AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot said artificial intelligence is helping the drugmaker develop medicines faster, optimize drug design, and improve decision-making across research and development, CNBC reported Friday.

Soriot said AI can help identify new drug targets, refine molecules and reduce potential side effects before clinical testing, boosting productivity throughout the development process.

He added that AstraZeneca's partnership with Tempus AI has led to the creation of an AI agent that analyzes clinical and laboratory data to predict the probability of success in Phase 3 trials.

"We spend $300 million, $400 million, $500 million on a trial," Soriot said. "If you increase the probability of success, the productivity improvement is enormous."