In a highly competitive global market, Pierre Fabre needed to accelerate time-to-market, transform processes, and improve efficiency.
With Microsoft Azure and Azure OpenAI Service, Pierre Fabre built PLA.I.GROUND, a secure enterprise generative AI platform.
Now used daily by over 50% of employees, the solution streamlines work, frees time for innovation, and supports 3,400 pharmacists with better patient care.
In a global pharmaceutical and cosmetics market defined by intense competition, Pierre Fabre Laboratories—France’s leading privately owned laboratory—is choosing agility and innovation to stand out. Operating in more than 40 countries, the company employs 10,200 people and generates over 70% of its revenue outside France.
“For Pierre Fabre, AI is fundamentally strategic,” says Olivier Siegler, Chief Digital Acceleration & Information System, Pierre Fabre. “We compete with companies 10 to 15 times our size. Artificial intelligence is a game changer. It can transform our processes, accelerate time-to-market for our drugs, and boost our overall efficiency.”
To succeed in this transformation, Pierre Fabre relies on the technological expertise and support of Microsoft.
“Employee feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. They describe the platform as simple, fast, and see it as a real enabler to save time and build new skills.”
Clara Thibault, Chief Data & AI Officer, Pierre Fabre
In 2023, Pierre Fabre Laboratories launched PLA.I.GROUND, an internal generative AI assistant built on Microsoft Azure and Azure OpenAI Service. Designed as a secure, contextualized, multi-model enterprise generative AI platform, the solution is available to all employees worldwide.
It leverages multiple Large Language Models (LLMs), orchestrated through Microsoft Azure to ensure security, scalability, and compliance, while being selected and tailored to diverse business use cases—from writing and analysis to text, image, and code generation
“We chose to develop an internal platform powered by multiple LLMs to ensure both performance and diversity of use cases,” explains Clara Thibault, Chief Data & AI Officer, Pierre Fabre.
With PLA.I.GROUND, teams can summarize documents, generate content (text and images), and accelerate code development—all within a workspace fully compliant with the industry’s business and regulatory requirements.
“It’s an invaluable daily support for our teams, including IT functions. We spend less time on low-value tasks, freeing up time for innovation,” adds Thibault.
Adoption has been remarkably strong: more than 50% of the company’s office-based employees use PLA.I.GROUND on a daily basis.
“Employee feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. They describe the platform as simple, fast, and see it as a real enabler to save time and build new skills,” says Thibault.
Building on this success, the company has rolled out a second layer: PLA.I.Expert—a specialized generative AI trained on domain-specific knowledge bases to address highly targeted professional needs.
“We built our end-to-end data platform with Microsoft, from data collection to data exploitation.”
Wassim Bouaziz, Head of Data Integration, Pierre Fabre
This transformation is built on a robust infrastructure established in 2021 and powered by Microsoft Azure.
“We built our end-to-end data platform with Microsoft, from data collection to data exploitation,” explains Wassim Bouaziz, Head of Data Integration, Pierre Fabre.
With Azure, Pierre Fabre can manage both structured and unstructured data within an environment that fully complies with the healthcare sector’s strict privacy standards.
“Azure offered a natural continuity for us, providing a unified framework for security, governance, and data processing, whether structured or not,” adds Bouaziz.
This technological foundation is reinforced by a strategic partnership closely built with Microsoft.
“Together with Microsoft, we co-designed a progressive AI roadmap, aligned with our concrete use cases and business priorities. This approach enables us to move forward in a structured and responsible way,” says Siegler.
This choice provides Pierre Fabre with optimal scalability while ensuring the security and compliance of sensitive healthcare data.
Generative AI is no longer just a tool—it’s becoming an industrial capability.
Building on PLA.I.GROUND, Pierre Fabre has developed a proprietary framework to create chatbots and conversational agents. This approach enables the company to progressively equip different business functions with specialized AI assistants.
“This framework is the result of our hands-on experience. It allows us to quickly create AI agents tailored to our business processes, leveraging the foundations of PLA.I.GROUND,” explains Bouaziz.
To accelerate adoption, Pierre Fabre has also deployed a global network of AI ambassadors. Their mission: run workshops, train teams, and drive AI adoption on the ground.
“Our ambassadors are true enablers of AI transformation. They are the ones bringing the initiative to life, as close as possible to our end users,” says Thibault.
Among the most emblematic use cases is Oncoguide, a platform designed to support retail pharmacists in assisting patients living with cancer.
“Oncoguide integrates an AI-powered conversational agent. It provides scientifically validated information from our teams in a simple and intuitive way, right at the pharmacy counter,” explains Apolline Perrois, Scientific Digital Manager, Pierre Fabre.
With 3,400 retail pharmacists already using the solution in France, Oncoguide strengthens pharmacy expertise and improves the quality of patient care.
“Feedback has been excellent. Pharmacists find the tool highly practical. It enables them to deliver more accurate, more reliable information—ultimately improving patient support,” adds Perrois.
“Microsoft doesn’t just provide technology. They help us embed AI into our organization over the long term, with responsibility and full alignment with our business priorities.”
Olivier Siegler, Chief Digital Acceleration & Information System, Pierre Fabre
Beyond technology, it’s the holistic approach that sets Pierre Fabre apart: a progressive, secure, and inclusive strategy designed to bring all teams on board.
The partnership with Microsoft goes far beyond providing technological building blocks. It acts as a catalyst for transformation—helping to structure strong governance, secure technical foundations, and empower employees through upskilling.
“Our goal is to make AI a shared capability across the company. We want to make AI useful, responsible, and accessible to everyone,” says Thibault.
“Microsoft doesn’t just provide technology. They help us embed AI into our organization over the long term, with responsibility and full alignment with our business priorities,” concludes Siegler.
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