How AI Agents Accelerate KOL Discovery for Medical Affairs Teams

Published: 26 July 2026

Author(s): Isabel Wellbery

Every therapeutic area has a short list of names that surface in every internal conversation. The people who reliably show up are rarely the problem.

The problem is the clinician gaining influence right now who is not on anyone’s list yet, and the name still sitting on last year’s plan who changed institutions or stopped treating the relevant patients months ago.

Medical affairs is expected to know the difference, and to know it faster than a manual review can keep up. Medical affairs is also held to a standard that sales is not. Its engagements are non-promotional, so any decision about who to engage has to hold up to scientific and compliance scrutiny.

As medical affairs has grown from an information desk into a strategic scientific function, that expectation has sharpened rather than eased. AI agents are starting to close the gap, though only when what they produce can be traced back to real evidence.