relationships with people in RevOps and deliver value outside of technology solutions that support the revenue ecosystem to help them define their profession, excel at their jobs, make a bigger impact in their businesses and on their teams,' say Volm. 'Ultimately, our goal is to help RevOps professionals of every level, skill and focus to advance their careers and for the most ambitious become the next generation of growth leaders.' A starting point is to define what Revenue Operations is, which is a daunting task given the nascent nature of the role, the wide variety of skills and competencies involved and the many parts of the revenue engine they must understand, enable, and impact. 'The role of RevOps is to drive revenue effectively, reliably, and scalably by aligning people, process and technology,' says Volm. 'Revenue operations analysts, specialists, managers and leaders do this by understanding the complete revenue engine end-to-end. Whether you are one manager wearing dozens of hats, or a specialist on a team of one hundreds – this requires a holistic view is important because so much of what generates leads, sales, and customer experiences involves hand-offs that occur between systems and people and teams. According to Volm, Revenue Operations is a good career for smart people that like variety and hate the mundane. It's also a great way to generate value for the business by getting the most from the products, knowledge, systems and talent in a business. Unfortunately, given the nascent state of the function, in most businesses RevOps is related to the unsung hero, 'glue guy' role and does not receive the recognition or compensation commensurate with their contribution to firm revenues, profits and value growth. 'Being in RevOps today is like the utility player in baseball - one day you'll be asked to play second base, the next center field, the day after maybe just pinch hitting.,' says Volm, who talks with thousands of RevOps teams through his global professional events, forums, education, and certification platforms. 'All of that contributes to winning. Little of that shows up in the box score, or in KPI, incentives, and compensation in a business context.' This ambiguity of role, and business outcomes it creates puts RevOps professionals in a 'no mans land' where they are perceived as 'back office' operators who fix problems, keep the lights on and run critical pipeline reports and dashboards. This ambiguity can really hurt professionals in terms of career success, advancement and 'burnout'. Without a clear understanding of the role, the many 'gears' in the revenue engine, and how they connect and convert investment into revenue dollars – many RevOps professionals are relegated to the role of 'fix it gal' and 'data cleaner' and report generators rather than revenue and value creators. One factor leading to this ambiguity is the wide variety of people who go into Revenue Operations. The complex, interesting, and collaborative aspects of the job attracts professionals from many different backgrounds, roles, and circumstances into RevOps. 'Unlike legacy roles like Finance, Marketing and IT - most people in the RevOps community have unique and mixed backgrounds,' says Volm. 'Many have been lawyers, geologist, schoolteachers, and more. What they ultimately have in common is they get excited about facing new challenges daily and have a drive to learn new things. They're never bored with the same old thing day and day out -because RevOps is never the same from day-to-day and everything you work on is essential to the life blood of the business – generating revenues, profits and cash flow,' add Volm, who is a CPA by training. Finally, clearly defining the role of Revenue Operations is the key to getting it added to the curriculum at business schools. The problem is that without a recognized 'domain' to define it, educators will not make RevOps a part of the core business curriculum as they have with finance and marketing, and more recently supply chain and distribution management, according to Joël Le Bon is a Full Professor of Marketing and Sales at the Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School and Executive Director of The Digital Business Development initiative. This lack of a clear consensus on what RevOps is, what it is not, what it entails, and the business outcomes is creates is a core issue facing the field. 'In a sense, Revenue Operations is to revenue growth what a curriculum is to education – it's a system that aligns purpose, development and scalable growth', says Le Bon who is one of the few business school professors in the world who teaches business development and sales as part of the core curriculum. One of the things Volm seeks to do is provide RevOps professionals with the role clarity and key skills they need to succeed. 'Most RevOps professionals are experts in their domain or the technology that support their role. And there's motivated software firms ready to teach the deep technical skills required in marketing, sales and customer success. The real missing skills fall into the areas of finance, strategy, change management and an overall business acumen about how the core growth functions (marketing, product, sales, customer success) work together in a business. 'Some of the most successful RevOps leaders I see are strategic,' says Volm. 'By that I mean they are good at separating day to day tactical tasks, keeping the lights on and fixing problems to focus time and resources on actions and investments that create scale and reliability. The best understand the 'cause and effect' implications of specific actions on other functions and the seller experience. Financial acumen and P&L fluency are key skills because most RevOps professionals really struggle to quantify, communicate the value they create with the leaders and peers who must commit funds, cooperation and effort to their endeavors. Leading change, even without a mandate or remit, is a critical skill because everything they do involves changing processes, procedures or company orthodoxy,' he adds. 'Overall, given the breadth and scope of the role, it takes a lot of business maturity to engage, educate and enable the key stakeholders in marketing, sales, product, IT and finance as peers and collaborators. That's difficult if you don't know the basics of their jobs, their key drivers and the specific ways your work connects to create growth. ' 'Revenue Operations to a large degree requires a 'CEO perspective' because it is fundamentally a team sport where the team that connects the most gears wins,' says Steven Busby, a ten year CEO who led the development of the RevOps Certification with Volm's team. 'Just because a RevOps professional is perceived as a back office contributor, when in fact they have perhaps the broadest span of control in the business other than the CEO.' Another issue is that the interdisciplinary, technology intensive and extremely dynamic nature of RevOps means teams need to learn different things very quickly. Financial Standards rarely change so a CPA exam will help a CFO throughout his or her career. But in RevOps, technologies emerge, functions merge and processes change so quickly that professionals cannot rely on a textbook or a single function skill. And when they wake up on Monday, their job and the behavior of the customer they serve, and the systems to engage them have likely changed. They need a different way to learn. So where can ambitious RevOps professionals go to get those skills? A primary way RevOps people learn is through peer to peer best practices sharing. 'Unlike the established domains of finance or product management which are taught in schools and relatively stable - RevOps people value peer interactions, best practice sharing and learning from subject matter experts in their domain,' says Volm. 'All of those things are provided through communities like RevOps Co-op. Communities lend themselves well to RevOps because revenue operators are typically small teams - sometimes teams of one – or highly specialized and poorly understood functions, like the Deal Desk, Territory Planning, CRM administration, Strategic Response Management, or Knowledgebase Management. So they don't have a huge peer group inside their company to go too or, until now, a certification they can take to become proficient. What they can do is all come together through the community things to learn from peers and mentors continuously gain new skills about emerging practices and now gain a credible certification that covers all forty-five of the competencies that are required to make the revenue engine run.' Volm recently partnered with leading practitioners, academics and experts in the field of Revenue Operations to create an industry standard Revenue Operations Certification. To Volm, an industry certification is critical for RevOps professionals to excel in their jobs, generate more impact, facilitate teamwork and advance their career – because it addresses the biggest things that hold them back. These are fundamental things like strategy, financial acumen, change management and the business maturity needed to engage, educate and enable the key stakeholders across product, marketing, sales, customer success and finance that all support the revenue cycle. 'I believe Revenue Operations is the most important job at every company on the face of the planet, because revenue is also the first and most important metric on any financial statement - and revenue generation is a team sport led by revenue operations' asserts Volm. 'But it will only become more critical with the introduction of AI because no role better suited to own AI initiatives that impact revenue then revenue operations.'
National Post
4 days ago
- Business
- National Post
QPS Celebrates 30th Anniversary
Article content NEWARK, Del. — QPS Holdings, LLC (QPS), an award-winning contract research organization (CRO) focused on bioanalytics and clinical trials, is celebrating its 30-year anniversary in 2025. Founded by Dr. Benjamin Chien in 1995 to provide high-quality bioanalytical liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) contract services, QPS is now recognized as a global leader in contract research. Over the past 30 years, the company has grown from a single office in Delaware, USA to a widely respected, global, full-service CRO with 8 locations spread across the US, EU, Asia, India and Australia, a clinical trial network of over 700 sites and an increased focus on leveraging the power of AI to accelerate clinical trials. Article content QPS Holdings, LLC celebrates 30 years of excellence providing preclinical, bioanalysis and clinical contract research organization services. Article content Over the years, QPS has grown from a small molecule bioanalysis shop of three people to a global CRO with more than 1,200 employees. '30 years is a major milestone for QPS and I couldn't be more proud of the hard-working and innovative people who choose to work at QPS. They are the backbone of the company, and I am very grateful for their valuable contributions,' said founder and CEO of QPS, Dr. Benjamin Chien. Article content 'Through QPS, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries have access to dedicated, focused scientific expertise across the drug development spectrum. In facilities around the world, QPS has assembled best-in-class instruments, platforms, people and processes required to conduct the studies necessary to support client drug discovery and development programs focused on obesity, type 2 diabetes, oncology, CNS diseases, cell and gene therapy, and more,' said Dr. Chien. Article content Since its humble beginnings, QPS has expanded its service options, to include pharmacology, DMPK, toxicology, bioanalysis, translational medicine, leukopaks, PBMCs, cell therapy products, clinical trials, central lab services, and a full range of clinical research services. Article content QPS is known for high-quality data, technical expertise, delivery of promised study timelines, collaborative solutions, and customer-focused strategies. Going forward, QPS plans to continue delivering custom-built research services that accelerate pharmaceutical breakthroughs across the globe. Article content ABOUT QPS HOLDINGS, LLC Article content QPS is a global, full-service, GLP/GCP-compliant contract research organization (CRO) delivering the highest grade of discovery, bioanalysis, preclinical and clinical drug development services. Since 1995, QPS has grown from a small bioanalysis shop into a full-service CRO with 1,200+ employees in the US, Europe, Asia and Australia. Today, QPS offers expanded pharmaceutical contract R&D services with special expertise in pharmacology, DMPK, toxicology, bioanalysis, translational medicine, leukopaks, PBMCs and cell therapy products, clinical trials, and clinical research services. An award-winning leader focused on bioanalysis and clinical trials, QPS is known for proven quality standards, technical expertise, a flexible approach to research, client satisfaction, and turnkey laboratories and facilities. Through continual enhancements in capacities and resources, QPS stands tall in its commitment to delivering superior quality, skilled performance and trusted service to its valued customers. For more information, visit or email info@ Article content Article content Article content Article content QPS CONTACT: Article content Article content Name: Article content Gabrielle Pastore Article content Article content Article content Article content
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
SignaPay Promotes Shaquirah Johnson Nolly to Vice President of Underwriting & Risk Management
IRVING, Texas, June 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- SignaPay, an Inc. 500 payments innovator, has announced the promotion of Shaquirah Johnson Nolly to Vice President of Underwriting & Risk Management. Johnson Nolly will lead the Credit, Underwriting and Risk Management departments, helping drive industry best practices and streamlining workflows to support SignaPay's accelerating expansion. Since her appointment as Manager of Credit and Underwriting in 2019, Johnson Nolly has overseen and advanced the company's credit risk strategy and been instrumental in sharing her vision to advance the company's proprietary gateway, risk management and CRM platforms. "Our Board and Management Team are energized by this promotion. Shaquirah is a people person with a keen insight into the ever-changing tides of the payments industry. She has ambitious goals and objectives for our teams, and we're excited to see her continued track record of success." said Matt Nern, Executive Vice President & Chief Revenue Office (CRO) at SignaPay, who has worked with Johnson Nolly for nearly two decades. Johnson Nolly's promotion comes on the heels of SignaPay's recent relocation to a larger, state-of-the-art headquarters in Irving, Texas, a move that positions the company's continued growth to expand its service and partner-support capabilities. The new facility bolsters SignaPay's commitment to technology-forward growth, including upcoming enhancements across its payment platforms. A resident of Dallas, Texas, Ms. Johnson Nolly has a Business Administration Degree from the University of Phoenix. She is actively involved with her church and a number of charitable local organizations in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. SignaPay founded in 2007, located in Irving Texas, with offices throughout the United States offers a complete suite of processing solutions for merchants both big and small including credit and debit card processing, dual pricing programs, gateway integration, fraud prevention as well as equipment including mobile and point of sale systems. SignaPay is dedicated to their partners, merchants, community and their employees and continually seeks ways to further those relationships through innovation and relationship building. Visit for further information or call 800-944-1399 for more information. SignaPay Media Relations: marketing@ View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE SignaPay Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
2 Day Managing Service Providers including CRO (Contract Research Organisation) and CMOs Oversight to Comply with ICH GCP (Good Clinical Practice) R3 Training Course (ONLINE EVENT: June 23-24, 2025)
Enhance your pharmaceutical outsourcing strategy with our course on efficient vendor oversight. Learn to craft RFPs, select CROs, and manage partnerships for compliance. Ideal for sponsors and vendors alike. Gain insights, tools, and certifications. Ensure excellence in R&D project management. Dublin, May 19, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Managing Service Providers including CRO (Contract Research Organisation) and CMOs oversight to comply with ICH GCP (Good Clinical Practice) R3 Training Course" training has been added to offering. With regulatory inspectors increasingly finding issues with vendor oversight by sponsor organisations, it is becoming even more important for the pharmaceutical industry to employ efficient and accurate strategies for managing outsourced activities. A company's ability to identify and select the right CRO/ vendor for the right project and manage them efficiently and effectively will help to ensure compliance with the regulator's expectations. On this course you will learn how to prepare a request for proposal (RFP), evaluate and select the right CRO and establish procedures for vendor oversight for R&D projects you need to outsource. You will also cover the techniques for successfully managing CROs/ vendors and the shared responsibilities required by the sponsor and the service provider. Managing CRO performance issues will also be discussed. The course is equally useful to CROs/other vendors and consultants to understand how to work effectively with sponsor organisations. Benefits of attending Understand how to effectively manage CROs/vendors used in the pharma industry Build an understanding of your responsibilities as the sponsor and identify the right level of management and oversight Discuss how to put in place a robust CRO/vendor selection process Discover tools and processes to manage CROs and other vendors Measure CRO performance including metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) Certifications: CPD: 12 hours for your records Certificate of completion Who Should Attend: This event is designed for personnel involved in CRO/vendor management and oversight in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, animal health and medical device industries including those working in clinical research, regulatory affairs, pharmacovigilance, manufacturing, clinical outsourcing, contracts, quality, clinical operations, vendor management and global QA/compliance. It will also be relevant for outsourcing, purchasing, finance and contract management staff who participate in the RFP process who will find this course a valuable introduction or refresher course focusing on best practice. This course will also help CRO/vendor personnel to work more successfully with pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies through gaining a much clearer understanding of their needs when outsourcing. Key Topics Covered: Day 1 Background to the CRO industry and meeting regulatory expectations Outsourcing today for the biopharma industry Different models of outsourcing Challenges of working with CROs/Vendors and solutions Core components of Vendor Governance The potential benefits and drivers of outsourcing Outsourcing Trends Oversight of CROS/Vendors and meeting regulatory inspectors' expectations Understanding Oversight Key elements of Vendor Oversight Examples of Vendor Oversight documents Examine EU and FDA expectations for outsourcing in the pharma and biopharma industry Building an effective relationship Factors critical for a successful relationship Building trust Vendor/CRO selection - an overview of selection and bidding processes Identifying Vendors/ CROs Preparing the RFP Evaluating responses to the RFP Pre-qualification of vendors and vendor audits Writing the RFP Contracts with Vendors/CROs Bid defence meetings Day 2 Vendor/CRO selection - an overview of selection and bidding processes - continued Managing vendor/CRO project set-up How to set the stage so the CRO focuses on quality Effective Kick-off meetings Training CROs Which SOPs should CROs use? Risk assessment Tools and techniques for managing CRO performance Understand the KPIs/ dashboards Communications with CROs Ongoing oversight and management Tracking and measuring CRO progress and performance Ongoing training and integrating new CRO staff Maintaining effective communication with your CRO Report processes to manage CROs/vendors Progress and update meetings/TCs with CROs Meetings with CROs Update reports Auditing CROs Escalation Troubleshooting problems with CROs - common problems and possible solutions End of project oversight: reviewing CROs during and at the end of the project Review meetings Feedback and learnings for using in the future Evaluation of suppliers Speakers: Laura Brown Pharmaceutical QA and Training Consultant University of Cardiff Dr Laura Brown MBA, BSc,PhD, is a Pharmaceutical QA and Training Consultant, Course Director for the MSc in Clinical Research, School of Pharmacy at the University of Cardiff. She has more than 20 years' experience of quality assurance in the pharmaceutical industry and has worked for several companies, including GSKs Hoechst Marion Roussel, Farmitalia and Phoenix International. She has a particular expertise in quality assurance including risked based approaches to quality systems, data Integrity and project management in the pharmaceutical industry. She regularly writes on pharmaceutical regulatory issues including "The Planning of International Drug Development", in the Clinical Research Manual, Euromed and the "Impact of Brexit", RQA Journal 2017. For more information about this training visit About is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends. CONTACT: CONTACT: Laura Wood,Senior Press Manager press@ For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./ CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Forbes
16-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
AI Can't Fix Clinical Trials Without The Right People, New Parexel Report
Parexel's research found 6% of surveyed executives say their organizations are "exceptionally ... More prepared" to handle AI-driven drug development — more than 50% named AI training as a high priority. The potential of artificial intelligence in pharmaceutical research is intriguing. AI software is making its way into clinical research workflows from predictive analytics through to pharmacovigilance. However, based on new research from global clinical research organization Parexel — and the company's Chief Business Officer, Keri Mattox — there is a much more important variable determining trial success: humans. Published Thursday, Parexel's staffing report provides one of the fullest pictures to date of how the biopharma sector is rising to the challenge of technological disruption. Based on a global survey of 501 professionals, the report looks at where AI is being utilized, what is successful and where talent deficits could hinder advancement. 'There's an explosion of data across the clinical landscape,' Mattox said during a Thursday fireside chat at the Financial Times U.S. Pharma and Biotech Summit. 'But that data only becomes useful if you have a workforce that knows how to harness it —critically, thoughtfully and in service of the patient.' AI use is a bit patchy within the CRO space right now, Parexel's study finds. Fewer than 40% of respondents reported regular use of AI tools across their clinical workflows. Enthusiasm is growing, nonetheless, particularly for narrow but high-value use cases such as automated site reports, regulatory monitoring bots and early-stage data synthesis. Mattox gave one unexpectedly simple example, 'There are regulatory websites that won't push updates to us. Someone had to sit and manually refresh those pages. Now, we've got AI bots scanning them in real time. That small automation translates into measurable acceleration when you multiply it across thousands of trials.' This chase is not surface-level. With clinical trial complexity and costs on the rise, AI offers a chance to shift from reactive to proactive R&D — if businesses invest in the talent to make it happen. Mattox's sentiments mirrored the implicit message of Parexel's report: the biopharmaceutical industry is not yet ready to leverage AI to its fullest capabilities. Just 6% of surveyed executives feel their organizations are "exceptionally prepared" to handle AI-driven drug development. Over half indicated that training in AI capabilities is now a high priority. 'More than half of [biopharma leaders] say that AI experts are going to be the most important role to fill in the next three to five years,' Mattox noted. 'And that training them to actually use AI is a top priority. It's not just about teaching someone how to use a tool. It's training people to know when that tool adds value, when it doesn't and how to interpret what comes out of it.' According to the Parexel study, AI is proving to be a useful tool for clinical research. However ... More there is near term need for more and better "human-in-the-loop" AI training in the sector. Contrary to headline fears that robots will displace scientists, near-term reality is more collaborative. Parexel's report substantiates the notion that AI will thrive in "human-in-the-loop" systems where humans remain responsible for verifying conclusions, identifying biases and guiding outcomes. Mattox echoed the same sentiment. 'AI isn't a substitute for clinical expertise. It's a new arrow in the quiver — a powerful one — but its value depends entirely on how well humans can engage with it. That's why we're focused on upskilling at every level of the organization.' Surprisingly, the report found that frontline workers are more proficient in entering data than in understanding AI-generated outputs. The asymmetry in capability comes with some risk — most particularly as regulatory processes become increasingly data-intensive and dispersed. AI is also reinventing classic job roles. Parexel's survey says "multi-fluent" roles — roles that are a combination of clinical, technical and data smart — will be the future norm. In addition to bringing in AI specialists, organizations need to create staff members who can manage ambiguity, work across functions and identify patterns that machines can't. 'We're seeing AI added to nearly every role, not just isolated to new job titles,' Mattox explained. 'Junior team members are using AI to sift through thousands of pages of data, while senior leaders are being trained to make final decisions based on AI-assisted insights.' Yet that uptake is not unqualified. Sponsors are being careful about introducing AI into data sets that are already under regulatory scrutiny, Mattox indicated. 'There's not a fear of AI per se, but there's real sensitivity around when and where it gets used — especially if it could influence submission outcomes.' In addition to tech savviness, the report identifies a second, less apparent revolution – culture. Top-performing organizations aren't only investing in AI technologies, they're building cultures in which continuous learning, mentorship and meaning flourish. Parexel's research demonstrates that face-to-face, hands-on training leads to greater retention and more successful outcomes than web-based modules by themselves. 'We're hearing from experts across the field that the best way to train people is in person. It's hands-on mentoring. And the companies doing that are retaining those workers better,' Mattox explained. That clarity of purpose is more than an inspirational mantra. It's a retention strategy in an open-talent market where AI-enabled workers are in increasingly high demand across industries because AI natives drive results. 'We tie everything — AI adoption included — back to our core mission of getting therapies to patients faster,' she said. 'If we can show that you can close a trial 35% faster using AI at three touchpoints, even the skeptics become supporters,' she said. As sponsors demand more efficient, adaptive and patient-centric trials, CROs such as Parexel are evolving their role as talent engines instead of service providers. Regardless of whether full-service outsourcing or hybrid approaches are used, the capability to quickly mobilize trained, AI-enabled talent is emerging as a strategic differentiator. Finally, the report and Mattox's comments meet at one place: AI can drive the future of clinical development, yet human capacity will dictate how quickly —and how far — we get there.
