The Next Era of AI in Drug Discovery

Published 17 September 2026

As AI moves from summarizing papers to generating scientific claims, biopharma faces a hard question: how do you trust an answer with no way to trace it back to the truth?

Digital Science’s Mark Hahnel unpacks the shift at hubXchange 2026.

Keynotes & insights from AI in Drug Discovery hubXchange 2026

On September 9, 2026, leaders across the biopharmaceutical and artificial intelligence sectors gathered in San Francisco for the AI in Drug Discovery hubXchange. Digital Science’s Mark Hahnel delivered a keynote address examining how AI is altering scientific inquiry and biopharma R&D. Moving beyond basic task automation, Hahnel articulated a future centered on data provenance, agentic workflows and the assembly of an industry-wide data substrate.

Read on for a recap and key takeaways from Hahnel’s keynote.