Novo Nordisk operates in more than 170 countries and supplies roughly half of the world’s insulin. Behind that scale lies a regulated, document-heavy process that can delay life-saving treatments by months. 

Stephansen’s mission: convert documentation into structured data, allowing faster regulatory submissions and safer, data-driven development cycles.
 

“The goal is not more digital projects,” he said. “It’s digital business transformation—delivering better and cheaper treatments faster.” 

​

Capabilities, not tools, create the advantage 

At Novo Nordisk, the foundation of transformation rests on four pillars: people, process, technology, and data. 

​

Digital tools matter—but only when teams can apply them to real workflows. That’s why the company is investing in AI literacy and behavioural telemetry experiments to understand how employees actually adopt tools such as Microsoft Copilot. 

​

In 2025, the firm launches an 18-week experiment with 400 participants, including six active weeks of experimentation, built in partnership with Microsoft and Harvard Business School. The goal: measurable productivity and smarter adoption patterns, not just new software licenses. 

​

From documents to data

Drug approval and lifecycle management are highly regulated and documentation-intensive. Moving from document-based submissions to data-driven regulatory processes allows Novo Nordisk to automate traceability, reduce manual errors, and accelerate time to market. 

​

The company’s regulatory systems will evolve from static PDFs to interoperable data models, enabling reuse across development, quality, and compliance. 

This is not a one-year sprint, Stephansen noted: “You have to plan for a marathon, learning through each sprint.” 

​

Experiment, measure, and scale

The initiative is part of Novo Nordisk’s broader “Fit for Future Workforce” agenda — an ongoing effort to upskill employees and test future ways of working. 

 
By embedding experimentation into daily operations, the company expects to accelerate both learning and governance, avoiding the usual trap of technology-first transformation. 

​

Key ingredients: 

• Behavioural telemetry and data to monitor AI usage 

• Process redesign to unlock value from generative AI 

• Structured feedback loops to refine digital adoption

 

Together, these experiments illustrate Novo Nordisk’s shift from doing digital to being digital. 

Instead of chasing new platforms, the company is building measurable habits—linking people, data and process into one adaptive system. 

​

Watch the full keynote here: