Dealmaking With AI And Big Data – Charting The New Frontier In Life Sciences

Megan Baca moderated Ropes & Gray's annual "From the Boardroom" panel – held in San Francisco during the 2024 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference – which this year looked at the role of artificial intelligence and big data in the context of dealmaking. It can feel hard to escape AI at the moment, with some debate as to whether AI is currently over-hyped or in fact at a transformational tipping point.

The panel of experts raised a number of points that will be of interest throughout 2024.

• Building a moat: A key point for any would be founder in AI is to demonstrate what is their company's "moat". What value is unique about the company and can this be protected from copying by competitors. This could include protected proprietary intellectual property, a superior customer experience or a dominant role in being used by others in the sector. Without this protection investors can be more nervous to deploy capital in a company.