Introducing Benchling AI

San Francisco, CA — October 7, 2025 — Benchling AI launches today, giving scientists a command center to access AI directly in the platform they trust. At a time where AI is transforming every industry, Benchling is bringing agents and predictive models into the scientific workflow, eliminating the need to move data or adopt disconnected tools. Built on the same secure infrastructure that supports more than 1,300 companies and 7,500 academic institutions globally, Benchling AI helps scientists accelerate discovery and design better molecules by automating toil and unlocking insights from structured data. 

Benchling AI is available to all Benchling customers to start using today, with free access for academic scientists to make AI broadly accessible.

A new home for scientific AI

Benchling AI changes how science gets done. Scientists can now use an ecosystem of data, agents, and models to ask questions, design experiments, generate predictions, capture data, and write reports.

• Agents: Free scientists from toil. There are three new Benchling AI agents to take on the manual and repetitive work that slows research down. The Deep Research Agent analyzes internal experimental data and public literature to answer complex scientific questions and summarize results into detailed reports within minutes. The Compose Agent helps scientists turn scattered files, protocols, and handwritten notes into polished notebook entries. And the Data Entry Agent converts unstructured data from contract research organizations (CROs) or legacy internal sources into clean, structured data. 

• Models: Design better molecules, faster. Scientists can now access leading models like AlphaFold, Chai-1, and Boltz-2, in the same place they’re designing molecules. The predictions generated are directly connected to empirical data in Benchling, unifying simulation and experimentation in one place. Experiment Optimization helps scientists find the best parameters and recommend new experimental designs, accelerating assay and process development.

Impact in practice

“Benchling’s AI has turned our 10-year archive of protocols and experimental data from a burial ground of insights into a living, breathing research partner. The ability to instantly query our institutional knowledge, synthesize best practices, and design protocols that merge our proprietary methods with public research has fundamentally changed how we approach discovery,” said Omar Abudayyeh PhD, Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School, Abudayyeh-Gootenberg lab. “We’re no longer limited by what any single scientist can remember — we’re building on the full foundation of everything we’ve ever learned.”

Early adoption shows measurable gains in speed and productivity. In one pilot, a top 20 biopharma used Benchling’s Deep Research Agent to narrow 20 potential mouse models to two, saving an estimated eight months of in-vivo work by finding and reasoning over prior studies from an acquired company. Other early users report making faster go or no-go decisions, structuring messy data in minutes versus hours, and getting fast predictions that were previously impossible without computational experts.

“Achieving the potential of AI in science depends on data and seamless access. High-quality experimental data powers predictive models and scientists adopt tools they trust, especially when those tools fit smoothly into their work,” said Sajith Wickramasekara, CEO and co-founder of Benchling. ”Our goal is to put AI in the hands of every scientist and bend the speed and cost curve of making medicines.” 

Access and availability

• For academics: Sign up here (.edu email required).  

• For customers: Learn more about Benchling AI here. Details on how to activate Benchling AI, along with information on data protection and security, are available on the help page.

About Benchling Benchling is the platform for scientific progress, trusted by more than 1,300 biotech companies worldwide — from pioneering startups to global biopharma like Merck, Moderna, and Sanofi. Founded in 2012, Benchling is a unified, cloud-based platform where scientists capture, connect, and analyze data across the R&D lifecycle. With Benchling AI, scientists use agents and models directly in their workflows, connected to structured data. The result: faster teams and better molecules. Benchling’s mission is to unlock the power of biotechnology and make breakthroughs possible for all.