Pfizer's Chief Information Officer Dennis Hancock stated that his "Polaris" goal is to use artificial intelligence to reshape the entire process "from DNA to the patient," applying this technology from the earliest stages of research all the way to the moment when doctors prescribe treatment plans for patients.

This pharmaceutical company stated that 98% of its employees have completed the AI certification program. Each department within the company is authorized to be responsible for its own AI strategy, model usage, and investment, while Pfizer's technical team is in charge of developing and managing the enterprise-level AI infrastructure that supports these use cases.

Hancock said, "We have found that as employees become more adept at using AI, they are less resistant to applying it to key work processes."

Pfizer's widespread adoption of AI helped it rank 48th on the Fortune AIQ 75 list. This list, which was expanded from the inaugural AIQ 50 list in 2025, saw 36 new companies making the list this year. Other newcomers include Lumen Technologies (43rd place), Palo Alto Networks (49th place), UPS (56th place), Cisco (61st place), and Thermo Fisher (75th place).

Although Pfizer is making its debut on the list, the company has been using AI for over a decade. Today, these applications include accelerating drug discovery through virtual simulations, screening molecular compounds, and reducing the amount of scientific computing required. In some cases, this can reduce the computational load by up to 90% compared to traditional laboratory work. Pfizer also uses AI to monitor manufacturing processes, while business teams can leverage this technology to draft more persuasive communication materials for doctors.

Hancock also emphasizes the importance of partnerships, stating that the company is collaborating with biotech startup XtalPi in quantum computing, working with biotech company PostEra on AI drug discovery, and cooperating with research laboratory AI as well.

Lumen Technologies is building the physical network that supports AI, increasing its existing fiber optic network from 17 million miles to a planned 58 million miles by the end of 2031. Earlier this year, this enterprise networking company was selected by Anthropic to be responsible for expanding the fiber optic network of this AI startup in North America.

Lumen has also developed a digital twin system driven by AI, which can provide real-time visualization, predictive fault troubleshooting, and simulate the effects of adjustments before deploying network changes within the company.

Lumen, the Chief Technology and Product Officer, stated that all the code used in Lumen's Multi - Cloud Gateway routing service was written by AI. Employees are able to guide, review, and approve this code more quickly, and this code is also generating revenue for the business.

Fowler said, "I believe that companies that focus only on the efficiency aspect of AI may achieve some success in the short term, but they will fail in the long run."

Over the past year, network equipment company Cisco has launched several notable products, including the P200 chip that was unveiled in October 2025 for connecting data centers, as well as the G300 network chip that was released in February of this year.

Internally, in May 2025, Cisco promoted Jeetu Patel to the position of President and Chief Product Officer, bringing all product and engineering functions under his/her jurisdiction. Cisco Systems, the Vice President of Operations, stated that this organizational adjustment is crucial for closer collaboration among the business's various engineering teams.

Another important announcement is the launch of the MyAgent proxy platform, which was introduced to 90,000 employees in August. Subaiya stated that the team is preparing to release a new version by the end of October, which will adopt updated technologies and offer improved response speeds and clearer answers.

Subaiya said, "I truly believe that in the world of AI, three months are equivalent to five years."

For UPS, the vast amount of data makes AI particularly attractive. This transportation and logistics giant delivers an average of 20.8 million parcels per day, which correspond to approximately 1 billion data signals. UPS, the company's Chief Digital and Technology Officer Bala Subramanian, stated that each parcel has a virtual representation in the company's digital twin.

This enables UPS to not only monitor the movement of goods, but also to incorporate real-time external signals such as adverse weather, tariffs, and traffic patterns, which can all affect delivery times. It utilizes AI to absorb this data, predict when issues may arise, and re-plan routes if necessary.

UPS also utilizes AI for compliance purposes, assisting customers in creating accurate international transportation documents to prevent goods from being detained at customs. The deployed proxy services AI include a tracking agent that proactively retrieves transportation status information when customers call, as well as a delivery agent responsible for arranging scheduled deliveries.

Subramanian said, " AI provides us with scale, speed, and extremely rich insights."

As enterprises and governments become increasingly concerned about the cyber threats posed by more advanced AI systems, Palo Alto Networks has consolidated its position by participating in various cybersecurity initiatives, including Anthropic's Project Glasswing and OpenAI's Daybreak. Both of these programs were unveiled this spring. Palo Alto Networks is also a member of Nvidia's Open Secure AI Alliance. The purpose of this alliance is to share research and tools to help companies identify, address, and disclose software vulnerabilities.

This month, Palo Alto Networks also launched a new subscription-based security service that utilizes advanced AI models, including those from Claude Mythos, Anthropic, OpenAI, and GPT.

Palo Alto Networks Chief Product and Technology Officer Lee Klarich said, "We observed that attackers were intentionally using AI models to launch attacks; as a result, the attacks became more innovative, more complex, and faster than anything we've seen before." He added, "On the contrary, these models can actually be of real help to defenders as well."

Within Palo Alto Networks, Chief Information Officer Meerah Rajavel has consistently praised the company for its focus on fewer, but more impactful AI use cases. Rajavel and his team created Panda AI, a service management agent that can automatically handle 83% of IT tickets. This solution was later extended to support AI agents deployed in finance, human resources, and legal departments as well.

Rajavel said, "We are moving away from this concept of ticketing." She added that Panda is already advanced enough to determine whether it can handle employee inquiries on its own, or to decide 'whether human intervention is indeed necessary.'"

Life science company Thermo Fisher has provided its employees with over 100,000 OpenAI ChatGPT enterprise licenses and widely offers Microsoft's AI tools, helping departments such as marketing and legal to increase work process efficiency by up to 15% to 20%.

Partnerships are also key to the Thermo Fisher strategy. The company maintains close cooperation with OpenAI, AI, chip manufacturer Nvidia, as well as Mayo Clinic.

In September, Thermo Fisher and Mayo Clinic launched a new company aimed at creating a biomedical database to help researchers better understand how diseases develop at the biological level years before symptoms appear. The company is named Precure and will utilize AI to accelerate drug development and earlier diagnosis.

The Chief Information Officer Ryan Snyder said, "The functioning of science is inseparable from many handover points." He added that applying AI to the entire drug discovery research process means that Thermo Fisher has "amplified opportunities to influence and support this process."

This report is part of the “Fortune AIQ 75’s Revelations” series, which is a five-part series that explores how companies ranked in the Fortune 2026 report utilize AI – ranging from agent-based workflows and industry-specific applications to the operational models behind their large-scale adoption.