AI drug discovery market forecast to reach USD 17.56 billion by 2031

The global AI in drug discovery market is projected to grow from USD 5.09 billion in 2026 to USD 17.56 billion by 2031, at a CAGR of 28.1% during the forecast period. The market was valued at USD 3.92 billion in 2025, with demand rising as pharmaceutical companies seek to reduce discovery timelines, lower R&D costs and improve early-stage decision-making.

Adoption is shifting from fragmented, stage-specific tools toward integrated discovery ecosystems that connect biological data, computational chemistry and experimental validation. AI platforms are being used to identify targets, predict molecular interactions, prioritize candidates and combine genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, scientific literature and real-world evidence across discovery workflows.

North America accounted for a 44.9% share of the market in 2025, while Asia Pacific is described as the fastest-growing region. Oncology held the largest therapeutic-area share of 38.6% in 2025, supported by precision oncology investments and the availability of large cancer datasets. Key constraints include shortages of multidisciplinary AI talent, evolving regulatory expectations, rising compute infrastructure costs and limited access to high-quality training datasets.