Klick Health announces idea for AI-enhanced pharma marketing compliance tool ‘Guardrail’ as big winner in $1,000,000 AI contest for employees; turns concept into industry’s first fit-for-purpose regulatory solution

After receiving several hundred employee-generated AI ideas for life sciences clients, Klick Health today announced the Grand Prize winner of the $1,000,000 Klick Prize — sharing both key learnings from its year-long, internal contest and the implications they hold for the industry.

“The Klick Prize is about solving real problems and delivering measurable results. AI is a tool for transformation that can reshape what’s possible for our clients as we set the pace for life sciences innovation in 2025 and beyond,” said Klick Co-Founder and Chairman Leerom Segal. “Kudos to all of our Klicksters who submitted AI ideas, congrats to our prize winners, and special thanks to our executive client judging panel for their foresight and desire to elevate industry standards.”

Key Takeaways

The winning Klick Prize ideas showcase a future where AI tools take on dynamic roles, exhibit enhanced complex reasoning, and expand beyond chat to enable seamless interactions across multiple interfaces — all trends that are expected to accelerate in 2025.

Guardrail, the Grand-Prize-winning idea for an AI-enhanced pharma marketing compliance tool, for example, doesn’t just offer simple predictive suggestions. It applies complex reasoning and a decision engine to ensure compliance in pharma marketing, helping teams navigate regulatory frameworks more intelligently and efficiently.

Klick has already turned the idea into reality — building the first fit-for-purpose regulatory solution in life sciences — already using the tool internally to help enhance asset authoring, review, and Medical Legal and Regulatory (MLR) processes, and putting it into pilots with multiple clients.

An immersive AI/human interaction platform for simulating healthcare interactions and delivering actionable industry insights, which was a round-two-winning concept, features AI ‘agents’ that act as patients and healthcare professionals. The concept is poised to lead to enriched market research and simulated user experiences that go far beyond basic chatbot exchanges.

The program also brought to light how AI models are expanding beyond the chat interface, enabling voice-based interactions, as well as multimedia production that incorporates text, images, code, and more.

According to Segal, as these trends advance, more AI solutions that think, learn, and operate with increasing autonomy will be introduced, ultimately driving more meaningful engagement and more effective commercialization within the life sciences industry.

The Guardrail concept was conceived by two members of Klick’s Medical team (known as the Mediverse), along with a tech developer and a project manager. They are splitting the final purse in addition to their winnings from the first round in May.

Other winning ideas from the three rounds of the contest included a personalized AI training concept that enables pharma sales reps to leverage a synthetic personas/digital twinning tool for healthcare professionals; an AI-powered approach to developing high-quality branded messaging; a patient experience panel that uses a gaming engine to identify new ways to make meaningful, positive impact in-market; and an AI tool that utilizes in-market solutions to help pharma companies modernize their standard operating procedures and good clinical practice updates within the regulatory landscape.

Entries were reviewed and evaluated by an industry judging panel, comprised of senior executives from BeiGene, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Genentech, Lilly, NewAmsterdam Pharma, Novartis, Novocure, Otsuka, Pfizer, Sobi, and Teva. Entries were judged on impact, pragmatism, market differentiation, and desirability.

Encouraging Employees to Get Comfortable Using AI

Beyond coming up with game-changing AI ideas for healthcare clients, Segal said the Klick Prize program was designed to make Klicksters from across the company more comfortable using AI. “We encouraged our people to give generative AI a try and have fun experimenting with it. We gave them free access to tools, AI coaches, and the opportunity to see their ideas turned into solutions that can make a difference to our clients and be rewarded in the process.”

The unique program also underscores Klick’s people-first workplace culture, exemplifying its commitment to diversity of thought and the belief that great ideas can come from anywhere.

Today’s news is the latest in the company’s ongoing AI and machine-learning innovations created to help Klick clients and team members achieve even greater success. Earlier this year, Klick Labs unveiled important new research on using AI and vocal biomarkers to detect chronic high blood pressure (hypertension) — following its groundbreaking research last year around the AI model it created to detect Type 2 diabetes using 10 seconds of voice. In the spring, Klick also launched KCM+AI™, the first AI social media comment moderator for the life sciences industry.

Last year, it unveiled LOVENet™, an AI framework that rapidly identifies new uses for existing drugs at the prestigious NeurIPS conference; it introduced Genome Perspective, the first AI tool to be developed by an advertising agency to expedite project planning and increase the efficiency and velocity of delivery to clients; and it debuted KlickRx, the first ChatGPT plugin for the life sciences industry in the U.S.

About Klick Health

Klick Health is the world’s largest independent commercialization partner for life sciences, focused on hacking the boundaries of health by developing, launching, and supporting life sciences brands to achieve their full potential. The agency provides best-in-class marketing and advertising, media strategy and purchasing, medical affairs and medical communications, value and market access services, as well as enterprise omnichannel enablement among its specialized offerings. Klick’s client service is rooted in deep medical and scientific understanding, enabled by over 185 post-graduate, in-house medical experts; unrivaled decision sciences capabilities; and innovative, results-driven creative.

One of the most-awarded advertising agencies on the planet, Klick was named 2024 Clio Health Independent Agency of the Year, London International Awards Global (and Regional) Independent Health & Pharma Agency of the Year, as well as Cannes Lions #2 Healthcare Agency and #2 Healthcare Network for the second year running. Cannes Lions also recognized Klick as the 2024 #3 Independent Agency of the Year. In 2024, Klick won over 140 top creative honors, including the coveted Cannes Lions Innovation Grand Prix, and eight agency distinctions from the most respected advertising awards shows. Klick has also been ranked a Best Managed Company, Great Place to Work, Best Workplace for Women, Best Workplace for Inclusion, Best Workplace for Professional Services, Most Admired Corporate Culture, and a FORTUNE Best Workplace in Advertising.

Established in 1997, Klick Health (including Klick Katalyst and btwelve) has offices in New York, Philadelphia, Toronto, London, São Paulo, and Singapore. It is part of the Klick Group of companies, which also includes Klick Media Group, Klick Applied Sciences (including Klick Labs), Klick Consulting, Klick Ventures, and Sensei Labs. Follow Klick Health on LinkedIn and for more information on joining Klick, go to careers.klick.com.

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