How ConnectiveRx Accelerated Innovation with AI-DLC

ConnectiveRx, a patient access and affordability technology company supporting 140+ pharmaceutical relationships, 540+ brands, and 1.2 million prescribers, decided that AI-native development was a business imperative.

Rapid advances in AI were changing expectations for how fast healthcare technology organizations could innovate. ConnectiveRx needed to move faster without sacrificing quality or compliance.

By adopting the AI-Driven Development Lifecycle (AI-DLC) methodology from AWS and following it with an enterprise-wide hackathon, ConnectiveRx demonstrated how AI-DLC could compress key portions of the development lifecycle from weeks into hours or days.

The challenge: transforming a product portfolio at speed

ConnectiveRx manages complex medication access, affordability, and patient engagement workflows for major pharmaceutical companies. Multiple product lines had clear AI opportunities, but the traditional development lifecycle measured in months while market pressure demanded weeks. The question was: how do you move an entire technology organization toward AI-native development without disrupting existing delivery commitments?

ConnectiveRx leadership set an ambitious goal: enterprise-wide AI adoption, not isolated experiments.

“Our pharmaceutical partners depend on us to deliver reliable, compliant technology, so our goal was not simply to move faster. We needed a structured way to bring AI into the development lifecycle while maintaining the quality and rigor our environment requires. AI-DLC gave us a practical way to test that approach using real ConnectiveRx use cases.”

– Rizwan Sarkhot, Sr. Director, Cloud Engineering, ConnectiveRx

The foundation: AI-Driven Development Lifecycle (AI-DLC)

AI-DLC is a methodology created at AWS that redesigns software development around one principle: AI proposes, humans decide. Teams work in collaborative sessions called bolts, intense development cycles measured in hours, not weeks.

ConnectiveRx AI-DLC engagement

ConnectiveRx engaged with AWS on a structured AI-DLC program that ran in multiple phases:

1. Phase 1, Discovery and Planning: Cross-functional teams identified high-value use cases across the product portfolio.
2. Phase 2, AI-DLC Execution: Small teams applied AI-DLC in bolt sessions with Kiro as their AI development environment.
3. Phase 3, Scale and Expand: ConnectiveRx expanded AI-DLC to additional product teams and more complex use cases.

Results from AI-DLC

The impact was immediate and measurable:

1. 68-87% effort reduction per use case. Work that previously required approximately 180 hours was completed in approximately 24 hours.
2. 2-4x faster resolution for production support issues, with doubled sprint capacity using AI-assisted development tools.
3. Full strategic context preserved. No handoff documents, no re-explaining the “why” between planning and execution.

Figure 1: ConnectiveRx three-phase playbook for AI-native enterprise transformation with AWS

From workshop to enterprise: the AmplifAI Hackathon

After two successful AI-DLC workshops proved the methodology works at the team level, ConnectiveRx leadership made a bold decision: bring AI-native development to the entire technology organization through a company-wide hackathon branded AmplifAI.

The event

The two-day hybrid event at ConnectiveRx headquarters in New Jersey brought teams together around real business problems, applying AI-native methods to build working solutions in 48 hours.

1. 11 teams participated, selected from 45+ idea submissions across the organization
2. Kiro served as the primary AI development environment. AWS provided training ahead of the event to get teams up to speed.
3. AWS support model: “Call an Expert” format, where teams could request architectural guidance and AWS service consultation on demand.

The outcome

All 11 teams built and demonstrated functional prototypes within two days, solving real challenges including automated service desk resolution, conversational AI for patient affordability, intelligent monitoring, and identity management automation.

Measurable business impact

The combined AI-DLC and hackathon program delivered results across multiple dimensions:

1. Effort reduction: 68-87% per use case (from approximately 180 hours to approximately 24 hours)
2. Production support: 2-4x faster resolution with doubled sprint capacity
3. Hackathon output: 11 functional prototypes in two days, accelerating work that would traditionally span multiple weeks
4. Projected delivery capacity: 3x increase enterprise-wide

ConnectiveRx also established a self-funding model: each department receives a dedicated AI engineer and is expected to deliver 10x return within the same year.

“What stood out was how quickly our cross-functional teams could move from an idea to something tangible. Business analysts, developers, QA, and engineering worked together in parallel, and work that traditionally unfolded over weeks was taking shape within hours. The 68-87% effort reduction was real work, on real products, delivered to production. When we expanded this to the AmplifAI hackathon, watching 11 teams go from idea to working prototype in two days was extraordinary. Our engineers tackled problems they deal with every day, from service desk automation to patient affordability workflows, and built solutions now on a path to production. People left saying, ‘Why would we ever go back to the old way?'”

– Rizwan Sarkhot, Sr. Director, Cloud Engineering, ConnectiveRx

The vision: becoming an AI-native enterprise

For ConnectiveRx, becoming AI-native means deploying AI into how the organization thinks, builds, and operates. The company established a five-pillar framework:

1. AI-DLC & Client Delivery for accelerating product development with AI-native workflows
2. AI-Ops Intelligent Operations for AI-powered production support and proactive monitoring
3. AI-ITSM & Self-Service using AI agents for internal IT service management
4. Enterprise Intelligence & Data for AI-driven analytics and decision-making
5. Governance & Enablement providing centralized AI governance with executive ownership

The ConnectiveRx journey demonstrates a repeatable three-phase playbook: prove the methodology by starting with focused AI-DLC workshops on high-value use cases, letting teams experience the effort reduction firsthand. Then democratize access by expanding from workshop participants to the entire technology organization through hackathons and enablement programs, letting success stories spread organically. Finally, institutionalize with governance by establishing executive-owned AI pillars, self-funding models, and dedicated AI engineers to make the transformation self-sustaining and scalable.

Get started

AI-DLC works with agentic IDEs like Kiro. Start with a focused workshop, then scale across your organization.

Learn more:

1. AI-DLC Blog Post – Full methodology overview
2. AI-DLC White Paper – Phases, rituals, and implementation guidance
3. Kiro – AI-powered development environment

To explore facilitated AI-DLC workshops for your organization, contact your AWS account team.