Technology

As sponsors navigate rising complexity, AI adoption, and global scale, outsourcing strategies are shifting toward hybrid models, deeper CRO collaboration, and function-level flexibility to support execution in 2026.

Insights from SCOPE 2026 highlight the industry’s shift toward connected, data-centric clinical trial ecosystems, where digital protocols, shared data, and renewed scientific rigor are driving more efficient, interoperable, and patient-focused research.

Jonathan Andrus, co-CEO of CRIO, explains how protocol-driven eSource templates and standardized data capture are improving consistency, oversight, and efficiency across clinical trial sites.

Jonathan Andrus, co-CEO of CRIO, discusses how increased reliance on site-based technologies and eSource is strengthening data quality, compliance, and trust at the point of patient encounter.

Rising development costs, low success rates, and increasing trial complexity are reshaping the clinical trial project manager role, demanding stronger digital fluency, adaptive leadership, and expanded stakeholder coordination to deliver studies efficiently.

Angela Zubel, chief development officer, Debiopharm, emphasizes that organizations willing to standardize data and adopt practical AI tools are already gaining efficiency, cost savings, and stronger real-time oversight across development programs.

Angela Zubel, chief development officer, Debiopharm, outlines how predictive models are improving compound selection from early clinical phases, while noting the ongoing challenges of forecasting success from preclinical development to patient outcomes.

Angela Zubel, chief development officer, Debiopharm, explains how AI-enabled site selection, patient allocation, and real-time data monitoring can reduce costs, shorten timelines, and limit inefficiencies caused by non-performing sites.

Angela Zubel, chief development officer, Debiopharm, discusses why 2026 marks a shift from AI pilots to broader operational implementation across clinical trials and drug development programs.

Mike Wenger, chief innovation officer at CRIO, explains how AI can responsibly support data quality and monitoring with proper oversight, and why advancing eSource and EHR systems remains critical to strengthening data integrity and remote trial operations.

Explore how AI, decentralized tools, eSource, and IRT are reshaping clinical development operations in Applied Clinical Trials' February issue.

Raja Shankar, VP of machine learning at IQVIA, discusses which AI capabilities sponsors are most likely to adopt first to streamline trial workflows and reduce operational burden, while also highlighting emerging applications that could shape the next phase of clinical trial design.

As clinical trials grow more global and complex, AI is emerging as a practical enabler of smarter financial management by automating manual processes, improving visibility across fragmented systems, and helping sponsors, CROs, and sites reduce delays, errors, and operational friction.

Jeremy Wyatt, CEO, Ametris, discusses how operational best practices for integrating wearables into oncology trials center on minimizing patient burden through thoughtful workflow design, careful device selection, and early planning to ensure digital measures fit the realities of complex patient populations.

Mike Wenger, chief innovation officer at CRIO, discusses how different site types—from academic medical centers to independent research sites—require distinct eSource approaches, and why aligning technology with site workflows is critical to study execution.

Raja Shankar, VP of machine learning at IQVIA, explains how AI-driven trial simulation and automation are beginning to influence decision-making across every phase of clinical development.

As trials expand into new geographies and decentralized models mature, sponsors are confronting a core operational challenge in 2026: how to scale global execution while reducing system complexity and day-to-day burden on research sites.

A look at how efficiency, access, platformization, AI, non-traditional players, and regulatory recovery are expected to reshape clinical operations in 2026.

Global clinical development has evolved into a technology-enabled, highly regulated, and geographically diversified enterprise, as sponsors adapt trial design, partnerships, and operations to meet rising demands for scale, speed, and patient-centricity.

Examine how practical AI applications can streamline contracts and startup workflows while preserving the central role of investigators, site staff, and patient relationships in clinical research.

As Parkinson’s disease cases surge worldwide, growing evidence gaps around women’s biology, care access, and outcomes are driving new data-driven and digital strategies to advance sex-specific research and precision medicine.

Explore how contract standardization, proactive budget alignment, and AI-enabled negotiation tools can reduce site activation delays and turn agreements into strategic accelerators rather than administrative bottlenecks.

See what will distinguish sponsors that scale AI into core operations from those stuck in experimentation, and why redesigning underlying processes—not just optimizing workflows—is critical to realizing long-term value.