What We Brought Back from Future Labs Live Basel
48 hours. Hundreds of conversations. Scientists who came sceptical and left asking one question: “And when do we start?”
On May 27-28, 2026, Nicolas Humann (CEO) and Nadège Poncet (AI & Life Science Specialist) brought Copilot for Researcher to Future Labs Live Basel, at Stand S25 in the Startup Village. Over two days, they unveiled two new agentic AI capabilities for life-science research in front of a scientific audience for the first time. This is what happened.
About Future Labs Live Basel 2026
Future Labs Live Basel brought together 3,000 lab professionals, 100 exhibitors and 200 speakers from Pharma, Biotech and Clinical R&D. Two days focused on the most pressing challenges for R&D leaders: accelerating scientific discovery, harnessing the explosion of research data and maintaining competitive advantage in an industry moving faster than ever.
This is an audience that needs concrete answers and solutions grounded in their actual research environment. It is precisely for this kind of audience that Witivio builds its agents, and it is a pleasure to take part in these events to bring researchers solutions that match their real challenges.
"The pharmaceutical industry is ready. Curious, demanding, and impatient to scale."
Witivio’s Expertise in AI for Life-Science Research
From the Microsoft Belgium Research Community Summit in Brussels, where we took the stage in front of the region’s top Microsoft research partners and showed what a fully deployed Copilot agent looks like inside a real research environment, to the first Copilot Developer Camp in Paris, where our experts mentored developers building Copilot agents and sat on the ideathon jury, Witivio is at the forefront, showing concretely how agentic AI transforms the daily work of research teams.
Witivio is one of the most experienced European Microsoft partners building Copilot agents for scientific research. At Institut Curie, France’s leading cancer research institution, Copilot for Researcher has been running in production for months, giving research teams back +2 hours per researcher per day on documentation, bibliography and administrative tasks, so they can focus on the science. A deployment featured in Satya Nadella’s AI Tour Paris 2024 keynote.
The Signal from Future Labs Live Basel
One moment sums it up. A biotech researcher stopped by Stand S25, a little sceptical. Nicolas and Nadège showed her Copilot for Researcher searching PubMed and other reliable databases in real time, then generating a high quality answer related to their research topics. She looked at the screen, silence, then: “this changes everything for us.”
That same feeling was shared by the dozens of R&D directors, lab managers and scientific leads who stopped at our stand, all with the same question in their eyes: “and when do we start?”
The scientific community is not waiting for proof of concept. It is ready. Curious, demanding, and impatient to scale.
"As AI automation and cloud mature, the real breakthrough in scientific discovery will come from agentic AI, empowered researchers, and organizations willing to align culture, budgets, and technology for long-term impact."
Most research institutions already have Microsoft 365 and Copilot. The technical foundation is in place, governance too, and the environment your teams use every day is already there. What you need is the expertise to transform that generic Copilot into a purpose-built research assistant, connected to your data, your scientific sources, your workflows. That is exactly what Witivio brings.
What We Shared at Future Labs Live Basel
New Agentic AI Capabilities for Life-Science Research on Microsoft Copilot
Two live priorities on Stand S25: unveil two new agentic AI capabilities built into Copilot for Researcher and presented in front of a scientific audience for the first time, and run demos scoped to the person in front of us, not a generic walkthrough.
Grant and funding application drafting aligned with open calls
Copilot drafts, refines and adapts grant and funding applications with awareness of the currently open calls and the researcher’s own scientific context. Scientists save weeks of time and refocus on what actually wins funding: the science and the narrative. Research institutions submit more ambitious applications, faster. Already live in Copilot for Researcher, and replicable inside any AI agent we design with our customers.
Live connections to trusted scientific sources
Copilot queries and combines PubMed, bioRxiv, Protein Atlas, PubChem and more from one single space inside Microsoft 365. What this changes for scientists and labs is tangible: less context switching, faster hypothesis validation, deeper scientific work, all inside the secured environment their institution already trusts. Already live in Copilot for Researcher, and replicable inside any custom AI agent we design for your research team, with the sources that matter to your discipline.
Copilot for Researcher, end to end
We also ran full end-to-end demos of Copilot for Researcher beyond these two novelties: automated bibliography, clinical-trial search, patent discovery, manuscript writing and adaptation. The measured impact with our customers: +2 hours saved per researcher per day, 70% user satisfaction. Every demo on the stand was scoped to the context of the person in front of us, not a generic walkthrough. Missed Future Labs Live Basel? You can still book a dedicated session.
AI Agents for Life-Science Research Teams
Whether you are a research institute, a biotech or a pharma R&D team, Witivio designs secured, governed, custom AI agents on Microsoft 365 that give scientists back the time they spend on tasks that do not require scientific expertise. Every Witivio agent is built to enhance human scientific expertise inside the Microsoft ecosystem your institution already trusts.
Research is our home ground, but our agents do not stop there. Witivio builds agents for HR, IT helpdesk, legal teams and more, always on Microsoft 365, always governed, always tailored to how your organisation actually works.
Frequently Asked Questions
Future Labs Live Basel 2026 took place on May 27-28, 2026 at the Congress Center Basel (Switzerland). The event gathered 3,000 lab professionals, 100 exhibitors and 200 speakers from Pharma, Biotech, Clinical R&D, Chemical, Industrial, F&B and FMCG labs. Witivio was present at Startup Village, Stand S25, for the full two days.
Witivio presented Copilot for Researcher end to end and unveiled two new agentic AI capabilities in front of a live scientific audience for the first time: grant and funding application drafting aligned with open calls, and live connections to trusted scientific sources (PubMed, bioRxiv, Protein Atlas, PubChem). Nicolas Humann (CEO) and Nadège Poncet (AI & Life Science Specialist) ran personalised demos across the two days.
Two capabilities already built into Copilot for Researcher and replicable inside the custom AI agents Witivio designs for customers on Microsoft 365: grant and funding application drafting aligned with open calls, and live connections to trusted scientific sources like PubMed, bioRxiv, Protein Atlas and PubChem. Both are live with existing customers and available for new implementations.
Overwhelmingly positive and action-oriented. Across dozens of conversations with R&D directors, lab managers and scientific leads, the dominant question was not whether AI works in a lab context, but "and when do we start?" The scientific community showed itself to be ready, curious, demanding, and impatient to scale, consistent with what we see with our existing research customers.
Yes. The event is over but the demo is not. You can contact our team at any time to book a dedicated session of Copilot for Researcher scoped to your lab's data, users and constraints. We will show you exactly what it looks like in your environment, not a generic walkthrough.