04-06-2026IMPACT COUNCIL

AI is coming for superbugs

The technology is uniquely suited to help discover new options.

[Photo: Getty Images]

The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of top leaders and experts who pay dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership, and more.

In all the worthy discussions around the promise and peril of AI, we may be overlooking one of its most powerful use cases: solving urgent global health crises. Few problems illustrate this better than antibiotic resistance.

Antibiotics underpin modern medicine, enabling procedures like C-sections and organ transplants and ensuring that patients can safely receive treatments such as chemotherapy. But the bacteria they target are constantly evolving. Over time, many have developed resistance to the drugs we rely on—turning once-routine infections into life-threatening conditions.

The scale of the problem is staggering. A landmark global analysis published in The Lancet estimates that antibiotic-resistant infections—known as superbugs—could directly cause more than 39 million deaths between now and 2050, with resistant bacteria contributing to more than 8 million deaths per year by mid-century if current trends continue. In 2019 alone, antibiotic resistance was responsible for 1.2 million deaths globally, exceeding the toll of AIDS-related illnesses and malaria that year.

At the same time, the pipeline for new antibiotics has been shrinking for decades. Traditional drug........

© Fast Company