Novo Nordisk eyes faster drug approvals with Celonis

Novo Nordisk is using Celonis software and AI agents to shorten its clinical development process. The drugmaker could reduce time to market by 12 months or more, according to Celonis.

The effort centres on a digital twin of Novo Nordisk's operations, giving staff visibility across clinical development processes and changing regulatory requirements. Stephanie Bova, Corporate Vice President and Digital Transformation Officer, Research and Development, at Novo Nordisk, said that visibility had previously been difficult because the processes were spread across multiple domains.

Celonis said its customers, including Novo Nordisk, Molex, Hitachi Energy, Cosentino, Deutsche Telekom, Florida Crystals, Mondelez, the State of Oklahoma, Standard Bank and Uniper, have realised more than USD $11.3 billion in value from using its technology.

For Novo Nordisk, a shorter timeline could create tens of millions of dollars in potential revenue while bringing treatments to patients sooner. The work is part of a broader push by large companies to apply AI to operational processes rather than limit it to narrow productivity tasks.

Bova described the challenge as fragmented systems and rules. "We realised we could possibly cut 12 months or more from our time-to-market by using our operational data strategically," she said.

Operational context

Celonis sells process intelligence software that maps how work moves through an organisation using data from business systems. It argues that companies need that operational context before deciding where to deploy AI agents and automation.

Carsten Thoma, President at Celonis, set out that view in remarks about the company's approach to AI in large organisations. "Scaling enterprise AI successfully requires understanding your operational context, strategically deploying AI agents, and seamlessly integrating AI with your existing workflows," he said.

He added: "Celonis does all three, helping customers deploy AI that they can trust to reason, decide, and act autonomously for the business. Together, we're shifting AI from a productivity hack to an enterprise solution that generates tangible value."

The platform is designed to create a process-based model of an organisation's operations by bringing together process data, business knowledge and decision logic. Celonis said that model can then identify where AI agents may have the greatest effect and coordinate work between software agents, staff and existing systems.

Customer examples

Alongside Novo Nordisk, Celonis pointed to customers across manufacturing, energy, telecoms, food and public sector operations. It said Hitachi Energy is deploying AI agents across its business and has generated millions of dollars in value within months.

Celonis also highlighted technical elements of its platform, including data infrastructure for handling large volumes of records, connections with cloud and data platforms such as Amazon Web Services, Databricks and Microsoft Fabric, and tools for linking operational data to AI agents built on platforms from AWS, Databricks, IBM, Microsoft and Oracle.

Those features reflect a wider market trend as software providers try to position themselves as a layer between business operations data and the latest generation of AI tools. For corporate buyers, the central question is whether those systems can produce measurable gains in speed, cost or decision-making.

In Novo Nordisk's case, the focus is on drug development timelines. Bova said the company sees process visibility as a way to move more quickly from early human trials to regulatory approval.

"If you don't have a digital twin of your operation, complete with business context, it's almost impossible to understand where to deploy AI and automation workflows," Bova said.

She added: "We want to be as fast as we can in taking drugs from First-In-Human to approval, and we see the Celonis platform as a very strategic, smart way to get there."