Chromatography Industry Trends 2025: AI, Automation, and Workforce Challenges

The chromatographic landscape is in a constant state of evolution, driven by technological breakthroughs and shifting economic currents. For professionals in analytical science, understanding the real-world impact of these changes is critical.

In our 2025 industry survey (1), LCGC International goes behind the figures to reveal the challenges, priorities, and outlook of chromatographers. The results paint a fascinating picture of an industry at a crossroads, caught in a palpable tension between the promise of future-facing technology and the constraints of present-day realities. This report distils the survey findings into five key insights that highlight the forces shaping the chromatography landscape in 2025.

1. The AI Paradox

While artificial intelligence (AI) dominates conversations about the future, its current footprint is remarkably small, with industry enthusiasm seemingly ahead of its infrastructure, creating a significant gap between long-term vision and on-the-ground reality. Only 1.69% of respondents report that AI is "fully integrated and widely used" in their organization. The vast majority (50.85%) are still exploring options. Looking ahead to 2026, they are most optimistic about this area, with 42.37% choosing "advanced analytics reshaping data interpretation, including AI."

This chasm between interest and implementation signals a market that is not yet ready for wholesale AI transformation. For lab managers, it implies that the business case for AI must be built on solving immediate, practical problems. For instrument and software vendors, the strategic play is not to sell a monolithic "AI solution" but to offer scalable, AI-assisted features that address foundational workflow challenges, bridging the gap between operational hurdles and analytical vision.

2. A Cycle of Shrinking Funds and Talent

The industry's primary struggles are not a lack of career opportunities but a dual crisis of budget cuts and a skilled personnel shortage. The top two challenges cited by professionals are "cuts to research funding or capital budgets" (30.51%) and "shortage of skilled personnel" (27.12%). Notably, "fewer attractive career opportunities" was a concern for only 8.47% of respondents, reinforcing that the problem is a scarcity of resources, not jobs. This talent shortage is linked to specific skill gaps, with over half of respondents (52.54%) seeing a need for more training in "advanced data analysis or chemometrics."

These figures signal a critical resource crunch that will only serve to fuel a perpetual vicious cycle. Budget cuts prevent investment in modern instrumentation and software, which in turn makes it harder to attract and retain top talent who seek to work with the best tools. This dynamic starves labs of both the technology and the expertise needed to innovate. Breaking this cycle requires a strategic focus on demonstrating clear return on investment (ROI) for new technologies and investing in targeted training to upskill the existing workforce.

3. A Conflict Between Needs and Constraints

The survey reveals a stark conflict at the heart of purchasing decisions: labs desperately want the benefits of new technology but are overwhelmingly blocked by the initial price tag, leading to widespread purchasing delays. When choosing new instruments, "analytical performance" was the most important factor, and this was cited by 47.46% of respondents. However, the single biggest factor influencing technology adoption is "up-front capital cost," identified by a clear majority (54.24%). The result of this conflict is inaction: a significant 44.07% of respondents report having "no planned purchases currently," compounded by a mixed economic outlook where only 15.25% feel "very confident" about the industry’s prospects for 2025–2026.

This is the central tension defining the modern analytical lab: the demand for better results is being actively stifled by fiscal reality. This puts the onus on vendors to reframe their value proposition around total cost of ownership, phased implementations, or potential subscription models that lower the initial barrier to entry. For lab managers, it means the business case for new instruments must be ironclad, directly linking superior analytical performance to tangible outcomes like increased throughput or faster time-to-market.

4. Laying the Foundations: Practical Data Solutions

While AI captures headlines, the most pressing data-analysis needs for today's professionals are far more foundational. The survey shows a demand for tools that solve fundamental efficiency and data quality challenges now. The top data-analysis innovation on professionals' minds is "workflow automation and unattended runs," selected by a commanding 62.71%. Close behind is the need for better "chromatographic peak purity and deconvolution algorithms" (57.63%). These practical needs significantly outpaced the interest in "AI for real-time decision making" (40.68%).

This is a crucial reality check for the industry. Before labs can deploy advanced AI, they must first master the basics of automation and data integrity. The strong focus on peak deconvolution and workflow automation reveals that labs are still grappling with core throughput and reliability issues. The implication is clear: the most successful innovations in the near term will be those that make existing processes faster, more robust, and less dependent on constant manual intervention, laying a more stable foundation for future AI integration.

5. A Look at Career Growth

The survey data indicate that biotechnology and biopharmaceuticals continue to be the leading sectors for professional growth. "Biotechnology/biopharmaceuticals (including mAbs and cell/gene therapies)" was identified as the strongest career growth sector by 47.46% of respondents. This was higher than "pharmaceuticals/small-molecule drug development," which was chosen by 37.29%. Environmental monitoring and remediation were selected by 15.25% of respondents, with the food and beverage industry seeing 8.47%

Expertise in large molecules, monoclonal antibodies, and cell and gene therapies is no longer a niche specialty but a core requirement for career advancement. This shift towards complex biologics is mirrored in the anticipated demand for services, where application areas like continuous manufacturing and PAT (40.68% of respondents selected this for anticipated service demands) are expected to be key drivers. For chromatography professionals, this highlights a critical need to gain experience with biopharmaceutical workflows, while for organizations, it underscores the importance of recruiting and developing talent with these future-facing skills.

Conclusions

The survey results reveal an industry defined by tension—between the excitement for a future aided by AI and the grounding realities of tight budgets, staffing shortages, and a continuing need for foundational efficiency. Although the survey represents a relatively small group of chromatography professionals and may not reflect every viewpoint across the industry, it offers a meaningful snapshot of the emerging trends, challenges, and opportunities currently shaping the field.

For the world of chromatography to continue to evolve, the critical question for industry leaders is how they will fund the foundational investments in capital and talent required to adopt new technology.

Reference

(1) LCGC International's 2025 State of the Industry Survey.