JAMES
SYKES

01 / PLAYER BACKSTORY

Yes, the log scale is doing my AI and data management experience a big favour! In my defence, the last few years have taught me more than the first ten, so it’s probably the honest scale anyway.

I’m James, and I’ve been working in the pharmaceutical industry for the past 13 years. I started as a statistician shortly after completing a Master’s in Medical Statistics at the University of Leicester.

I spent the first ten years of my career at various contract research organisations (CROs), which seemed to have a habit of merging with other CROs shortly after I joined. Technically, I’ve worked for five CROs despite only applying to three!

I’ve enjoyed working as a statistician, with a healthy dose of statistical programming along the way. In 2023, I moved into biotech as a Director of Biometrics, adding data management to the mix.

More recently, I’ve been diving deeper into AI, particularly how it can make our work more efficient and help us learn new things.

02 / THE CURRENT QUEST

This blog is my first real experiment with AI. I built it myself, with the help of Claude and Claude Code. I’m not a web developer, but I had an idea for a Game Boy-style blog, and with AI’s help, it didn’t take long to bring that idea to life.

The real test is whether I can make this blog look cool enough that people won’t care about the content. Early results are promising.

The main reason this blog exists is to share an abstract I submitted to PHUSE EU Connect 2026 called “Vibe Coding in Biometrics”.

Unfortunately, it didn’t make the cut. I’m not particularly surprised, given how strong the AI talks at the 2026 conference look. But I still think the ideas are worth sharing, conference or not, so I’ll be writing them up here.

I’ll also share what I’m learning about AI in my own work, including the experiments, the lessons and the things that don’t quite go to plan.

03 / WHO SHOULD JOIN?

• Statisticians, programmers and data scientists curious about what AI changes in their day-to-day work
• Anyone going to PHUSE EU Connect 2026, especially if you’d have come to my talk
• Anyone interested in what AI can help you build