AI Leader's Series: AI for Science – from strategy to delivery

Event overview

Our next AI Leaders' Series event explores how AI is beginning to change not only what scientists can discover, but how research itself is carried out. Advances in AI science agents, scientific models, robotics and laboratory automation are enabling systems to generate hypotheses, design experiments and, in closed-loop autonomous labs, select, run and analyse them.

This is where agentic and physical AI converge, connecting digital reasoning with experimentation in the physical world. Taking place one year on from the Government's AI for Science Strategy, the event will use that milestone as context while focusing on where the technology itself is heading. It will look at what is emerging at the frontier and where it is already changing research practice, in areas such as drug discovery, protein design and materials science. It will also cover the technical challenges that still stand between today's demonstrations and autonomous scientific systems that work reliably at scale.

The afternoon will feature a keynote, two expert panels, and the chance for attendees to share their own work, followed by networking.

Benefits and takeaways

What will we cover?

• How AI science agents, scientific models and autonomous laboratory systems are changing the research process

• Where agentic AI, robotics and physical AI are converging in scientific discovery

• Where these technologies are already producing significant research advances

• The technical barriers that still limit autonomous scientific systems, including reliability, interoperability, validation, observability and human oversight

• Where the UK has strengths in the technologies and research underpinning this field, and what could help move them from research environments towards wider use

Get involved beyond this event

techUK members working on AI in research and science can engage year-round by visiting our AI page.