Artificial Intelligence as the Next Visionary in Liquid Crystal Research

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the world of research with methods that condense months of empirical experiments into hours of computation and automation. Hence, applying AI in more specialized fields, namely liquid crystals (LCs) and liquid crystal polymers (LCPs), is of major interest to the scientific community. Therefore, in this perspective paper, we explore the use of AI in molecular and polymer property prediction and generative design, chemical reaction prediction, and synthesis route design; we will also review the use of AI to automate lab operations and analyze scientific literature. By dissecting the reviewed AI functions and inspecting their current limitations, such as hallucinations, we provide an outlook on the potential uses of AI for LC research, supplemented with a description of a fully automated LCP development process. We envision that AI-driven assistants will facilitate the on-demand design of LCs and LCPs for desired anisotropic responsive properties, accelerating both theoretical and application-oriented research.