What is Slate Prism?
Slate Prism is a structured research module within Slate designed to solve complex, constraint-based R&D challenges.
Slate Prism breaks down your query, scans thousands of patents and papers, weighing supporting and opposing proofs, and delivers evidence-backed insights on what works, what doesn’t, and why.
It goes beyond simple finding data to deliver an in-depth, context-aware solution tailored to researchers’ specific needs.
See how it works:
See Slate Prism In Action
Why We Built Slate Prism?
In R&D, the most critical questions are rarely simple. Teams are often tasked with solving problems that must satisfy multiple, interdependent constraints. For example:
- A drug formulation that improves efficacy by at least 25%, without increasing toxicity beyond a 5% threshold, and remains chemically stable for a minimum of 12 months at room temperature.
- A process design that reduces energy consumption by at least 20%, while maintaining ≥90% throughput, preserving product quality within ±5% of current benchmarks, and ensuring compatibility with existing equipment.
- A food additive that reduces sugar content by 30% or more, retains ≥85% of baseline taste and mouthfeel in sensory trials, is GRAS-compliant, and performs consistently across at least 3 different regulatory constraints.
These aren’t yes-or-no questions. They require a systematic, evidence-based comparison of what works across multiple criteria, constraints, and trade-offs.
In traditional methods, researchers are forced to work around the system:
- Break their problem into isolated sub-questions. e.g., “What additives reduce sugar?”, “What improves mouthfeel?”
- Run multiple individual searches for each constraint
- Tally and cross-reference the findings manually
- Try to spot overlaps, eliminate contradictions, and arrive at a shortlist, which often takes over weeks or months
Even with modern AI tools, researchers still “dumb down” their queries, avoiding complex, multi-part questions because current systems aren’t built to handle them holistically.
Slate Prism is designed to fill this gap. It’s tailored for the kinds of real-world, constraint-rich problems that R&D teams face every day, where trade-offs matter, the literature is vast, and decisions must be based on more than just surface-level signals.
Instead of forcing researchers to piece together the answer manually, Slate Prism handles the heavy lifting:
- It reads deeply across domains
- Filters evidence with precision
- Highlights what works, what doesn’t, and why, based on actual research
- And delivers high-confidence insight, grounded in both breadth and depth
Finding answers to these questions isn’t just about locating relevant documents, it’s about making sense of fragmented, sometimes conflicting research and evaluating whether a solution actually holds up in your context. Slate Prism brings various potential solutions together in one place, so you can focus on making confident, well-informed decisions.
How Slate Prism Works?
Slate Prism breaks down a complex research question into a coordinated, multi-agent process. Each agent performs a specialized task, working together to deliver high-confidence, evidence-backed answers.
Step 1. Targeted Search
Breaks down complex technical questions into structured components
When you input a question with multiple constraints, Slate Prism doesn’t treat it as a single query. It first analyzes the problem to extract each technical requirement, such as sustainability, mechanical performance, or regulatory compatibility, and reformulates them into structured sub-questions that guide the research. This step ensures that every critical detail is accounted for, saving time and ensuring precision.
Step 2. Evidence Gathering
Retrieves and screens hundreds to thousands of relevant documents
For each constraint or sub-question, Slate Prism runs focused searches across scientific literature, patents, and technical publications. It retrieves a wide base of material, then screens documents for relevance, quality, and technical specificity, filtering out noise and narrowing down to credible sources.
Step 3. Analysis
Synthesizes insights from both supporting and contrasting studies
Slate Prism doesn’t just find what agrees with your question. It actively searches for studies that show opposing results or limitations. This helps surface trade-offs, edge cases, and knowledge gaps, leading to a more realistic and well-rounded understanding of the solution space.
Step 4. Synthesis
Surface high-confidence answers grounded in real literature
After analyzing all the included evidence, Slate Prism generates answers that reflect the current state of research, rather than assumptions. It links insights to specific studies, explains their context and reliability, and helps you make decisions with greater confidence and clarity.
How R&D Teams Are Using Slate Prism
Finding sustainable solutions for complex manufacturing and material challenges:
Finding innovative methods for optimizing processes:
Discovering high-performance materials that solve real-world demands:
Optimizing formulations for improved performance:
Technology Scouting for breakthrough innovations:
Slate Prism doesn’t just pull up matching studies, it actively seeks out evidence that both supports your goals and exposes where solutions may fall short. By highlighting potential drawbacks alongside proven successes, it gives you a balanced, reality-checked view of every option.
That way, you see not only which approaches work best, but also understand their limitations and trade-offs before committing to a path forward.
