03/24/2026  |  Gareth Macdonald  |  BioXconomy

https://www.bioxconomy.com/clinical-and-research/uk-government-to-examine-how-ai-can-optimize-trials 

The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee will investigate how artificial intelligence can transform personalized medicine delivery.

The UK government announced it will examine how artificial intelligence (AI) can aid health innovation—including in clinical trials—in an enquiry launched this month.

The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee revealed the initiative as part of a wider investigation into the role tech plays in the UK’s public health system, explaining that personalized medicine and AI would be a focus.

Committee chair Lord Mair said, “As the NHS plans to harness new developments in genomics, AI, and personalized medicine, our inquiry will seek to establish the state of the science and technology in this area and understand where patients might benefit from near-term developments. 

“We will examine the gap between early-stage research, clinical trials and NHS-wide delivery, looking at blockages in the system slowing progress, including procurement processes, clinical pathways, and the role of regulators and professional bodies.”

The inquiry is part of the Labour government’s AI for science strategy, one of whose aims is to use the technology “to accelerate drug discovery to develop trial-ready drugs within 100 days by 2030 and contribute to deploying new treatments faster.”

AI for trials 
AI has been central to government efforts to make the UK a more attractive location for trialing candidate drugs for some time. 

Last October, for example, research suggested that the time taken to approve trials in the UK had been halved—from an average of 91 days to just 41 days—following reforms backed by digital technology at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

AI is also central to the government-backed IXI Brain Atlas project, which aims to build a model that can better identify neurodegenerative disorders. 

According to a government release issued in February, the project is already supporting more than 40 clinical trials into degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s by helping to analyze brain scans.