The next chapter for Medical Affairs: Insights from the January 2026 Medical Affairs leadership council

Authored by: Lori Klein, Rudiger Papsch

Medical Affairs is entering its next chapter.

At our January 2026 Medical Affairs Leadership Council convening, senior leaders reflected on how far the function has come and what must evolve next. The discussion pointed to a function that is increasingly valued, yet still working to fully establish its role as an enterprise decision-maker.

Recognized but not yet fully influential

Across organizations, Medical Affairs is recognized as a strategic partner. However, many leaders shared that a meaningful portion of their time is still spent clarifying the function’s role internally rather than shaping enterprise decisions. While Medical Affairs is often present in key discussions, its influence is not always fully realized. The distinction between being included and being influential remains an important one.

The power of earlier engagement

A consistent theme was the importance of engaging earlier in the lifecycle. Medical Affairs has the greatest opportunity to shape outcomes when it contributes to development decisions, evidence strategy, and launch planning from the outset. Its proximity to patients and healthcare providers offers a perspective that is difficult to replicate elsewhere in the organization. When that perspective is integrated early, it can meaningfully influence both strategy and execution.

Building enterprise fluency

Leaders also highlighted the need to strengthen business fluency across the function. Scientific expertise remains foundational, but enterprise influence increasingly requires the ability to navigate broader organizational priorities, communicate in the language of the business, and engage effectively across functions. This is particularly important as Medical Affairs seeks to maintain its distinct role while contributing to enterprise-wide decisions.

Closing the evidence-to-impact gap

The conversation underscored a persistent challenge: translating evidence into real-world impact. While Medical Affairs continues to lead in generating high-quality data, influencing clinical practice and health system behavior remains complex. This gap is driven less by science and more by stakeholder incentives, access realities, and how decisions are made in practice. Increasingly, leaders pointed to the importance of applying principles from implementation science to better understand how evidence is adopted, sustained, and scaled in real-world settings. Bridging this gap requires not only strong evidence, but also a more deliberate focus on how that evidence is communicated, contextualized, and ultimately acted upon.

AI as an emerging enabler

Advances in data and AI are beginning to support this shift. There is growing optimism about the potential for AI to enable more precise, data-driven Medical Affairs, from identifying unmet needs to tailoring engagement and accelerating launch readiness. However, many organizations are still in the early stages of fully integrating these capabilities. The opportunity is clear, but realizing it will require continued investment in tools, infrastructure, and new ways of working.

Looking ahead

Looking ahead, leaders identified several priorities that will define success in the coming year, including strengthening strategic influence, maximizing the value of evidence generation, and leveraging data and AI to improve decision-making.

Underpinning all of these priorities is a more fundamental shift: the evolution of the Medical Affairs skillset. The future of the function will not be defined only by what Medical Affairs does, but by who is doing it and how they operate. Leaders emphasized the need for a new profile of talent that combines scientific depth with enterprise thinking, strong business fluency, and the ability to apply data and AI in practical, decision-oriented ways. Critically, these technical capabilities must be paired with the judgment and influence required to translate insights into action.

Medical Affairs is well positioned to play a more central role in shaping enterprise strategy. The foundation is in place, with strong scientific credibility and a clear connection to patient and stakeholder needs.

The next step is to translate that foundation into consistent, measurable influence.