News-Medical talked with Gary Stimson, Head of AI Technologies at LabVantage, at Pittcon 2026 about agentic AI and laboratory workflows. He explains LabVantage CORTEX, a platform that connects lab knowledge throughout techniques and helps evaluation, not simply storage. He additionally describes a step-by-step path to AI assist within the lab, from UI prompts that scale back errors to autonomous brokers that tackle routine knowledge duties.
What’s your position at LabVantage, and what’s your path been to get there?
I’ve been with LabVantage for almost 25 years. I went straight out of college to LabVantage, they usually’ve been sensible at teaching me.
Currently, I’m Head of AI Technology for LabVantage. I’ve additionally been a developer, labored on buyer websites, and been a product supervisor. The firm has actually coached me by that profession and into this position.
Where did your curiosity in science and expertise begin, and when do you know you wished to enter trade?
So, my father is a chemist. He labored for Associated Octel. He was growing the octane variety of gasoline – I believe you name it gasoline over right here.
I bear in mind, at fifteen, I used to be searching for work expertise, and my father stated, “Oh, come in the lab. Come and see how it works.” I fell in love with it. I simply thought the joy of working with the machines they’d again then, and the sight of the scientists all having enjoyable and having fun with their work. I assumed, “Right, this is what I want to do. I want to be a chemist.”
As a consequence, I went to school and studied chemistry. While I used to be there, I did a 12 months out in Chicago with one other college, and I had a crossover with pc science. One of my shut mates there was a pc scientist, and I spotted, “Oh wow, I love computer science too.” That’s why I did a second grasp’s diploma in pc science.
That’s additionally why LabVantage is supreme, as a result of it combines each of these collectively.
Who’s been a key mentor for you alongside the way in which?
Mark Hill, a colleague of mine, who is sadly retiring on the finish of this month. I’ve labored with him for about 20 years now, and he’s been a implausible mentor.
He’s been nice at empowering me to simply go off and analysis and take a look at new expertise. That’s why we’ve made this leap ahead, and it’s what the product we’re going to announce at Pittcon is going to select up on.
It’s helped us leap ahead, discover these new applied sciences, and use them and apply them in a extremely great way.
This interview was performed at Pittcon 2026 in San Antonio. What did you come to announce, and what is LabVantage CORTEX?
We have been right here to launch our new platform and product. We really feel it’s the suitable time for agentic AI, so we’ve created LabVantage CORTEX, which is a platform for this new expertise.
For labs utilizing LabVantage right this moment, what adjustments with LabVantage CORTEX, and what does the announcement imply for patrons?
I like to think about LabVantage CORTEX as an working system for the laboratory now. Traditionally, we’re a LIMS firm, and we’re nonetheless going to be a LIMS firm, however now now we have this. Not solely will we retailer your knowledge, however we will additionally analyze and course of your knowledge and work with you to energy your laboratory.
LabVantage CORTEX and the agentic platform we’ve added inside that may assist you to energy your lab. For clients, it can make day-to-day life simpler, save time, and enhance job effectivity.
What have been clients asking for, and why does this really feel like the suitable second for agentic AI within the lab?
We usually meet with our clients. We maintain a number of conferences a 12 months, together with person conferences and stakeholder conferences. I’ve visited a number of clients lately, they usually’re all researching internally.
They truly got here to us and stated, “We want to move into a key area, and we want to have AI more in our laboratories.” So we thought this is a good time to create a centralized platform moderately than having these bespoke purposes in every single place.
I believe a giant factor is belief. We now use AI in our day-to-day lives. I don’t know what I’d do with out it for the time being for summarizing conferences. It makes me extra environment friendly, and I believe that’s fairly essential.
We’ve truly used it in-house. We’ve applied this expertise for the final 12 months. Every worker at LabVantage makes use of it. We’ve seen purposes like summarizing emails, summarizing assembly notes, and giving us agendas, and it’s made us capable of concentrate on the job at hand moderately than the mundane duties.
Even although driverless vehicles have been right here for almost a decade, it’s solely now that we’re beginning to see them actually adopted in cities. I believe it’s the identical factor right here: it comes dowrn to belief within the expertise.
That’s the place I believe it can translate into the lab: you’ll have the ability to concentrate on the science, and never concentrate on the mundane duties of analyzing knowledge.
When you concentrate on AI working alongside scientists, what’s the development you count on to see first?
Initially, the primary brokers that we’re releasing into our product will assist scientists use the person interface extra effectively. A chief instance is whenever you’re getting into knowledge on a web page and filling in fields: it can immediate you when you make a mistake.
Say, for example, the due date have to be inside seven days of a request. If they go outdoors of that seven-day interval, it received’t cease them from doing their work. It’ll simply immediate them to say, “Are you sure you want that date?” I believe that makes it extra environment friendly and fewer error-prone.
Where that may go is extra autonomy, the place the platform permits us to create absolutely autonomous brokers that may be working in your knowledge, like a digital model of your self doing the mundane duties of processing the info and taking a look at traits, so you may concentrate on the analysis science and really getting the ‘eureka’ moments your self.
Many labs are nonetheless coping with knowledge silos. What does a LabVantage CORTEX-ready surroundings seem like, and do organizations want something in place earlier than they’ll use it?
We’re working with a hospital proper now that has many laboratories scattered round, with completely different knowledge in numerous techniques, they usually’ve received these silos. The downside is that if a affected person is available in and asks, “Does Joe Bloggs have blood poisoning?”, the blood is, in fact, all sitting in separate techniques.
What we’re doing is utilizing our BioTech360 plugin. It permits these brokers to be prompted with “Does Joe Bloggs have blood poisoning?” and, utilizing the semantic layer, it will possibly pull all that knowledge in. Those silos are gone.
With LabVantage CORTEX, it can hyperlink to all these exterior knowledge sources, exterior techniques like SAP, and Empower (Waters) merchandise. We’re capable of mix all that knowledge and, from one easy chatbot interface, ask questions on it.
Institutions like these hospitals don’t want any foundations in place earlier than they’ll use LabVantage CORTEX. That’s the good factor with this platform. You have it, and it’ll mainly be the working system of your laboratory and your organization.
If we glance 5 to 10 years out, how do you count on LIMS techniques to evolve for the scientists utilizing them?
I’m a giant science fiction fan, and if it have been as much as me, it could be robots in your lab alongside you, working with you as an assistant.
I believe it’s going to be child steps. At first, folks will undertake this expertise to make them extra environment friendly at their jobs, however I consider over the following 5 to 10 years, we’ll have extra autonomy in laboratories.
You’ll have the ability to concentrate on the work, and also you’ll have a digital model of your self to assist course of the mundane duties and make you extra environment friendly.
How agentic AI is reshaping laboratory workflows with LabVantage at Pittcon 2026
About Gary Stimson
Gary Stimson is Head of AI Technologies at LabVantage Solutions, Inc. He leads the corporate’s enterprise AI/ML technique, structure,
and roadmap, with duty for reference architectures spanning LLMs, predictive fashions, pc imaginative and prescient, and NLP. He additionally oversees MLOps implementation, knowledge platform structure, and governance, with an emphasis on safety, privateness, and accountable AI.
Stimson has held a sequence of technical management roles at LabVantage since 2003, together with Senior Architect Scrum Master, Senior Architect, and Senior Software Engineer. He holds a Master’s diploma in Information Technology from the University of Nottingham and a Bachelor’s diploma in Chemistry from the University of Leicester.
About Pittcon
Pittcon is North America’s largest convention and exposition in laboratory science, attracting hundreds of trade, academia, and authorities attendees and exhibitors from around the globe in. Pittcon goes past the standard convention; it is a world neighborhood devoted to advancing science by training, collaboration, and philanthropy. By bringing collectively scientists, researchers, educators, college students, and trade leaders, Pittcon creates alternatives to study, join, and encourage innovation. Beyond the occasion itself, greater than 90% of Pittcon’s web proceeds assist science training and outreach initiatives regionally and globally, funding scholarships, grants, STEM packages, laboratory enhancements, and different efforts that strengthen communities and develop entry to science.
Pittcon delivers world-class academic {and professional} growth alternatives by its Technical Program, Short Courses, and Networking Workshops and Roundtables. Attendees can discover the newest scientific analysis by symposia, oral and poster displays, improve their expertise with expert-led deep-dive programs, and join with friends by interactive workshops and networking experiences designed to foster collaboration and profession progress.
The Pittcon Expo brings the scientific neighborhood collectively in an immersive surroundings the place attendees can uncover the newest laboratory applied sciences, meet with main instrument and repair suppliers, and expertise science in motion. Beyond the exhibit cubicles, the Expo Floor options participating points of interest, academic experiences, demonstrations, and networking areas, whereas receptions, events, and social occasions create alternatives to construct lasting connections with colleagues from around the globe.