Building an AI-Literate Organization: How Pfizer is helping colleagues understand, embrace, and apply AI
Publish Date: 2026-05-21 11:32:00
Source Domain: www.pfizer.com
Pfizer has been utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) across our business for some time, but recent advancements in technology combined with advancements in biology are converging to create a scientific renaissance set to transform health as we know it. That reality is already upon us.
According to Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, the biggest barrier to unlock this potential is fear of the unknown. “It is not a question of technology,” Bourla said in a recent conversation with Nikolai Tangen of the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund, “it is a question of organizational ability to adjust and transform itself through AI.” His solution? Investing in AI fluency for Pfizer colleagues.
That insight shapes how Pfizer has approached AI enablement from the start.
The company’s approach to broader adoption of AI across the entire organization has centered on building awareness, curiosity, and comfort with the new technology before asking colleagues to change how they work. The goal is to show up in trusted learning spaces, support individual and collective sensemaking, and design for human needs alongside business outcomes.
Pfizer is not alone. The WEF 2025 jobs report shows that 85% of the employers surveyed plan to prioritize upskilling their workforce, with 63% of employers identifying skills gaps as a major barrier to business transformation over the 2025- 2030 period.1 The landscape is changing, and both employers and employees will need to change with it. That means treating AI as more than a new app or another software update; it’s a brand new skillset for employees and organizations to learn and grow into, together.
Bourla has been part of that journey himself. He completed the same foundational training program that thousands of Pfizer colleagues have completed via an initial pilot program, and that the entire company will have access to starting in June “I saw huge difference in my ability,” he said, which serves as a testament to what happens when people actually engage…
