AI is now part of everyday life in many laboratories. Yet in a surprising number of organizations, the electronic lab notebook is still used primarily as a place to record what has already happened. These systems were built for documentation and compliance, not for helping scientists interpret results, connect prior work, or make informed decisions in real time.
As a result, much of the real scientific reasoning happens elsewhere. Researchers often turn to public generative AI tools to think through data, compare findings, or draft interpretations. It can feel faster and more flexible in the moment. But over time, this split creates problems as knowledge becomes scattered, insights are harder to reuse, and institutional learning slows down.
This article takes a close look at the limits of passive lab notebooks and introduces the AI lab notebook as a third-generation evolution of the ELN. It is designed to support interpretation and decision-making directly within governed scientific workflows, where context and evidence remain intact.
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Topics covered
- Why documentation alone no longer meets the needs of modern laboratory work
- How common unmanaged AI use has become in labs (77 % report using public AI tools alongside their ELN)
- The connection between fragmented workflows and repeated experiments (65 % report repeating work due to reuse challenges)
- What scientists say they want from next-generation lab notebooks, including interpretation support (96 %) and structured evidence review (81 %)
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About Sapio Sciences
Sapio Sciences' mission is to improve lives by accelerating discovery, and because science is complex, Sapio makes technology simple. Sapio is a global business offering an all-in-one science-aware (TM) lab informatics platform combining cloud-based LIMS, ELN, and SDMS.
Sapio serves some of the largest global and specialist brands, including biopharma, CRO/CDMOs and clinical diagnostic labs across NGS genomic sequencing, bioanalysis, bioprocessing, stability, clinical, histopathology, drug research, and in vivo studies. Customers love Sapio's platform because it is robust, scalable, and with no-code configuration, can quickly adapt to meet unique needs.
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