Waters Corporation (NYSE: WAT) has launched Waters AI Link, a software capability that brings Anthropic's Model Context Protocol (MCP) to its waters_connect informatics platform. The company has also joined Anthropic's Model Hardware Standard (MHS) research program, according to a company statement.

Waters AI Link connects waters_connect Software to large language models and AI agents, including Anthropic's Claude, through a natural language interface. The integration allows AI agents to create methods, run acquisitions, and process results without custom software engineering. Waters said early access is available now, with general availability planned for November for waters_connect Software customers.

The MHS program, developed by Anthropic with scientific research institutions, is designed to allow AI agents to operate physical laboratory devices such as instruments, liquid handlers, and robotic arms. Waters said the standard reduces instrument integration time from weeks to hours or minutes. The company's participation in the MHS research program is effective immediately.

Waters said the AI Link capability is designed to carry workflows from research settings through to regulated environments via its Empower Software platform, maintaining an audit trail as molecules move into quality control and release stages.

"AI can generate hypotheses faster than any lab can test them, so the bottleneck has moved from computation to the bench," said Dave Leitham, Vice President, Informatics at Waters Corporation. "Every hypothesis an AI model generates becomes a physical sample that has to be separated and measured, multiplying the sample volume running through our instruments and columns."

Waters said the capabilities target liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry workflows, enabling what the company describes as automated lab-in-the-loop cycles, where AI-generated hypotheses are physically tested and results feed back to the model to refine subsequent experiments.