AI is only as useful as the information behind it. For Tim Wahlberg, Interim President and Chief Product Officer at CAS, that makes trusted scientific data central to the next generation of research and innovation tools. A division of the American Chemical Society, CAS has evolved from a volunteer chemistry indexing effort into a global source of scientific knowledge management, anchored by the CAS Content Collection™, a deeply curated repository built over more than a century.

With a background in strategic portfolio growth from Thomson Reuters and ProQuest, he is overseeing the launch of CAS Newton℠, an agentic AI designed to help teams work more effectively with the scientific record. In this conversation with The Consulting Report, Wahlberg explains why “science-smart” AI requires human-curated data to be defensible, why organizations are moving from information access to evidence-based synthesis, and how CAS is applying its long-standing expertise in scientific knowledge management to the next generation of AI-enabled research. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

“What differentiates CAS is not a single product, but our ability to combine curated data, applied AI, and human expertise to support confident decision making.”

The Consulting Report: What role does CAS play in the scientific innovation process?

Tim Wahlberg: CAS specializes in transforming the world’s scientific knowledge into intelligence that supports high‑stakes decision making across research, intellectual property, regulatory, and business functions. At the core of our work is the CAS Content Collection™, the most comprehensive curated repository of scientific information in the world, built and maintained by expert scientists using a process refined over more than a century.

On top of this foundation, we develop products and capabilities that help organizations move beyond searching for information toward working with evidence and context. Our newest offering, CAS Newton℠, reflects this shift. CAS Newton is science‑smart agentic AI designed to help teams synthesize information, explore complex questions, and reason more effectively with the scientific record. It provides reliable answers to complex scientific inquiries with speed and precision.

At the same time, CAS supports organizations that want to apply our expertise more directly. Some customers use CAS solutions collaboratively, while others leverage our data, processes, and scientific stewardship to build AI capabilities aligned with their own strategies. What differentiates CAS is not a single product, but our ability to combine curated data, applied AI, and human expertise to support confident decision making.

“Most organizations in the AI and information space compete on speed or scale. CAS differentiates by prioritizing trust and decision quality.”

The Consulting Report: How does your firm differentiate itself from competitors?

Tim Wahlberg: Most organizations in the AI and information space compete on speed or scale. CAS differentiates by prioritizing trust and decision quality. Our data is not scraped or passively aggregated; it is actively curated, structured, and continuously enriched by scientists who understand the context and downstream impacts of the information.

This foundation allows us to take a different approach to AI. With CAS Newton, AI is grounded in authoritative scientific data and designed to support interpretation rather than replace expertise. More broadly, our approach enables customers to apply the same rigor to their own data and AI initiatives, whether they are using CAS capabilities directly or developing internal solutions informed by our processes.

CAS operates in domains where accuracy matters and decisions must be defensible. That focus shapes how we build technology and how we partner with customers.

The Consulting Report: How are customers using CAS solutions to support high-stakes scientific decisions?

Tim Wahlberg: A consistent theme across our client work is helping organizations move faster without increasing risk. We work with leading pharmaceutical, chemical, and life sciences organizations that rely on CAS to support decisions where timelines are tight and errors are costly. Our evolution enables secure data exchange that facilitates CAS content alongside our clients’ proprietary data. For many years, researchers used scientific solutions like CAS SciFinder®, CAS BioFinder®, and now CAS Newton for these purposes, but today’s rapidly-evolving research environment requires new ways of working. Our goal at CAS is to partner with organizations in ways that integrate into their existing workflows.

Teams use CAS capabilities to identify non‑obvious connections across published research and proprietary data, strengthening discovery efforts and strategic planning. With the introduction of CAS Newton, customers are increasingly shifting effort away from manual search and preparation toward synthesis and evaluation, allowing teams to focus on judgment and action.

The impact is not just efficiency; clients make earlier, better‑aligned decisions because they trust both the information and the systems built on top of it.

“AI has shifted expectations from access to understanding.”

The Consulting Report: Has the increasing prevalence of AI changed the types of mandates you are hired for?

Tim Wahlberg: Yes. AI has shifted expectations from access to understanding. Organizations no longer want tools that simply return information. They want systems that help them interpret evidence, explore implications, and support judgment.

At CAS, this has reinforced the importance of grounding AI in trusted data and transparent processes. CAS Newton reflects this philosophy by working alongside scientific expertise. In parallel, we are often engaged by organizations that want to apply our century‑old curation practices and data standards as they develop AI capabilities tailored to their own needs. 

As a result, CAS is increasingly viewed not just as an information provider, but as a partner in helping organizations responsibly integrate AI into research and innovation workflows.

The Consulting Report: How would you describe your firm’s culture?

Tim Wahlberg: CAS has a vibrant and dynamic culture built around our vision of improving people’s lives. For more than a century, our mission has been to organize scientific knowledge in ways that benefit society, and that mindset continues to shape how we innovate.

We value interdisciplinary collaboration, bringing together scientists, data experts, technologists, and product leaders to solve complex problems. As AI becomes more influential, our culture emphasizes accountability and trust, ensuring that new capabilities are designed to support human expertise and informed decision making while supporting an ethical approach to artificial intelligence.