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Waters: integrating Anthropic AI into laboratory workflows. October 20, 2026 Waters Corporation's Dave Leitham, Vice President of Informatics, says the "big win for scientists" from AI-enabled, automated lab workflows "is time" Global life sciences and diagnostics leader Waters Corporation is aiming to connect AI directly to its laboratory instruments, enabling pharmaceutical researchers to move from AI-generated hypotheses to physical experiments with less manual intervention. Central to this goal is the company's launch of Waters AI Link, a software capability that brings Anthropic's Model Context Protocol (MCP) to its waters_connect informatics platform. The integration allows scientists to use natural language to direct Waters instruments and manage laboratory workflows through AI models and agents, including Anthropic's Claude and Claude Science. AI Link supports tasks such as creating methods, running acquisitions and processing results, while coordinating connected equipment such as sample preparation systems. Waters' announcement is the latest example of a wider industry shift, as automated, AI-powered research environments increasingly blur the lines between computational research and physical experimentation. Danaher has announced it is developing an AI-powered autonomous lab and formed a partnership with NVIDIA, while Roche is advancing AI-driven research through its own lab-in-the-loop strategy. Closing the loop. The aim is to help laboratories close the loop between computational research and physical experimentation. As AI models generate hypotheses at increasing speed, researchers face growing pressure to test them efficiently. By automating steps between experiment design, instrument operation and data analysis, AI-enabled workflows help teams investigate more possibilities, reduce manual hand-offs and accelerate research and development. "We're not asking anyone to rebuild their lab. We're bringing AI to the tools they already trust and use. " Dave LeithamVice President of Informatics at Waters Corporation Waters is also joining Anthropic's Model Hardware Standard (MHS) research programme, which aims to make it easier for AI agents to operate physical laboratory equipment safely and autonomously. The standard is designed to reduce the time required to integrate instruments, potentially cutting a process that can take weeks or months to hours or minutes. A key consideration is how these workflows can extend beyond research into regulated pharmaceutical development and quality control. Waters says its informatics platforms provide a route for work to progress from waters_connect into its Empower software, which supports regulated laboratory environments, while maintaining the data integrity and traceability required as molecules advance towards release. AI Link is available now through an early-access programme, with general availability for waters_connect customers planned for November 2026. Dave Leitham, Vice President of Informatics at Waters Corporation, shared insights with Healthcare Digital on the laboratory tasks most likely to benefit from AI integration, how automated experimentation could reshape pharmaceutical research, and the importance of maintaining trust, accountability and compliance as AI moves into regulated settings. What specific laboratory tasks or workflows do you expect to benefit most from Waters AI Link, and how will scientists and researchers be able to measure the resulting efficiency gains? DL: The biggest gains are in the work around the run: building sample lists, setting up methods, assigning instruments, submitting work, and pulling results and reports. Today that means a lot of clicking and hand-offs. With AI Link, a scientist describes what they want in plain language, and it becomes a defined action in waters_connect software. It also means newer analysts get up to speed faster, and labs rely less on a few power users. And because AI Link can orchestrate connected devices like sample prep systems, the steps work together instead of in silos. To measure it, use your own lab as the baseline. Track time from sample to reviewed result, instrument utilisation, manual touchpoints and repeat analyses, and cost per result, before and after. I wouldn't promise one number for everyone, but in development settings Healthcare Digital expect timelines to come down from weeks to days. How could AI-enabled, automated laboratory workflows change the speed and scale of pharmaceutical research? DL: AI can now come up with ideas faster than any lab can test them, so the bottleneck has moved to the bench. Every hypothesis a model generates becomes a real sample that someone has to separate and measure. What gets me excited is closing that loop. The AI suggests an experiment, the instrument runs it, and the result goes right back to the model, which uses it to design the next one. Every result makes the next experiment smarter. Teams waste fewer cycles, and they can explore a lot more ground. That's where AI Link comes in. It connects AI agents to the data and instruments through waters_connect Software, so scientists aren't hand-carrying every step from one system to the next. As labs move in that direction, Healthcare Digital expect experiments to run more continuously and to scale without adding people at the same pace. The big win for scientists is time. Less of it goes to shuffling work around, and more goes to the part only people can do: deciding what to ask next and making sense of the surprises. "The big win for scientists is time. Less of it goes to shuffling work around, and more goes to the part only people can do. " Dave LeithamVice President of Informatics at Waters Corporation What are the biggest challenges in taking AI-directed experiments from research into regulated development and quality control? DL: It comes down to trust. In research, a little variability is part of exploring. In regulated development and QC, you have to show exactly what happened, who did it, and that you'd get the same result again. That means data integrity, traceability, validation and clear accountability. Regulators are still working out their expectations for AI too, so labs want an approach they can document and defend. That's why how you bring AI in matters as much as what it can do. With AI Link, Healthcare Digital use the Model Context Protocol, an open standard, to package what Waters knows about its software and data, so customers don't have to worry about those details. A scientist can just ask for what they need, and the expertise is already built in. That gives labs the flexibility and power to change how they work and to bring that expertise into their broader workflows. And since it all runs through waters_connect Software, people can still only do what they're already authorized to do. And different customers will need different things. Many of its customers in research and development will work in waters_connect, and AI Link is built for them. Its QA/QC customers, where Empower is the market leader, have their own regulated requirements and Healthcare Digital is developing AI solutions for them in Empower too. Healthcare Digital is not asking anyone to rebuild their lab. Healthcare Digital is bringing AI to the tools they already trust and use. Waters: key partners. CEO: Dario Amodei | HQ: San Francisco, California Anthropic is an AI research company developing the Claude family of AI models. Its collaboration with Waters brings the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to laboratory informatics and involves Waters in Anthropic's Model Hardware Standard research programme. The partnership aims to help AI agents interact directly with analytical instruments, supporting automated experimentation and more connected research workflows. CEO: Vance Kershner | HQ: Wilmington, Delaware LabWare develops laboratory information management systems (LIMS) and electronic laboratory notebooks (ELN). Its long-standing collaboration with Waters integrates LabWare's informatics tools with Waters' Empower Chromatography Data System, enabling laboratories to transfer sample worklists and analytical results between systems. The integration helps reduce manual data entry, support data integrity and improve workflows in pharmaceutical research and regulated testing environments. Company Portals

Roper Technologies (ROP) vs. Danaher (DHR): which is the better long-term capital allocator? Roper Technologies and Danaher share a proven acquisition-driven strategy, but Roper's combination of cash generation, disciplined dealmaking, and valuation makes it the more compelling long-term investment today. Published October 18, 2026 at 10:48 am EDT Roper Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROP) and Danaher Corporation (NYSE:DHR) have returned 4.01% and 18.97%, respectively, over the last six months, as of October 15. This compares to a 21.5% return for the Insider Monkey Billionaire Index and 15.74% for the State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust. Both have built their businesses around a similar idea: acquire companies with attractive economics, improve their operations, and use the resulting cash flows to fund future growth. Both have proven that this approach can create substantial shareholder value. However, Roper currently has a more compelling combination of cash generation, acquisition discipline, and valuation. Both businesses are generating cash, but their growth profiles and end markets differ considerably. Roper Technologies, Inc. ranks 10th in our list of 10 Best Stocks to Buy for the Next 20 Years. Click HERE to find out other stocks on the list. Capital allocation is the real differentiator. Roper's strategy revolves around acquiring specialized businesses, particularly vertical-market software companies with recurring revenue, high customer retention, and products embedded in essential workflows. These businesses can be difficult to replace because customers depend on them to run critical operations. That creates a relatively predictable cash flow base, which Roper can use to finance further acquisitions. The company reported enterprise software gross retention in the mid-90% range during the second quarter. Organic recurring revenue across its software segments grew 7%, faster than its overall organic growth rate. Management is also developing AI capabilities across its portfolio, potentially allowing its businesses to automate more customer workflows and expand their addressable markets. Danaher takes a slightly different approach. Its Danaher Business System is built around making its businesses run better, whether that means improving efficiency, cutting costs, or getting products to market faster. The company applies this playbook across its biotechnology, life sciences, and diagnostics businesses, all of which stand to benefit from growing demand for biologic drugs, better diagnostic tools, and advances in healthcare. Danaher's acquisition of Masimo, which closed in June, illustrates this strategy. Management expects the deal to be immediately accretive to adjusted earnings and sees opportunities to improve productivity, strengthen innovation, and capture customer synergies. Danaher also announced the acquisition of StatLab, a pathology consumables manufacturer with more than 85% recurring revenue. The distinction is that Roper's portfolio is heavily oriented toward specialized software and technology, while Danaher has greater exposure to scientific equipment, consumables, and healthcare-related demand. Danaher's business model can benefit from a recovery in biotech investment, but its latest results also show how customer shipment delays and uneven research spending can affect growth. Its bioprocessing business remains a promising long-term opportunity, although several large shipments were postponed during the second quarter. Neither approach is necessarily better. Roper benefits from recurring software revenue and the fact that customers are reluctant to switch systems they rely on every day. Danaher, meanwhile, has a strong track record of improving the businesses it acquires. But both strategies depend on one thing: finding the right businesses at the right price. Even a great company can become a poor investment if management pays too much for growth. Valuation gives Roper the edge. The biggest difference between these two stocks right now is what investors are paying for them. Roper trades at 15.16x trailing earnings and 14.97x forward earnings, compared with 39.41x and 23.81x, respectively, for Danaher. That's a sizable gap, especially considering that Roper's organic revenue grew 5% in the second quarter, while Danaher's core revenue increased 3%. Danaher has good reasons to command a premium. Its businesses are tied to healthcare innovation, and a recovery in life sciences spending could give earnings a lift. Recent results also suggest that demand is improving across several parts of the business. The question is how much of that recovery is already reflected in the stock. Danaher expects core revenue to grow 3% to 4% in 2026, with growth picking up toward a mid-single-digit rate by the fourth quarter. That's encouraging, but the recovery is still playing out. If it takes longer than expected, investors paying a premium valuation could be left disappointed. Roper has its own challenges. Its acquisition strategy only works if it can keep finding good businesses at sensible prices. Net debt stood at 3.4x EBITDA at the end of the second quarter, so management has some balance-sheet work to do before pursuing its next major deals. The company expects strong cash generation and proceeds from its Indicor investment to help bring leverage down. It also needs to show that its investments in AI can translate into real growth, rather than simply keeping its products competitive. Roper looks more reasonably priced here. It has a solid base of recurring revenue and generates plenty of cash, yet its stock trades at a much lower multiple than Danaher's. The two companies have different business models, so the comparison isn't perfect, but Danaher's premium is hard to justify unless its expected recovery translates into stronger growth and earnings. Conclusion. Roper Technologies comes out ahead at these valuations. Danaher is a well-run business with plenty of room to benefit from a recovery in life sciences, but investors are paying considerably more for that opportunity. Roper's combination of recurring revenue, disciplined capital allocation, and strong cash flow offers a more appealing starting point for long-term investors, provided management continues to make sensible acquisitions and brings leverage down. Roper's advantage is not simply that it buys businesses. It is that it owns specialized companies with durable customer relationships and uses their cash flows to support further compounding. If management maintains its acquisition discipline and reduces leverage, Roper appears better positioned to deliver attractive long-term returns without requiring as much optimism to be priced into the stock. Market sentiment. Roper Technologies saw hedge fund ownership decline in Q2 2026, with 41 funds holding the stock, down from 49 in the previous quarter. However, the combined value of their holdings remained almost unchanged at around $4.95 billion, suggesting that the decline in the number of holders did not translate into a meaningful reduction in the total capital invested. Danaher saw a similar dip in the number of hedge funds holding its shares, falling from 110 in Q1 to 108 in Q2 2026. However, the combined value of those holdings increased from approximately $10.12 billion to $10.92 billion. So while slightly fewer funds held Danaher, the total value of their positions grew over the quarter.