Survey: 65 Percent of Pharma Marketers Distrust AI for Creating Regulatory Compliance Submissions

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TORONTO & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 25, 2025--

A recent survey from Klick Health and Momentum Events found that the majority (65 percent) of pharmaceutical marketing and promotional review industry professionals in the U.S. do not trust AI for creating regulatory compliance submissions. Top concerns included hallucinations (40 percent); lack of traceability/audit trail (20 percent); and lack of transparency/explainability (12.5 percent).

“These findings reinforce the critical need for healthcare marketing compliance tools that provide both visibility and accountability in their decision-making,” according to Alfred Whitehead, EVP, Applied Sciences at Klick. “The good news is that there’s an alternative to black-box AI systems, which give answers without explaining how they reach a conclusion and make it difficult to validate responses.”

Julie Turnbull, SVP, Science + Regulatory said, “There are glass-box AI tools, built with expert human medical and regulatory decision intelligence that offer users both visibility into their workflows and reasoning behind their outputs. They are well-suited for high-risk, sensitive tasks like healthcare marketing regulatory submissions.”

As an example, Turnbull pointed to Klick Guardrail ™, a glass-box AI tool that goes beyond offering simple predictive suggestions by applying complex reasoning and a proven decision engine that shows its logic. The tool, purposely built for the healthcare marketing industry, also provides traceability to help ensure pharma marketing compliance, while navigating regulatory frameworks more intelligently and efficiently. Klick Guardrail is in pilot programs with multiple pharma and biotech companies and is currently being used internally at the agency to enhance asset authoring; review; and Medical, Legal, and Regulatory (MLR) processes.

BJ Jones, Chief Commercial Officer, NewAmsterdam Pharma said, “The Klick Guardrail system stands out because it makes responsible AI not just possible, but practical.” Jones, who served on an industry jury panel that gave top honors to the glass-box AI system in last year’s Klick Prize competition, added, “It was heartening to see such a thoughtful approach to ensuring safety and transparency built right into the foundation of how these tools are used to support accountability, auditing, and trust. I'm really excited to see Guardrail tackle this challenge in a way that respects reviewers and content authors alike."

More Survey Highlights

- Half of participants said they trusted AI for conducting reviews of materials – suggesting a greater unwillingness to use AI for higher-risk, sensitive tasks, such as creating regulatory review packages and submissions

- Over a third (37.5 percent) of those polled said their companies review more than 100 assets each business quarter, while less than one-fifth (15 percent) said they review fewer than 25 assets per quarter.

- Fifty-five percent said their organizations are currently exploring AI for review purposes, while one-quarter said they are in the pilot phase. Only five percent said they have partially deployed, 2.5 percent said they have fully deployed, and 12.5 percent revealed they are not considering AI for this area.

- Over one-third (35 percent) of survey respondents described their primary role in the review process as MLR Operations/Management; 30 percent in Regulatory; 15 percent in Marketing; 12.5 percent in Medical, Medical Affairs, or Medical Communications; five percent in Legal; and 2.5 percent in Technology.

The Klick/Momentum study echoes findings from the 2025 Trust in AI survey by KPMG and the University of Melbourne, which reported the number of people worried about AI tools spiked from 49 percent in 2022 to 62 percent in 2024. More than half (56 percent) said using AI had led to errors in their work, likely from relying on incorrect or hallucinated AI-generated content from generative AI tools, or from misinterpreting AI responses. "Many employees report inappropriate, complacent, and non-transparent use of AI in their work, contravening policies and resulting in errors and dependency," the study cited.

About the Survey:

The survey was conducted on behalf of Klick Health by Momentum Events, which reached out to its network of pharmaceutical marketing/promotional review industry professionals in the U.S. Forty respondents completed the online survey from July 11 to October 8, 2025.

About Momentum Events

Momentum Events produces conferences within the life sciences, legal, and financial services industries. Within the healthcare sector, it hosts the Promotional Review Summit for pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device professionals. The annual event is designed to help regulatory affairs, medical affairs, legal, compliance, and marketing teams navigate complex regulatory (FDA and OPDP) requirements for advertising and promotion. The event provides a platform for attendees to share best practices on streamlining the PRC/MLR (Promotional Review Committee/Medical, Legal, Regulatory) process, leveraging new technologies like AI, and ensuring promotional integrity in an evolving regulatory landscape. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Tampa, Florida, Momentum takes a research-first, content-driven approach to developing conferences and events that address attendees' real-world challenges.

About Klick Health

Klick Health is the world’s largest independent commercialization partner for life sciences, focused on hacking the boundaries of health by developing, launching, and supporting life sciences brands to achieve their full potential. The agency provides best-in-class marketing and advertising, media strategy and purchasing, medical affairs and medical communications, value and market access services, as well as technology and analytics consulting among its specialized offerings. Klick’s client service is rooted in deep medical and scientific understanding, enabled by nearly 250 post-graduate, in-house medical experts; unrivaled decision sciences capabilities; and innovative, results-driven creative.

One of the most-awarded advertising agencies on the planet, Klick has been named Clio Health Independent Agency of the Year, London International Awards Global (and Regional) Independent Health & Pharma Agency of the Year, as well as Cannes Lions #2 Healthcare Agency and #2 Healthcare Network. The company recently made history by becoming the first health agency to ever be ranked an ‘Agency of the Year’ by both The One Show and New York Festivals Advertising Awards. Klick is also recognized as a Best Managed Company, Great Place to Work, Best Workplace for Women, Best Workplace for Inclusion, Best Workplace for Professional Services, Most Admired Corporate Culture, and a FORTUNE Best Workplace in Advertising.

Established in 1997, Klick Health (including Klick Katalyst and btwelve) has offices in New York, Philadelphia, Saratoga Springs, Toronto, London, São Paulo, and Singapore. It is part of the Klick Group of companies, which also includes Klick Media Group, Klick Applied Sciences (including Klick Labs), Klick Consulting, Klick Ventures, and Sensei Labs. Follow Klick Health on LinkedIn and for more information on joining Klick, go to careers.klick.com.

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CONTACT: Press

For more information, please contact Klick PR [email protected] (416) 214-4977.

KEYWORD: UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA CANADA NEW YORK

INDUSTRY KEYWORD: OTHER SCIENCE PHARMACEUTICAL RESEARCH OTHER TECHNOLOGY SOFTWARE NETWORKS INTERNET DATA MANAGEMENT SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY PUBLIC POLICY/GOVERNMENT OTHER COMMUNICATIONS GENERAL HEALTH MARKETING HEALTH ADVERTISING HEALTHCARE REFORM COMMUNICATIONS MEDIA

SOURCE: Klick Health

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PUB: 11/25/2025 09:06 AM/DISC: 11/25/2025 09:06 AM

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