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Real-World Successes in AI-Enabled Coatings Innovation
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Read about our panel and presentation on AI-driven coatings innovation at the Coatings Trends and Technologies Summit.
We recently had the privilege of spending several days amongst coatings formulators, manufacturers, suppliers, and leaders at the Coatings Trends and Technologies Summit hosted by Paints and Coatings Industry (PCI) Magazine. From the presentations we attended to conversations at our booth, it was clear that the coatings industry has a strong interest in digitalization and AI – not just for accelerating R&D, but also to influence commercial strategy.
Our COO and cofounder Ken Kisner joined the first day’s keynote panel on real-world examples of AI for coatings, and our Director of Solutions Architecture Jon Weis, PhD took the stage on day two to share customer case studies and our philosophy around digital transformation.
From theory to practice
The keynote panel, “Real-World Successes in AI-Enabled Coatings Innovation,” was moderated by PCI’s Kristin Johansson and featured leaders from across the industry: Paul Snowwhite (Applied Molecules), Alex Gardiner (Proleit by Schneider Electric), Dheev Arulmani (Valdera), Bryan Haltom (DyStar), and Ken Kisner (Albert Invent).
After years of talking about AI to surface knowledge, preserve institutional expertise, and move faster in the coatings industry, this panel proved that we’re at an exciting tipping point where we can share tangible wins. There was also a call-to-action for organizations to begin digitalizing as soon as possible – after all, every day of delay means your organization’s latest experiments and most up-to-date knowledge isn’t AI-ready.
“Your most valuable data is the data you didn’t collect today,” urged Ken Kisner, COO and cofounder at Albert Invent. “Stop the data leakage.”
AI in action
Each panelist shared real-world examples of AI in practice:
- Dystar built a custom GPT to help synthesis chemists overcome a dead end and design creative new chemistries for defoamer.
- Proleit by Schneider Electric’s AI-powered tinting assistant links wet sample data to final cured properties, eliminating manual curing steps and boosting productivity by 11%.
- Applied Molecules uses Breakthrough, Albert’s suite of AI/ML tools trained on 15 million molecules, to optimize formulation based on target properties. “AI is like an Ironman suit,” described Paul. “It doesn’t replace scientists, but it gives them the tools to do science better – and as they feed in more data they keep getting better results.”
- Valdera shared their work on applying AI to sourcing chemicals and raw materials, from identifying suppliers for new product development to supporting supply chain agility during full scale production.
But digitalizing R&D isn’t easy: for most panelists, change management was just as much of a driver as the technology itself, and it required wins with clear business value to get the ball rolling and internal champions to keep up the momentum.
“AI is like an Ironman suit,” described Paul Snowwhite, CEO of Applied Molecules. “It doesn’t replace scientists, but it gives them the tools to do science better – and as they feed in more data they keep getting better results.”
Data security was also a shared concern, with discussions surrounding how to ensure your proprietary data isn’t training a public model and how to handle the flow of digital information with a supplier who could also be a competitor. Ken spoke to Albert’s multi-layered security, as well as how our granular access control enabled Nouryon to selectively share public information for their AI-driven sales portal, BeautyCreations.
The competitive advantage of AI
From accelerating product development to retaining institutional knowledge to bridging the gap for younger scientists joining the industry, the keynote panelists outlined the many ways AI is helping to differentiate their companies.
“It’s easy to go into Chat GPT and ask for a paint formula – it might not be accurate, but you’ll get something. Everyone today has access to the world’s knowledge,” said Ken. “What people don’t have access to is your internal know-how. Collecting that data and leveraging it on top of the global know-how is what separates your company from the rest.”
Ken closed out the panel speaking emphatically about AI’s influence on supporting regulatory compliance and the emergence of agentic networks.
If you missed the live keynote, the recording is still available here.
The pillars of digital transformation for AI
The keynote panel illustrated how far AI has come in coatings R&D, spotlighting real-world success stories from across the industry. These examples show that AI is not just a future ambition – it’s a present-day advantage for organizations that have laid the right foundation through digital transformation.
Jon Weis, PhD, our Director of Solutions Architecture, presented on the second day of the conference about how companies are executing effective digital transformations for AI through structured data, change management, and scalable digital infrastructure. Using customer case studies to illustrate the process, Jon discussed digital transformation through the framework of three pillars:
Digitalization: A foundation of centralized, structured R&D data enables leading innovation companies to connect systems, automate labs, and enable advanced analytics and AI. Jon demonstrated this through Henkel’s automated lab and how Applied Molecules reduced development time from months to days with AI.
Transformation: As noted in the panel discussion, true digital transformation requires a cultural and organizational shift. Jon discussed why change management is crucial to digital transformation, best practices for lasting change, and how cross-functional collaboration at Marabu enabled their lab of the future.
Value scaling: The presentation concluded with examples of how the value of R&D digitalization can scale across other functions. For example, Jon shared how our partnership with Nouryon resulted in BeautyCreations, an AI-powered formulation discovery tool that transforms how suppliers and formulators collaborate.
Are you AI-ready?
We were honored to play such a big role in this year’s Coatings Trends and Technologies Summit and were inspired by the industry’s curiosity and knowledge around digitalization and AI. We’d like to thank the organizers for hosting such an engaging event and look forward to reconnecting with the coatings industry at the upcoming Western Coatings Show, where our CEO and cofounder Nick Talken will be presenting in the keynote session. In the meantime, request a consultation to learn whether your data is AI-ready and how to prepare for the future of coatings innovation.
We recently had the privilege of spending several days amongst coatings formulators, manufacturers, suppliers, and leaders at the Coatings Trends and Technologies Summit hosted by Paints and Coatings Industry (PCI) Magazine. From the presentations we attended to conversations at our booth, it was clear that the coatings industry has a strong interest in digitalization and AI – not just for accelerating R&D, but also to influence commercial strategy.
Our COO and cofounder Ken Kisner joined the first day’s keynote panel on real-world examples of AI for coatings, and our Director of Solutions Architecture Jon Weis, PhD took the stage on day two to share customer case studies and our philosophy around digital transformation.
From theory to practice
The keynote panel, “Real-World Successes in AI-Enabled Coatings Innovation,” was moderated by PCI’s Kristin Johansson and featured leaders from across the industry: Paul Snowwhite (Applied Molecules), Alex Gardiner (Proleit by Schneider Electric), Dheev Arulmani (Valdera), Bryan Haltom (DyStar), and Ken Kisner (Albert Invent).
After years of talking about AI to surface knowledge, preserve institutional expertise, and move faster in the coatings industry, this panel proved that we’re at an exciting tipping point where we can share tangible wins. There was also a call-to-action for organizations to begin digitalizing as soon as possible – after all, every day of delay means your organization’s latest experiments and most up-to-date knowledge isn’t AI-ready.
“Your most valuable data is the data you didn’t collect today,” urged Ken Kisner, COO and cofounder at Albert Invent. “Stop the data leakage.”
AI in action
Each panelist shared real-world examples of AI in practice:
- Dystar built a custom GPT to help synthesis chemists overcome a dead end and design creative new chemistries for defoamer.
- Proleit by Schneider Electric’s AI-powered tinting assistant links wet sample data to final cured properties, eliminating manual curing steps and boosting productivity by 11%.
- Applied Molecules uses Breakthrough, Albert’s suite of AI/ML tools trained on 15 million molecules, to optimize formulation based on target properties. “AI is like an Ironman suit,” described Paul. “It doesn’t replace scientists, but it gives them the tools to do science better – and as they feed in more data they keep getting better results.”
- Valdera shared their work on applying AI to sourcing chemicals and raw materials, from identifying suppliers for new product development to supporting supply chain agility during full scale production.
But digitalizing R&D isn’t easy: for most panelists, change management was just as much of a driver as the technology itself, and it required wins with clear business value to get the ball rolling and internal champions to keep up the momentum.
“AI is like an Ironman suit,” described Paul Snowwhite, CEO of Applied Molecules. “It doesn’t replace scientists, but it gives them the tools to do science better – and as they feed in more data they keep getting better results.”
Data security was also a shared concern, with discussions surrounding how to ensure your proprietary data isn’t training a public model and how to handle the flow of digital information with a supplier who could also be a competitor. Ken spoke to Albert’s multi-layered security, as well as how our granular access control enabled Nouryon to selectively share public information for their AI-driven sales portal, BeautyCreations.
The competitive advantage of AI
From accelerating product development to retaining institutional knowledge to bridging the gap for younger scientists joining the industry, the keynote panelists outlined the many ways AI is helping to differentiate their companies.
“It’s easy to go into Chat GPT and ask for a paint formula – it might not be accurate, but you’ll get something. Everyone today has access to the world’s knowledge,” said Ken. “What people don’t have access to is your internal know-how. Collecting that data and leveraging it on top of the global know-how is what separates your company from the rest.”
Ken closed out the panel speaking emphatically about AI’s influence on supporting regulatory compliance and the emergence of agentic networks.
If you missed the live keynote, the recording is still available here.
The pillars of digital transformation for AI
The keynote panel illustrated how far AI has come in coatings R&D, spotlighting real-world success stories from across the industry. These examples show that AI is not just a future ambition – it’s a present-day advantage for organizations that have laid the right foundation through digital transformation.
Jon Weis, PhD, our Director of Solutions Architecture, presented on the second day of the conference about how companies are executing effective digital transformations for AI through structured data, change management, and scalable digital infrastructure. Using customer case studies to illustrate the process, Jon discussed digital transformation through the framework of three pillars:
Digitalization: A foundation of centralized, structured R&D data enables leading innovation companies to connect systems, automate labs, and enable advanced analytics and AI. Jon demonstrated this through Henkel’s automated lab and how Applied Molecules reduced development time from months to days with AI.
Transformation: As noted in the panel discussion, true digital transformation requires a cultural and organizational shift. Jon discussed why change management is crucial to digital transformation, best practices for lasting change, and how cross-functional collaboration at Marabu enabled their lab of the future.
Value scaling: The presentation concluded with examples of how the value of R&D digitalization can scale across other functions. For example, Jon shared how our partnership with Nouryon resulted in BeautyCreations, an AI-powered formulation discovery tool that transforms how suppliers and formulators collaborate.
Are you AI-ready?
We were honored to play such a big role in this year’s Coatings Trends and Technologies Summit and were inspired by the industry’s curiosity and knowledge around digitalization and AI. We’d like to thank the organizers for hosting such an engaging event and look forward to reconnecting with the coatings industry at the upcoming Western Coatings Show, where our CEO and cofounder Nick Talken will be presenting in the keynote session. In the meantime, request a consultation to learn whether your data is AI-ready and how to prepare for the future of coatings innovation.