Transforming R&D with AI and Quantum Computing - with David Carmona of Microsoft

**Matthew DeMello** (0:17)
Welcome everyone to The AI in Business Podcast. I'm Matthew DeMello, editorial director here at Emerge AI Research. Today's guest is David Carmona, vice president of Discovery & Quantum at Microsoft. David joins us on today's show to explore why research and development stands apart as one of the most transformative domains for AI, where the real value lies not in incremental productivity, but in enabling net new scientific discovery and industrial breakthroughs across sectors like life sciences, materials, energy and beyond. Our conversation also examines how AI is reshaping end-to-end R&D workflows and practice, from orchestrating hypothesis generation and simulation to scaling experimentation with coordinated systems of specialized models and agents. David breaks down what it takes to integrate AI responsibly in regulated environments and what R&D and enterprise leaders should prioritize now to translate massive discovery potential into measurable business impact. Also, Emerj is very happy to announce that the AI in Business Podcast is moving to video. You can search for AI in Business Vision to Value and Enterprise AI on YouTube, where you can see the video version of this podcast. You can also find a link in the description to today's episode on your preferred podcast platform. That's youtube.com at Emerj AI Research. Again, that's youtube.com at sign e-m-e-r-j AI Research. Watch the full episode now and see how Vision becomes Value in Enterprise AI. But first, are you driving AI transformation at your organization? Or maybe you're guiding critical decisions on AI investments, strategy or deployment? If so, the AI in Business Podcast wants to hear from you. Each year, Emerj AI Research features hundreds of executive thought leaders, everyone from the CIO of Goldman Sachs to the head of AI at Raytheon, and AI pioneers like Yoshua Bengio. With nearly a million annual listeners, AI in Business is the go-to destination for enterprise leaders navigating real-world AI adoption. You don't need to be an engineer or a technical expert to be on the program. If you're involved in AI implementation, decision-making or strategy within your company, this is your opportunity to share your insights with a global audience of your peers. If you believe you can help other leaders move the needle on AI ROI, visit emerj.com and fill out our thought leader submission form. That's emerj.com and click on be an expert. You can also click the link in the description of today's show on your preferred podcast platform. That's emerj.com/expertone. Again, that's emerj.com/expertone. Without further ado, here's our conversation with David.
David, welcome to the program. It's a great pleasure having you.

**David Carmona** (3:18)
Thank you. It's a huge pleasure for me to be here again after all this time.

**Matthew DeMello** (3:22)
I know.

**David Carmona** (3:23)
Last time I was spoken.

**Matthew DeMello** (3:24)
Yes, yes. I don't even think I was working for Emerj the last time that you were on the program, but that was one of our biggest episodes, especially early on when Dan was hosting the show himself. We're in new territories now, we're in video, it's a much different organization now. We're talking about a subject that I think we've talked about a lot, especially on the AI in Business Audio Podcast. But trying to get our heads around this awesome power that we're seeing on the R&D side. I kind of have been really nutshelling this problem ever since we did a campaign for Deloitte, that on the R&D side, you have this awesome power of being able, we'll serve for a life sciences context for right now. But you can come up with more proteins for more rare diseases for specialized medicines, than there are grains of sand on the planet. And that is an outrageous and great news, and whenever I get cornered at the proverbial high school reunion, and they find out what I do, and they want to know, oh, give me some hope, like, is this, what is this AI stuff all about? And I try to always explain, it's that awesome power, and all that stuff is usually the good news. But within the enterprise, you run into the problem of great that we can make all these medicines. Theoretically, I can still only bring maybe a couple to market within a couple of years and still pretty much at the same costs. We do expect those to change relatively soon. And while much of the AI conversation we're seeing center around productivity and cost savings, some of the most profound impact is emerging in that research and development space. R&D doesn't just need to benefit from incremental efficiency. It offers that stage for AI to drive entirely new scientific and industrial breakthroughs. That real question is, how do we make this business value? But starting really from the ground floor, I think the big question becomes, why is AI poised to transform R&D more radically than other business domains?