Moderna AI Strategy: Merging HR and IT to Redesign Work

Moderna wants to stay small and use AI to do the work of a much larger company. In 2025 it merged HR and IT into one team, a step no other company in this index has taken. Employees have built thousands of custom GPTs, but Moderna has published almost no results, and the executive who led its AI rollout left for OpenAI in January 2026.

The ambition is a small company with a large output. CEO Stéphane Bancel said in 2024: “If we had to do it the old biopharmaceutical ways, we might need 100,000 people... We really believe we can maximize our impact on patients with a few thousand people by using technology and AI to scale the company.” Lead with AI broke down that approach in Moderna’s AI playbook.

The message has been consistent. Then-CIO Brad Miller, who left in February 2025, said Moderna “must become a real-time AI company embedding AI in every aspect of our company.” In May 2026, Bancel said Moderna would continue “to invest in AI with a number of cross enterprise projects to reinvent work with AI.”

The annual report files AI under cost. Moderna’s 2025 annual report (10-K, February 2026) names AI under its second priority, cost efficiency. A “Digital and AI Strategy” section sets the aim to “scale a digital operating model using artificial intelligence” and to “perpetuate and grow Moderna’s AI-native culture.”

The focus is broad, not ranked. Moderna uses AI across:

• clinical development: a dose selection GPT that analyzes trial data to support dose decisions
• regulatory and legal: drafting and reviewing documents
• communications: drafting and editing content
• products: its individualized cancer therapy with Merck uses AI to tailor each treatment to the patient

Moderna has not named priority areas or said what it will not prioritize.

HR and IT are now one function. In 2025, Moderna merged them into People and Digital Technology, led by Tracey Franklin, Chief People and Digital Technology Officer. Franklin describes the job as to “architect the flow of work”, with “work planning” replacing separate workforce and systems planning (UNLEASH, June 2025). She made the same case at the WSJ Technology Council.

OpenAI has been the main partner since early 2023. Moderna first built mChat, an internal chatbot on OpenAI’s API, then chose ChatGPT Enterprise over mChat and Microsoft Copilot. OpenAI provided dedicated support and weekly strategy calls.

Leaders set the expectation. In 2024, Bancel set a goal for employees to use ChatGPT “no fewer than 20 times a day” (Wall Street Journal). The CEO and executive committee role-modelled it.

Champions drove adoption. In 2024, a prompt contest identified the top 100 power users, who became Generative AI Champions. They ran office hours across business lines and regions, and an internal AI forum drew 2,000 participants a week. It remains one of the clearest early examples of AI champion programs at company scale.

Employees build their own tools. Within two months, employees had built 750 GPTs, and 40% of weekly active users had built one (2024). By mid-2025 there were more than 3,000. The bottom-up approach is covered in Why the Best AI Strategy Starts with a Thousand Experiments.

AI leadership has thinned. Brice Challamel, who led AI products and platforms, left for OpenAI in January 2026, where he is Head of AI Strategy and Adoption. Moderna has not publicly named a successor. Franklin owns the function, and no AI budget has been disclosed.

The workforce stance is cost-led. In July 2025, Moderna said it would cut about 10% of its workforce as part of about $1.5 billion in cost cuts by 2027 (BioSpace). It did not attribute the cuts to AI.

Governance is mentioned but not described. The 2025 annual report says Moderna strengthened AI governance, security and responsible AI controls, with an emphasis on human oversight. It has not described how AI uses are reviewed. Its dose selection GPT produces charts for human review rather than making decisions.

AI fluency, coded against the Lead with AI Fluency Matrix (September 2026 edition):

• Fluency floor: Level 1 (Chatting), declared by expectation. The 2024 goal of 20 uses a day sets a daily habit, not a skill standard.
• Highest level evidenced: Level 3 (Integrating), company-claimed. Employees build GPTs into their own workflows, and Moderna said a regulatory GPT cut drafting time from weeks to minutes (2024).
• Portfolio design: Multi-level and bottom-up. Champions and employee-built tools spread skills, though the central AI team has lost its public leader.

Moderna reports adoption, not outcomes. All figures below are company-claimed.

• 750 GPTs built within two months (2024)
• 40% of weekly active users had built a GPT (2024)
• about 120 ChatGPT conversations per user each week (2024)
• more than 3,000 GPTs (mid-2025)

The results are thin and aging. Apart from the regulatory drafting example, Moderna has published no business results from AI, and most of its figures date from 2024. Its third-quarter 2026 results did not mention AI.

The roadmap is cost-led. Moderna’s published targets are about cost, including about $1.5 billion in cuts by 2027, not AI outcomes. Its rollout is still a reference case for AI change management, but Moderna has not shown what that adoption produced.

Change log

• Early 2023: Moderna partners with OpenAI and launches mChat.
• April 2024: Employees have built 750 GPTs, and the Wall Street Journal reports the goal of 20 uses a day.
• February 2025: The CIO departs, the HR chief becomes Chief People and Digital Technology Officer, and about 50 digital roles are cut.
• June 2025: Moderna explains the HR and IT merger and reports more than 3,000 GPTs.
• July 2025: Moderna announces a cut of about 10% of its workforce.
• January 2026: Brice Challamel leaves for OpenAI.
• February 2026: The 2025 annual report sets out a “Digital and AI Strategy” under the cost-efficiency priority.
• May 2026: Bancel commits to “cross enterprise projects to reinvent work with AI.”

• Disclosure: 2 of 4. Moderna answers questions 01 and 03 well, and 02 and 04 only in part.
• It has the most radical operating model in the index. Merging HR and IT treats work design as one job across people and technology.
• Its 2024 rollout is a model for adoption: leaders role-modelled use, champions spread it and employees built their own tools.
• The say-do gap is story versus evidence. The ambition is bold, but published results are few and mostly from 2024. Revenue per employee fell 92% from 2022 to 2025 as vaccine sales collapsed, and headcount is still above its 2022 level.
• AI leadership has thinned. The executive who led the rollout has left, and no successor has been named.
• Watch the “reinvent work” projects. The test is whether they produce results Moderna is willing to publish.

What the numbers show: Revenue per employee fell 92% as COVID-19 vaccine sales collapsed, and headcount is still above its 2022 level. The ambition to do the work of a much larger company with a few thousand people has yet to show up in these numbers.

Revenue, headcount and revenue per employee, FY2022 to FY2025

• FY2022: $19.26bn revenue, 3,900 employees, $4.94M per employee
• FY2023: $6.85bn revenue, 5,600 employees, $1.22M per employee
• FY2024: $3.24bn revenue, 5,800 employees, $558k per employee
• FY2025: $1.94bn revenue, 4,700 employees, $414k per employee

Change, FY2022 to FY2025: revenue down 90%, headcount up 21%, revenue per employee down 92%.

Notes: Revenue is total revenue, as reported. Headcount is approximate full-time employees at year-end. 2022 was the peak year for COVID-19 vaccine sales.

These figures give context on scale and productivity. They do not show that AI caused any change. Sources: Moderna 10-K filings and 2026 proxy statement.

What is Moderna’s AI strategy?

Moderna aims to stay a company of a few thousand people and use AI to do the work of a much larger one. It merged HR and IT into one team to redesign work, rolled out ChatGPT Enterprise across the company and encouraged employees to build their own GPTs. Its 2025 annual report places AI under its cost-efficiency priority. In 2026 it said it would run cross-enterprise projects to reinvent work with AI.

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Why did Moderna merge HR and IT?

Moderna merged HR and IT in 2025 into a People and Digital Technology function led by Tracey Franklin. The aim is to plan work as a whole, deciding which work is done by people and which by technology, instead of planning headcount and systems separately.

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Who leads AI at Moderna?

Tracey Franklin, Chief People and Digital Technology Officer, runs the function that covers both people and technology. Brice Challamel, who led AI products and platforms, left for OpenAI in January 2026, and Moderna has not publicly named a successor.

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Is Moderna cutting jobs because of AI?

Moderna has not linked job cuts to AI. In July 2025 it announced a cut of about 10% of its workforce as part of a cost reduction program, and did not attribute the cuts to AI.

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How is this profile put together?

Lead with AI profiles use public sources only, such as annual reports, earnings materials, filings and on-record interviews, dated at the time of writing. AI fluency is coded against the Lead with AI Fluency Matrix. Company figures are marked as company-claimed unless they have been independently verified.