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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 data across systems and supports analysis, not just storage. He also describes a step-by-step path to AI support in the lab, from UI prompts that reduce errors to autonomous agents that take on routine data tasks.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s your role at LabVantage, and what\u2019s your path been to get there?<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been with LabVantage for nearly 25 years. I went straight out of university to LabVantage, and they\u2019ve been brilliant at coaching me.<\/p>\n
Currently, I\u2019m Head of AI Technology for LabVantage. I\u2019ve also been a developer, worked on customer sites, and been a product manager. The company has really coached me through that career and into this role.<\/p>\n
\nImage Credit: Golden Sikorka\/Shutterstock.com<\/p>\n
Where did your interest in science and technology start, and when did you know you wanted to go into industry?<\/p>\n
So, my father is a chemist. He worked for Associated Octel. He was increasing the octane number of gasoline – I think you call it gasoline over here.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I remember, at fifteen, I was looking for work experience, and my father said, \u201cOh, come in the lab. Come and see how it works.\u201d I fell in love with it. I just thought the excitement of working with the machines they had back then, and the sight of the scientists all having fun and enjoying their work. I thought, \u201cRight, this is what I want to do. I want to be a chemist.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a result, I went to university and studied chemistry. While I was there, I did a year out in Chicago with another university, and I had a crossover with computer science. One of my close friends there was a computer scientist, and I realized, \u201cOh wow, I love computer science too.\u201d That\u2019s why I did a second master\u2019s degree in computer science.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s also why LabVantage is ideal, because it combines both of those together.<\/p>\n
Who\u2019s been a key mentor for you along the way?<\/p>\n
Mark Hill, a colleague of mine, who is sadly retiring at the end of this month. I\u2019ve worked with him for about 20 years now, and he\u2019s been a fantastic mentor.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s been great at empowering me to just go off and research and look at new technology. That\u2019s why we\u2019ve made this leap forward, and it\u2019s what the product we\u2019re going to announce at Pittcon is going to pick up on.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s helped us leap forward, find these new technologies, and use them and apply them in a really good way.<\/p>\n
This interview was conducted at Pittcon 2026 in San Antonio. What did you come to announce, and what is LabVantage CORTEX?<\/p>\n
We were here to release our new platform and product. We feel it\u2019s the right time for agentic AI, so we\u2019ve created LabVantage CORTEX, which is a platform for this new technology.<\/p>\n
For labs using LabVantage today, what changes with LabVantage CORTEX, and what does the announcement mean for customers?<\/p>\n
I like to think of LabVantage CORTEX as an operating system for the laboratory now. Traditionally, we\u2019re a LIMS company, and we\u2019re still going to be a LIMS company, but now we have this. Not only do we store your data, but we can also analyze and process your data and work with you to power your laboratory.<\/p>\n
LabVantage CORTEX and the agentic platform we\u2019ve added inside that will allow you to power your lab. For customers, it will make day-to-day life easier, save time, and improve job efficiency.<\/p>\n
What were customers asking for, and why does this feel like the right moment for agentic AI in the lab?<\/p>\n
We often meet with our customers. We hold several conferences a year, including user conferences and stakeholder meetings. I\u2019ve visited a few customers recently, and they\u2019re all researching internally.<\/p>\n
They actually came to us and said, \u201cWe want to move into a key area, and we want to have AI more in our laboratories.\u201d So we thought this is a great time to create a centralized platform rather than having these bespoke applications everywhere.<\/p>\n
I think a big thing is trust. We now use AI in our day-to-day lives. I don\u2019t know what I\u2019d do without it at the moment for summarizing meetings. It makes me more efficient, and I think that\u2019s quite important.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve actually used it in-house. We\u2019ve implemented this technology for the last 12 months. Every employee at LabVantage uses it. We\u2019ve seen applications like summarizing emails, summarizing meeting notes, and giving us agendas, and it\u2019s made us able to focus on the job at hand rather than the mundane tasks.<\/p>\n
Even though driverless cars have been here for nearly a decade, it\u2019s only now that we\u2019re starting to see them really adopted in cities. I think it\u2019s the same thing here: it comes dowrn to trust in the technology.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where I think it will translate into the lab: you\u2019ll be able to focus on the science, and not focus on the mundane tasks of analyzing data.<\/p>\n
When you think about AI working alongside scientists, what\u2019s the progression you expect to see first?<\/p>\n
Initially, the first agents that we\u2019re releasing into our product will help scientists use the user interface more efficiently. A prime example is when you\u2019re entering data on a page and filling in fields: it will prompt you if you make a mistake.<\/p>\n
Say, for instance, the due date must be within seven days of a request. If they go outside of that seven-day period, it won\u2019t stop them from doing their work. It\u2019ll just prompt them to say,\u00a0\u201cAre you sure you want that date?\u201d I think that makes it more efficient and less error-prone.<\/p>\n
Where that will go is more autonomy, where the platform allows us to create fully autonomous agents that can be working on your data, like a digital version of yourself doing the mundane tasks of processing the data and looking at trends, so you can focus on the research science and actually getting the ‘eureka’ moments yourself.<\/p>\n
Many labs are still dealing with data silos. What does a LabVantage CORTEX-ready environment look like, and do organizations need anything in place before they can use it?<\/p>\n
We\u2019re working with a hospital right now that has many laboratories scattered around, with different data in different systems, and they\u2019ve got these silos. The problem is that if a patient comes in and asks, \u201cDoes Joe Bloggs have blood poisoning?\u201d, the blood is, of course, all sitting in separate systems.<\/p>\n
What we\u2019re doing is using our BioTech360 plugin. It allows these agents to be prompted with\u00a0\u201cDoes Joe Bloggs have blood poisoning?\u201d and, using the semantic layer, it can pull all that data in. Those silos are gone.<\/p>\n
With LabVantage CORTEX, it will link to all these external data sources, external systems like SAP, and Empower (Waters) products. We\u2019re able to combine all that data and, from one simple chatbot interface, ask questions on it.<\/p>\n
Institutions like these hospitals do not need any foundations in place before they can use LabVantage CORTEX. That\u2019s the great thing with this platform. You have it, and it will basically be the operating system of your laboratory and your company.<\/p>\n
If we look five to 10 years out, how do you expect LIMS systems to evolve for the scientists using them?<\/p>\n
I\u2019m a big science fiction fan, and if it were up to me, it would be robots in your lab alongside you, working with you as an assistant.<\/p>\n
I think it\u2019s going to be baby steps. At first, people will adopt this technology to make them more efficient at their jobs, but I believe over the next five to 10 years, we\u2019ll have more autonomy in laboratories.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ll be able to focus on the work, and you\u2019ll have a digital version of yourself to help process the mundane tasks and make you more efficient.<\/p>\n
How agentic AI is reshaping laboratory workflows with LabVantage at Pittcon 2026Play<\/p>\n
About Gary Stimson<\/p>\n
Gary Stimson is Head of AI Technologies at LabVantage Solutions, Inc. He leads the company\u2019s enterprise AI\/ML strategy, architecture,![\"Picture](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ImageForNews_838212_17822220343754661.jpg\")
and roadmap, with responsibility for reference architectures spanning LLMs, predictive models, computer vision, and NLP. He also oversees MLOps implementation, data platform architecture, and governance, with an emphasis on security, privacy, and responsible AI.<\/p>\n
Stimson has held a series of technical leadership roles at LabVantage since 2003, including Senior Architect Scrum Master, Senior Architect, and Senior Software Engineer. He holds a Master\u2019s degree in Information Technology from the University of Nottingham and a Bachelor\u2019s degree in Chemistry from the University of Leicester.<\/p>\n
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