Below is our recent interview with Ravi Seshadri, Chief Technology Officer at AllyGPO:
Q: Please provide our readers with a brief introduction to your company.
A: AllyGPO is a leading innovator and next-generation specialty pharmaceutical group purchasing organization (GPO). Our purpose is simple: help independent oncology and retina practices stay financially strong and independent.
We negotiate drug contracts, pricing and rebates for community practices. To serve that purpose in the most transparent way, we built AllyIQ®, our AI-powered platform, to give practices visibility into what happens after the contract – what they buy, what they have in inventory, what they should buy next, and whether they are receiving the economics they expected.
That visibility is particularly important because most independent oncology and retina practices operate under a buy-and-bill model. Specialty drugs are expensive. Practices pay for them upfront, hold the inventory, administer the drug to the patient, and then wait to be reimbursed by the payer and receive applicable rebates from the manufacturer. A small inefficiency in purchasing, inventory, reimbursement or rebates can quickly become a meaningful cash-flow problem.
We want to help a practice understand the economics of every drug purchase, align inventory to treatment demand, understand contract performance, and make sure the rebates they earned find their way back to them accurately and as early as possible.
We are a technology-forward company, supported by a globally distributed team. AllyIQ manages data associated with more than 4 million patients nationwide. It is an Azure-native platform with significant AI capabilities that enables practices to make faster decisions when they matter.
Our focus helps us move fast. We are deeply focused on oncology and retina, putting the customer first, listening to the people doing the work, and building technology to remove operational friction — helping serve the right patient, at the right time, with the right drug, at the right cost.
That unrelenting focus gives us an agility that is difficult to create inside large, vertically integrated organizations.
Q: What makes AllyGPO different from its competitors?
A: Our biggest difference is our belief, grounded in fact, that specialty practices should remain independent. Patient care, especially in specialty medicine, should remain in the hands of physicians who put care before profit.
Our commitment is simple: we will never own or compete with our member practices. By bringing together our drug-contract expertise and technology, we want to become the engine that helps independent community specialty practices thrive.
I have always believed that technology should be a great enabler, but it also needs to deliver measurable outcomes. A 35-day improvement in rebate payment timing, a 75% reduction in drug-ordering time, a 10% reduction in inventory days on hand, and 99.99% accuracy in inventory tracking are just a few of the outcomes we have demonstrated.
Our partner BioCareSD, a specialty distributor with nearly 50 years of experience, is an important part of the overall experience we provide to our members. Contracting, technology and high-touch distribution working together create an end-to-end experience. Evidence of that collective excellence is reflected in the Gold Award we received in the 2026 Globee Awards for Pioneers for disrupting the traditional approach in the specialty drug market.
Beyond contracts, and to improve practice economics, we have collaborated with key practices to deliver several technology solutions. A few examples:
- ForecastIQ, an AI-based demand forecasting and robotic ordering engine, reduces the time it takes to place orders, improves demand-driven purchasing decisions, and reduces unnecessary inventory.
- VisionIQ, using computer vision, reduces the time required to audit and restock inventory by approximately 95%, while significantly improving the quality of inventory information. We also believe it can meaningfully improve Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) compliance.
Technology is one of our biggest differentiators. Our members are willing and committed to collaborating with us to build technology that reduces the burden of managing the business of oncology and retina, so they can spend more time focusing on patient care.
That creates a win-win model: we support them through innovation, and they remain independent.
Q: What does being named to Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators list mean to AllyGPO, and what aspects of the company’s culture contributed to this recognition?
A: This personally means a lot to me. I care deeply that great ideas can travel sideways, backwards, upwards, and downwards. The direction should not matter. What matters is the collective. We are a collection of talented individuals committed to making the day-in-the-life of every employee at our member practices who touches our systems easier and more productive.
Everyone in our global technology team can ideate, propose, and build technology. But one principle is paramount: the person closest to the problem should have the autonomy to help build the solution. They should not get caught in an approval loop or hierarchy friction.
ForecastIQ and VisionIQ were not products created in a lab. They were ideated by two of our employees after watching customers perform functions that technology could make dramatically easier. The staff at those practices were used to doing things the old way. That did not stop our team from asking:
“Why can’t we be better?” and “Why not do this differently?”
Our agentic AI and personal-assistant capabilities came from the same thinking. We want AI to assist different personas inside a practice, help them get to answers quickly, and increasingly do work on their behalf. That idea did not come out of an “innovation box.” It came from watching how customers work.
The Fast Company award is recognition of that culture – a culture that intends to keep aiming higher, not because someone asked us to, but simply because we care and we can.
Q: What can we expect from AllyGPO over the next six months?
A: Over the next six months, we will continue to expand, innovate, and deliver technology that matters. We will continue investing in AI and other advanced technologies to reduce friction in financial and operational workflows that can create meaningful savings for independent specialty care practices.
Optimizing inventory, saving staff time so people can focus on higher-value work, and bringing attention to the right things at the right time so executives can make better-informed decisions can create millions of dollars in value for a large practice.
I care deeply about the ideas our team creates. As an innovative company, intellectual property is an important asset for us. We have filed several patents spanning physical inventory cabinets, practice-level optimization using advanced AI techniques, network optimization inspired by mycelium networks, and other biologically inspired approaches.
I am equally excited about bringing independent practice leaders together. Our Community Oncology Collective and Retina Collective give leaders an opportunity to learn from each other, share their challenges, discuss the changing landscape, and exchange practical ideas that can help all of them remain independent. It also creates an incredible environment for us to validate our ideas and ask these leaders to participate in shaping technology that can benefit the broader community.
Fast Company awarded us a recognition we are incredibly proud of, but it was only possible because of the outcomes we were able to achieve with the amazing support of our member practices.
Q: What is the best thing about AllyGPO that people might not know?
A: The best thing about AllyGPO is our passion and persistence.
Many of us came together from similar backgrounds. We had all seen the problem from different angles, and we shared a collective passion to solve what we believe is one of the most challenging problems in the specialty healthcare industry.
Technology historically has not been a major part of the conversation in this market. Failed ideas and broken promises from incumbents and competitors became obstacles for us because customers had heard many promises before.
At AllyGPO, we remain focused and persistent in our mission because everyone believes we are doing the right thing and improving the economic viability of independent specialty practices. We build a company that uncompromisingly stands behind physicians and practices who care deeply about their own independence and their patients and will continue to invest and deliver technology that reduces time to decision and creates experiences that reflect our passion.
