Instrument Awareness and Moving Beyond Chats

This week: Learning new skills with AI, powerful actions instead of endless chats, and building your own instrument integrations.

Learning New Skills with AI

One of the most exciting parts of using AI is the ability to pick up new skills you have never tried before. Recently, I began experimenting with SCOBY pellicle leathers; turning kombucha cultures into sustainable biomaterials.

With AI's guidance, I tried ten different treatment processes, including tanning with wine tannins from my own winemaking and conditioning with supplies I had at home. The result was a set of functional prototypes, including small catch-all trays.

This was not a skill I had before. What made the difference was having an AI "mentor" in my pocket; it helped me design experiments, test variations, and explore possibilities I would not have thought of alone.

At Cypher, this is exactly the kind of experience we want to bring into the lab. Science is full of tasks that feel intimidating the first time, whether it is setting up a new instrument or planning a complex assay. AI can bridge that gap; not just by automating steps, but by teaching and guiding along the way.

The future of lab work is not only faster. It is also more accessible.

Powerful Actions, Not Endless Chats

Large language models have made chat the default interface for AI. Chats are powerful for brainstorming and one-off problem solving, but they are not always the best way to get work done. Scientists do not want endless conversations; they want actions they can trust.

That is why Cypher is introducing LLM-enabled buttons; each turns AI intelligence into a reliable, scientist-controlled action.

Some exist today. In analyses chat, you can vibe code with AI to generate a Python script, then choose to turn that script into a widget. In a single step, an exploratory conversation becomes a parameterized tool you and your colleagues can reuse with confidence.

This is one aspect of the future of lab AI: not endless chats, but powerful processes that make science faster, clearer, and reproducible.

Build your Own Instrument Integration!

Cypher is built to make AI useful in the lab; that means teaching it how to work with the instruments you already use. Now you can do exactly that.

At cypherbio.ai/instruments, users can generate their own instrument integration system prompts. These prompts educate Cypher on how to correctly talk about a device. Including real world constraints and input file formatting. Once defined, the prompt ensures Cypher generates accurate outputs for that instrument, directly inside the application.

We have already gone through this process for the Beckman Coulter Echo Acoustic Liquid Handler, and the instrument integration is now public. With it, you can generate dispense lists based on your experiment's context without leaving Cypher. No extra scripts, no external tools; just context-aware AI that speaks your Echo's language.

This is only the beginning. Any lab can now create secure, tailored integrations for their own devices.

About Cypher

Cypher is an AI-powered platform built for supercharging scientific research. Designed to streamline protocol creation, data analysis, visualization, and team collaboration, Cypher enables research groups to run better experiments and accelerate discovery. Whether you're in biotech, pharma, or academia, Cypher gives your team the tools to significantly reduce repetitive, low-scientific-value tasks and focus on what matters most to science. Built by scientists for scientists. Learn more at: https://cypherbio.ai