A new study by Google researchers reveals how AI is transforming scientific research. The study, published in October 2026, found that nearly half of surveyed scientists in the US and UK use AI daily, with 80% using it weekly. The primary use is for analyzing or modeling research data.
However, the research highlights a significant bottleneck. While AI saves scientists an average of seven hours per week, a substantial portion of that time is spent on a "verification tax"—manually auditing and verifying AI-generated results. Furthermore, the biggest bottleneck for scientific progress has shifted to physical experiments and data collection, which AI cannot easily accelerate.
As a result, 41% of scientists report an increased backlog of untested theories. AI is making computational work faster, but the physical world is not keeping pace, potentially attenuating the overall speed-up in scientific discovery.
Source: Financial Times Companies · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing