PUBLISHER: MarketsandMarkets | PRODUCT CODE: 2171593
PUBLISHER: MarketsandMarkets | PRODUCT CODE: 2171593
The global AI in protein engineering market is projected to reach USD 3.82 billion by 2031 from USD 1.44 billion in 2026, at a CAGR of 21.6% from 2026 to 2031. Growth in the AI in protein engineering market is driven by rising pharmaceutical R&D expenditure, increasing drug development costs, and the need to improve the productivity of protein discovery and design.
| Scope of the Report | |
|---|---|
| Years Considered for the Study | 2026-2031 |
| Base Year | 2025 |
| Forecast Period | 2026-2031 |
| Units Considered | Value (USD billion) |
| Segments | Offering, AI Tool, Application, Protein Type, Protein Engineering Process, End User |
| Regions covered | North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa |
The 25 selected drugmakers analyzed by IntuitionLabs reported approximately USD 185 billion in combined R&D spending in 2025, with Merck & Co. spending USD 15.8 billion, Johnson & Johnson USD 14.7 billion, and Eli Lilly USD 13.3 billion. Improving returns from these investments is especially important, as the average R&D cost per approved drug asset rose from USD 2.23 billion in 2024 to USD 2.67 billion in 2025. AI is increasingly viewed as a lever to address these costs and improve the efficiency of drug discovery and development. However, adoption remains constrained by implementation complexity and uncertain ROI; 71% of life sciences executives reported AI deployment progress, but only 45% reported measurable performance gains, while 61% identified external partnerships as important for accessing AI capabilities.

"In 2025, antibodies held the largest share of the market, by protein type"
By protein type, antibodies represented the largest share of the AI in protein engineering market in 2025. This leadership stems from the growing development of antibody-based therapeutics and the increasing need to improve the efficiency of antibody discovery and optimization. Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies extensively utilize AI-powered protein engineering tools for antibody sequence generation, affinity optimization, specificity prediction, developability assessment, and stability optimization. The rising focus on innovative antibody modalities, including bispecific antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates, and other next-generation biologics, has further increased demand for AI-enabled antibody engineering. Moreover, generative AI and protein language models can explore large sequence spaces, prioritize promising candidates, and reduce experimental iterations, encouraging greater adoption of AI-based antibody engineering platforms.
"Protein optimization to register highest CAGR in the market, by process"
By process, protein optimization is expected to be the fastest-growing segment in the AI in protein engineering market, driven by the need to improve protein activity, stability, specificity, affinity, and developability while reducing experimental iterations. AI-enabled optimization is demonstrating measurable improvements; an AI-guided closed-loop platform achieved a 57-fold increase in enzyme activity within five engineering cycles and up to 104-fold improvement for another enzyme. AI-based computational filtering has also improved experimental success rates by 50-150%, enabling faster prioritization of high-performing protein variants. These advances are expected to accelerate adoption of protein language models, generative AI, and machine-learning-based optimization across pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and industrial protein-engineering workflows.
"Asia Pacific to witness the highest growth rate during the forecast period"
The Asia Pacific region is projected to register the highest growth rate in the AI in protein engineering market during the forecast period, supported by the rapid development of AI-enabled protein design capabilities, expanding computational biology infrastructure, and increasing integration of AI with high-throughput experimentation. In China, researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University developed the Venus-Pod protein dataset, which contains more than 9 billion protein sequences, including 2.43 billion antibody sequences and 500 million functionally annotated sequences, providing a strong foundation for AI-driven protein design and optimization. The region is also advancing AI-enabled experimental workflows; an automated platform developed in China can perform more than 100 protein expression, purification, and testing tasks within 24 hours, nearly 10 times as efficiently as manual workflows. In Japan, RevolKa raised JPY 210 million (approximately USD 1.4 million) in May 2025 to advance its AI-powered aiProtein technology and therapeutic programs. Furthermore, Singapore-based research at the National University of Singapore is integrating machine learning with ultra-high-throughput sorting and next-generation sequencing to generate large-scale sequence-function datasets for AI-driven protein engineering. These developments, alongside the growing ecosystem of AI-protein engineering startups, research institutes, and automated biofoundries, are expected to accelerate adoption of generative AI, protein language models, and machine learning across protein discovery, optimization, antibody engineering, and de novo protein design in APAC.
Key Players in the AI in Protein Engineering Market
The key players functioning in the AI in protein engineering market include Schrodinger, Inc. (US), XtalPi (China), Dassault Systemes (France), NVIDIA Corporation (US), Generate:Biomedicines (US), Absci Corp. (US), Insilico Medicine (US), Isomorphic Labs (UK), among others.
This research report categorizes the AI in protein engineering market by offering (software/platforms, services), by AI tool (machine learning & deep learning, protein language models, generative AI, structure-based AI, other tools), by application (next-generation biologics, molecular glues, data generation, antibody discovery and optimization, enzyme engineering, de novo protein design, protein stability and developability optimization, other applications), by protein type (antibodies, enzymes, cytokines & growth factors, peptides, fusion proteins, miniproteins, other proteins), by protein engineering process (protein discovery, protein design, protein optimization, protein characterization, experimental validation), by end user (pharmaceutical & biotechnology companies, academic & research institutes, contract research organizations, industrial biotechnology companies, other end users), and by region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa). The report covers detailed information on major factors, such as drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities, influencing the growth of the AI in protein engineering market. A detailed analysis of key industry players provides insights into their business overview, solutions, and services; key strategies; and recent developments associated with the AI in protein engineering market. This report covers the competitive analysis of startups in the AI in protein engineering market ecosystem.
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