Introduction
Staying competitive in the life sciences industry requires faster decision-making, deeper visibility into competitors, and a more strategic intelligence function. Yet many CI leaders still ask the same critical question: How are other life sciences organizations approaching CI, and what can we learn from them?
To answer this, Sedulo conducted the industry’s largest CI-focused survey built specifically for life sciences professionals. The 2025 Life Sciences Competitive Intelligence Survey captures insights from 109 global respondents, representing more than 1,000 years of combined experience, spanning pharma and biotech organizations of every size.
The report explores:
- CI Structure
- Practices
- AI Adoption
- Stakeholder Engagement
- Vendor Utilization
- Future Outlook
This article highlights the biggest findings from the survey, but it only scratches the surface. To access the full charts, data breakdowns, and detailed subgroup analyses, download the complete report here.
How CI Is Structured – and Why It Matters for Influence
One of the clearest patterns emerging from the data is that a CI function’s structure is closely tied to its influence within the organization.
Across all respondents, 46% report having a standalone CI function, while 27% work in embedded models and 22% operate hybrid structures. This varies sharply by company size.
Larger, more established, companies (1,000+ employees)
- 52% operate standalone CI functions
- Only 22% are embedded within other functions
Smaller companies (<1,000 employees)
- 42% embed CI, often within business development, commercial, strategy, or marketing
Headcount and budget follow the same trend.
- Most commonly, CI teams consist of 3 to 5 dedicated personnel
- The most common external CI budget is $100k–$500k, though large companies often exceed $1M–$3M
Organizational design matters because it shapes how much influence CI wields. Standalone functions typically enjoy greater stakeholder access, clearer mandates, and more strategic visibility – all key drivers of CI’s perceived value.
To access specific detail on how CI is structured at different organizational sizes, download the complete report here.
What Organizations Value Most from CI
Across respondents, the role of CI is clear: CI’s greatest contribution is helping organizations identify competitive threats early.
- 85% rate early threat detection as extremely or very valuable
- 67% select it as a top CI objective
Following closely behind are:
- Strategic planning support (64%)
- Portfolio and product decision-making (63%)
Larger organizations tend to lean more heavily on CI to support portfolio planning and launch readiness, while smaller and mid-sized companies focus on market visibility and risk detection. In every case, CI is expected to provide strategic clarity and enable better decision-making.
How CI Teams Gather Insight – and Stay Sharp
CI professionals rely on multiple sources to gather intelligence, but a few stand out as essential.
Top sources of data
- Secondary research is the most critical input (32% report extreme reliance).
- Conferences and congresses are the next most relied-upon source.
- AI is already a material contributor, with 53% reporting at least moderate reliance.
How CI professionals stay current
To remain effective, CI teams prioritize:
- Networking with peers (66%)
- Industry conferences (47%)
- Formal training, webinars, and on-demand learning (34%)
High-performing CI teams invest more consistently in learning and development, and that investment pays dividends: they stay ahead of emerging tools, evolving methodologies, and competitor trends.
Stakeholder Engagement Is the Engine of CI Influence
Across every analysis in the survey, one theme dominates: Frequent stakeholder engagement is the strongest predictor of CI’s strategic influence and stakeholder satisfaction.
Engagement frequency
The most common cadence is weekly engagement (36 percent), but the highest-influence teams engage daily.
Key findings include:
- Daily engagement is most common in the high-influence group.
- Ad-hoc engagement is most common among low-influence teams.
- Stakeholder satisfaction sharply declines as engagement intervals lengthen.
Most effective communication formats
Respondents rated the following as most impactful:
- Real-time alerts (66% extremely/very effective)
- Reports and presentations (69% extremely/very effective)
Barriers such as competing priorities or misaligned deliverables remain common, but the highest-performing CI teams mitigate these through consistent communication, structured meetings, and proactive feedback collection.
To access the full charts, data breakdowns, and detailed subgroup analyses, download the complete report here.
AI Adoption: High Pressure, Early Progress, Clear Barriers
Artificial intelligence is reshaping CI workflows, though adoption remains in early maturation.
Leadership pressure is growing
- 57% of respondents feel moderate to significant pressure to explore or adopt AI tools.
Current adoption
- 57% say AI use is in exploration or pilot mode
- Only 6% have fully applied AI workflows
- Yet 67% already report moderate or high measurable impact
Top AI use cases
- Document summarization (applied by 52%)
- Automated CI alerts (explored by 54%)
AI barriers
Respondents cited three main obstacles:
- Quality and hallucination concerns (53%)
- Privacy and compliance issues (45%)
- Lack of internal expertise (40%)
While the majority of organizations have implemented safeguards, governance and standardization remain early-stage.
When and Why CI Teams Engage Vendors
Vendor engagement differs across company sizes but follows clear patterns.
When vendors are engaged
- 60% of companies engage a CI vendor by phase 2
- 24% engage as early as preclinical, especially smaller companies seeking to validate commercial opportunity
What teams value most from vendors
Respondents overwhelmingly prioritize:
- Access to hard-to-reach primary research sources
- Specialized expertise, such as therapeutic-area depth or functional specialization
Procurement influence and referrals ranked lowest in importance, showing that organizations are seeking genuine value, capability, and insight – not convenience.
Industry Outlook – Stable Budgets Amid Rising Complexity
For the third consecutive year, respondents expect modest net growth in CI budgets and team sizes. However, most anticipate that budgets will remain essentially flat, reflecting a stable but cost-conscious environment.
Top factors shaping CI resources
- Overall company performance (31%)
- Pipeline or portfolio changes (28%)
Technological advancement – especially AI – is gradually becoming a more influential budgeting factor, rising from 4% in last year’s survey to 11% this year.
To access specific detail on budgets and team sizes at different organizational sizes, download the complete report here.
Future trends
AI is expected to be the single most disruptive trend over the next 3–5 years, appearing in 24 of 26 open-text responses. Expected impacts include faster insight generation, greater efficiency, and improved contextualization of competitive signals.
What High-Performing CI Teams Do Differently
Subgroup analysis identifies clear behaviors that differentiate the highest-impact CI functions.
High-influence CI teams are more likely to:
- Engage stakeholders daily
- Operate as a standalone CI function
- Invest in larger external CI budgets
- Use CI to support launch and go-to-market strategy
- Collect stakeholder feedback to measure CI impact
Low-influence teams tend to be embedded, under-resourced, and less structured in their engagement. They also lack formal methods for measuring their contribution to planning or decision-making.
The takeaway is simple: high influence is achieved through structure, investment, communication, and measurable value.
Conclusion – CI’s Strategic Moment Has Arrived
The 2025 survey underscores a profession at an inflection point. CI teams are expected to operate more strategically, more efficiently, and more collaboratively than ever before. As competition intensifies and AI reshapes workflows, the organizations that invest in people, tools, and strategic alignment will lead the next evolution of CI.
The CI functions that thrive will be those that:
- Engage stakeholders consistently
- Communicate insights in real time
- Invest in external expertise where needed
- Adopt AI responsibly and proactively
- Measure and demonstrate their impact
- Position themselves as strategic partners rather than reactive resources
This year’s report provides a roadmap for teams that want to elevate their influence and sharpen their competitive advantage.
To dive deeper into all findings, including subgroup analyses, budget benchmarks, structural comparisons, AI maturity levels, and detailed CI practice breakdowns – download the full 2025 Life Sciences Competitive Intelligence Survey Report.