Artificial intelligence tools and technology

The European Medicines Agency (EMA), as part of the European medicines regulatory network, develops and uses tools to help transition to artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled medicine regulation processes.
HumanVeterinaryAIData on medicines

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EMA has taken steps to explore the use of AI in regulatory activities, including:

  • Evaluating AI use cases that can support medicine development
  • Strengthening expertise in prompting and generative AI practices across the network
  • Accepting clinical trial evidence generated using a specific AI-assisted methodology qualified by EMA

EMA collaborates closely with the Heads of Medicines Agency (EMA) on using and integrating AI tools.

For more information on EMA's work on AI, see:

How network uses AI tools

AI uses cases

EMA identified the main uses cases for AI within the network. They are:

  • Knowledge mining – such as searching across regulatory documents and extracting information from summaries of product characteristics
  • Personal productivity support – such as writing support, personal assistance, document comparison and meeting minutes generation
  • Automation of processes and systems – such as invoicing, email distribution and automation of regulatory workflows
  • Process improvements – such adverse drug reaction (ADR) screening in scientific literature and pharmacovigilance triage
  • Anonymisation and data protection, as well as automated identification of commercially confidential information

EMA collected AI use cases and explored solutions to implement them via a series of workshops with national competent authorities (NCAs).

These workshops covered both human and veterinary domains. They helped identify more than 60 AI uses cases. 

AI tools framework

An AI tools framework maintains a catalogue of tools that support the main AI use cases within the network. These tools use technologies including:

  • Large language models
  • Natural language processing
  • Speech recognition
  • Optical character recognition

The framework enables the network to use AI solutions more efficiently, maximising value and regulatory impact.

It creates a common way for EMA, NCAs and the European Commission to share and access information about AI tools.

The joint EMA-HMA Network Data Steering Group (NDSG) adopted this framework in 2025.

AI ecosystem and prompt community

EMA is helping develop an ecosystem of AI agents and assistants to optimise and enhance knowledge and information retrieval.

As part of its broader work to develop and deploy AI solutions, EMA has also tested a prompt community model for the network. This aimed to create a collection of validated and reusable prompts.

The prompt community supported:

  • Harmonising and standardising AI use across the network
  • Strengthening generative AI practices

The NDSG established this pilot in 2025 and tested it in 2026. 

For more information, see:

Scientific Explorer: AI-enabled knowledge mining tool

EMA extended the functionality of its AI-enabled knowledge mining tool called 'Scientific Explorer' to support EMA and national competent authorities (NCAs) in finding information related to initial marketing authorisation applications of human medicines. This includes public assessment reports.

The extended search functionality is available as of March 2026.

Efficient search for regulatory scientific information

The tool enables easy, focused and precise search of regulatory scientific information from network sources.

EMA and NCA assessors are able to use the tool to customise their search for related information based on medicine name, disease or relevant keywords.

This supports decision-making via efficient retrieval of regulatory precedents. 

EMA introduced the tool in March 2024, initially focusing on improving searches for EMA scientific advice procedures for human and veterinary medicines. 

Who can access Scientific Explorer

The tool is available only to approved and authenticated users representing the network.

Frequently asked questions

For more information, see the document below with answers to frequently asked questions about this tool:

AI tool for MASH clinical trials

EMA has qualified the use of AIM-NASH, an AI-assisted tool that helps pathologists assess liver biopsy samples in clinical trials for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH). This condition was formerly known as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).

AI support for expert assessment 

The tool uses a machine learning model trained on thousands of liver biopsy samples and pathology annotations. It is intended to support expert assessment. A qualified pathologist must review the AI-generated results and remains responsible for the final evaluation of each biopsy sample.

The tool helps researchers obtain clearer evidence on the benefits of treatments in clinical trials with fewer patients.

PathAI designed this tool to assist, but not replace, expert human review.

First qualification opinion for AI methodology

AIM-NASH is the first AI-based methodology for medicine development to receive a qualification opinion from EMA's human medicines committee (CHMP).

CHMP concluded that AIM-NASH can help reduce variability in biopsy assessments, and improve the consistency and reproducibility of results in MASH clinical trials.

EMA's human medicines committee based its conclusion on evidence showing that AI-assisted assessments, verified by a pathologist, can reliably determine disease activity and fibrosis stage.

Marketing authorisation applicants may continue to submit clinical trial data generated using AIM-NASH, if the tool is used in line with the qualified conditions set by CHMP.

The qualification of AIM-NASH also marks an important step in the use of AI in medicine development. It demonstrates that AI-based methodologies can be assessed through EMA's established qualification framework.

EMA issues this qualification opinion in March 2025.

For more information on this tool, and on EMA's first qualification opinion on AI methodology, see the documents included below:

Microsoft Copilot

EMA uses two versions of Microsoft's Copilot AI tool to help streamline the work and boost the productivity of its staff:

  • Copilot chat: answers questions by accessing publicly available information
  • Copilot 365: generates and adapts content, analyses data and manages information by accessing emails, reading documents, recording meetings, and using corporate templates

While Copilot 365 is widely used at EMA, it is not available to the wider network. It is also not approved for use in cross-network medicine regulation processes.

Security features

EMA has put in place enteprise-grade security features before adopting Copilot. These features ensure that EMA's organisational data remain protected at all times. They include:

  • Robust access controls
  • Data encryption
  • Privacy safeguards supporting compliance with regulatory standards

In addition, EMA regularly reviews the use of AI and associated risks as part of its AI risk-management arrangements.

For more information on use of AI at EMA, see:

Translation feature on this website

Visitors of this website can use a translation feature to better understand EMA’s role and work in their preferred official EU language.

The European Commission developed this feature in line with standards for EU institutions.

This feature uses artificial intelligence, more specifically neural machine translation, to automatically translate texts into other languages. It is not a generative-AI chatbot, but a dedicated machine translation tool built on the EU institutions’ decades of professional translation expertise.

EMA launched this feature on this website in June 2026.

For more information on EMA's machine translation feature, see:

Page update history

An update log is available to show the date and summary of changes to this webpage. It does not include updates to linked documents or minor edits like typos or broken link fixes.

The tracking of updates begins in November 2026.

11 November

Page first published, containing information transferred from the main AI page, such as the 3 March 2026 update on the extended functionality of EMA's AI-enabled knowledge mining tool Scientific Explorer.

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