In April 2024, OpenAI published an official case study on the ChatGPT Enterprise deployment at Moderna, the mRNA biotech that has been an OpenAI partner since early 2023. The document positions Moderna as a textbook case of GenAI adoption at scale, with an explicit objective: 100% adoption and proficiency within six months for every employee with digital access.
The foundation was laid in 2023 with mChat, an internal chatbot built on the OpenAI API, adopted by more than 80% of employees. This base allowed Moderna to methodically compare mChat, Copilot, and ChatGPT Enterprise — overseen by Brice Challamel, Head of AI Products and Platforms. Verdict: ChatGPT Enterprise's NPS was "through the roof." Decision made to double down on the OpenAI solution.
The two-month results are remarkable: 750 custom GPTs created, 40% of weekly users creating their own, an average of 120 conversations per user per week. The legal department shows 100% adoption — an unusual outcome for a traditionally cautious function. Signature tools: Contract Companion (contract summaries) and Policy Bot (answers on internal policies).
The flagship pilot is Dose ID, a clinical data analysis GPT for vaccine dose selection. It automates the analysis, applies standard criteria, and provides rationales, references, and visualizations. It remains a human decision-support assistant, not a critical system. The brand team also uses GPTs to prepare earnings-call slides and translate biotech jargon for investors.
The success rests on a three-pronged change management framework: individual (in-person training, online training, AI learning companions — "using AI to teach AI was key to our success"), collective (prompt contests identifying 100 power users organized into Generative AI Champions, a weekly internal forum with 2,000 participants, office hours by business line), structural (CEO and executive committee engagement via town halls, incentive programs). Brad Miller, CIO, cites the pivotal statistic: "90% of companies want to do GenAI, but only 10% of them are successful, and the reason they fail is because they haven't built the mechanisms of actually transforming the workforce."
The document closes with Stéphane Bancel's quote, which has since become iconic: "If we had to do it the old biopharmaceutical ways, we might need a hundred thousand people today. We really believe we can maximize our impact on patients with a few thousand people, using technology and AI to scale the company." This line is what turned the Moderna anecdote into an industry signal and fed the narrative of organizational transformation around AI — a narrative that Tracey Franklin (Chief People and Digital Technology Officer) would extend in 2025 with the HR+IT merger.