Appian Briefing Note
Axendia was recently briefed by Evi Cohen, Global Industry Leader, Life Sciences, along with Nicholas Costa, Analyst Relations Manager; Andres Carrillo, Director, Analyst Relations; and Marissa Coughlin, Industry Marketing Lead at Appian. Appian is an enterprise software company specializing in orchestrating work and business process automation using low-code and an AI-powered platform. It enables organizations to quickly build and deploy custom applications, streamline processes, and integrate data across systems using a proprietary data fabric architecture. The platform supports advanced technologies such as process automation and AI.
Appian has a workforce of 2,300 employees and offers global operations and support. The company provides comprehensive software and services for end-to-end process orchestration and automation, ensuring a seamless and efficient workflow for its clients worldwide. “Our cloud subscription revenue retention rate is 120%, indicating that our clients are not only renewing their subscriptions but also expanding their services when they do,” explained Costa.
Delivering on Today’s Enterprise Needs
AI’s effectiveness in improving an organization, hinges on having good data and processes. “Without these, AI is essentially useless beyond simple tricks. Appian addresses this by using our patented data fabric technology, which unites siloed data sources to create a virtualized layer of the client’s organization, providing a comprehensive 360-degree view of their data,” explained Costa.
Appian’s AI-Powered Platform highlights several components designed to enhance enterprise operations.
Key features include:
- AI Copilot: Provides AI design and user assistance, enabling intuitive interaction and efficient process management.
- AI Skills: Allows for the creation of custom AI models tailored to specific business needs, ensuring flexibility and adaptability.
- Private AI: Ensures secure storage of data and AI models for each client, emphasizing data privacy and security.
- Cloud Infrastructure: Offers scalable and reliable cloud services to support the platform’s operations.
- Data Fabric: Integrates disparate data sources into a unified, virtualized layer, offering a comprehensive 360-degree view of organizational data.
- Process Optimization: Enhances workflow efficiency and effectiveness through advanced AI capabilities.
Relevance for Life Sciences
For life science companies, this type of platform can be particularly valuable as it supports secure data handling, crucial for compliance with regulatory requirements. The custom AI models and integrated data fabric enable advanced analytics and process optimization, essential for research and development, clinical trials, regulatory affairs, CMC, Quality, Medical Affairs and Commercial, plus manufacturing and supply chain processes.
Recently, Appian entered a multi-year strategic collaboration with AWS to deliver enterprise AI for end-to-end process automation. In highly regulated industries like life sciences, organizations are often hesitant to send their data across due to security concerns with open AI models. Appian addresses this with its private AI philosophy, ensuring that all data remains in-house and under the client’s control. The AI models are fine-tuned on the client’s data and are unique to each enterprise, never shared or benefiting competitors. “With Appian’s private AI, we keep all that in-house. It never leaves the organization,” explained Costa.
While tools like hammers, scientific calculators, and spreadsheets have specific uses, AI also has its strengths and limitations. The challenge in the life sciences industry is often the lack of a single source of truth, as companies often encounter multiple conflicting data sources. Curating and managing this data in order to leverage AI effectively, is crucial in ensuring users arrive at the single version of the truth. The alternative, of using inaccurate data is misleading and results in biased decision making.
Carrillo explained how the data fabric provides seamless access to all necessary data, which is then fed into the Large Language Model (LLM) using a comprehensive Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) stack. This stack allows for the determination of the most appropriate answers. Appian’s approach includes “mixed autonomy,” where a human-in-the-loop reviews the data to ensure its accuracy and relevance. For example, the PDF-to-interface option allows for adjustments after the AI creates the initial interface, ensuring the output is both accurate and practical.
Appian’s Mission in Life Sciences
Appian’s mission in life sciences is to transform companies by accelerating time to treatment through enhanced operational efficiencies driven by the Appian AI Process Platform. Key areas of focus include Speed & Efficiency, Quality & Compliance, Revenue & Cost, Experience, and Future Proofing. “By accelerating development, reducing cycle times, and improving efficiency, Appian helps companies bring products to market faster and with higher productivity. Ensuring visibility, transparency, and risk mitigation, Appian enhances quality and compliance, enabling better decision-making and adherence to standards,” explained Cohen.
These improvements are crucial as they can lead to significant cost reductions. As Axendia pointed out in a recent article, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will drive a significant change in the pharmaceutical industry, empowering Medicare to negotiate the prices of high-cost single-source brand-name drugs which have historically commanded high prices and generated substantial profits for pharmaceutical companies. By 2031, negotiations will extend to the top 100 most expensive drugs, effectively reshaping the market dynamics.
By enhancing collaboration, breaking down silos, and creating intuitive experiences, Appian is seeking to ensure a better work environment that attracts and retains top talent. “Future-proofing through innovation and modernizing legacy systems prepares life sciences companies to adapt to tomorrow’s changes, ensuring sustained success and competitiveness. For example, faster product development means life-saving treatments reach patients sooner, and improved compliance reduces the risk of costly regulatory fines,” said Cohen.
Appian’s AI Process Platform is utilized across several key areas in the life sciences sector. In Research and Development, it accelerates R&D efforts by streamlining clinical studies and reducing bottlenecks. For Quality and Pharmacovigilance, the platform enhances patient safety and product quality through improved tracking, reporting, and compliance. In Regulatory operations, Appian helps establish world-class standards, unify data, and automate workflows to expedite time to market and patient access. Additionally, in Manufacturing and Supply Chain, it harnesses operational efficiencies and provides visibility throughout the supply chain, ensuring seamless operations and improved productivity.
“Every one of these areas involves complex processes and requires people to manage vast amounts of information and data from various sources. Currently, much of this information is scattered and difficult to access. This is where Appian comes in; when layered on top of a QMS or ERP implementation for example, Appian provides enhanced visibility into your data, ensuring vigilance and governance over the entire process,” explained Cohen.
In Brief
Appian’s unified platform aims to integrate process mining, workflow, RPA, and AI automation, aimed at addressing complex automation challenges. This capability is particularly relevant for life sciences companies that need efficient and effective process management. The platform’s low-code nature allows for quick adaptation to changing needs and regulatory requirements, which is crucial for rapid innovation and response in the life sciences sector.
Appian also brings extensive industry experience, including partnerships with all top 10 global pharma companies, demonstrating its capability to automate critical business processes. Additionally, Appian’s open architecture preserves existing technology investments by integrating and extending current systems without requiring data migration. This flexibility can enable life sciences companies to enhance their capabilities seamlessly and cost-effectively, supporting process optimization and innovation though a unified AI-powered platform.
We will continue to provide updates on Appian as they become available.
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The opinions and analysis expressed in this post reflect the judgment of Axendia at the time of publication and are subject to change without notice. Information contained in this post is current as of publication date. Information cited is not warranted by Axendia but has been obtained through a valid research methodology. This post is not intended to endorse any company or product and should not be attributed as such.