The MAPS Americas Annual Meeting provides a useful snapshot of how the medical affairs function continues to evolve.

This year, a recurring theme across sessions was the tension between innovation and oversight, particularly as teams explore new technologies and engagement models while operating within highly regulated environments.

A couple of sessions illustrated that balance particularly well.

From volume to value: How AI can rehumanise healthcare

This keynote explored how healthcare systems can move beyond traditional clinical data to incorporate broader, real-world signals such as wearable data, geographic information, and even Google search behaviour to improve patient care and outcomes.

One example that stood out was research suggesting that patterns in Google search activity could potentially identify women who may have gynaecological cancers up to a year earlier than when they would typically seek the care that ultimately leads to a diagnosis. This highlights the opportunity to use existing data in new ways to support earlier intervention and more holistic views of patient health.

The broader message was clear. The future of healthcare may depend less on generating new data and more on better integrating and interpreting the data that already exists.

AI in medical affairs: A debate between the early adopter and the cautious sceptic with AI weighing in

One well attended session took the form of a debate between an AI early adopter and a cautious sceptic, with an AI system itself ‘listening’ and synthesising the discussion.

While there was broad agreement that AI is already delivering value in areas such as literature review, insight synthesis, and identifying relevant HCPs for engagement, the conversation quickly moved beyond use cases to a more practical question: why so many pilots, and so little scale?

A key issue raised was the ‘pilot trap’. Many organisations are experimenting with AI, but relatively few are integrating it into core workflows in a way that delivers measurable return on investment.

Several speakers emphasised the importance of focusing on high-value use cases tied to outcomes, rather than incremental efficiency gains alone. There was also recognition that avoiding AI adoption does not eliminate risk. In many cases, it creates ‘shadow use’, where individuals turn to external tools outside of governed environments.

Another important point was that the biggest barrier to adoption may not be technology, but culture and alignment. Organisations that are succeeding are those that are clear on what they want AI to change and how they will measure that impact.

Omnichannel in medical affairs: One vision, many pathways

This session on omnichannel engagement reinforced that there is no single model for success. Different organisations are taking different approaches, ranging from centralised platform-driven models to more agile, field-enabled strategies.

A key takeaway was the importance of training and enablement. Even with strong strategy and technology in place, success depends on ensuring that field teams and cross-functional partners understand how to apply omnichannel approaches effectively in practice.

These discussions also reinforced the need to balance digital innovation with thoughtful stakeholder engagement, while ensuring teams are equipped to execute against evolving strategies.

Final thought

If there was a single message that came through clearly, it is that medical affairs is increasingly operating at the intersection of science, strategy, and technology. The challenge and opportunity is integrating new tools in ways that drive meaningful outcomes while maintaining the rigor and credibility the function depends on.

It will be interesting to see how these ideas translate into practical approaches across medical affairs organisations in the coming year.