RELX stock highlights AI-led STM growth as tools gain traction

RELX is putting artificial intelligence at the center of Elsevier's growth strategy after the scientific, technical and medical division reported faster momentum at an investor seminar. MarketBeat reported on Wednesday, November 4, 2026, that STM revenue growth had reached 6 percent, compared with a previous range of 2 percent to 4 percent cited at an earlier seminar.

Kumsal Bayazit, Elsevier's chief executive, said STM represented 28 percent of RELX revenue and 30 percent of adjusted operating profit in the first half of 2026. The division generated annualized revenue of about 3 billion pounds and adjusted operating profit of more than 1 billion pounds, while roughly 80 percent of its revenue came from subscriptions, according to the report.

Research and healthcare tools expand

Elsevier's growth plan combines scientific content with analytics, workflow software and AI features. Primary Research, including article publishing and research analytics, accounts for slightly more than half of STM revenue, while Decision Support Tools contribute about 40 percent.

Bayazit said Primary Research was growing at a mid-single-digit rate, an improvement from low-single-digit growth four years earlier. Decision Support Tools were also growing strongly as Elsevier added AI capabilities to existing products, launched new tools, combined products into interoperable suites and made its data available within customer workflows.

LeapSpace, an AI-enabled research workspace launched in January 2026, combines Elsevier and third-party full-text material with Scopus data, funding information and customer-provided content. Nearly 1,000 institutions have subscribed, and more than 1 million users have engaged with at least one LeapSpace feature, according to Max Khan, Elsevier's senior vice president for Research Solutions.

In healthcare education, Sherpath AI had reached 100,000 students in 2026, or 20 percent of US nursing students. The platform combines Elsevier nursing content, adaptive quizzes, predictive analytics and AI-supported study tools.

Content scale supports AI positioning

Elsevier is also using its publishing scale to strengthen the evidence base behind its products. The company receives 4.2 million article submissions annually and published more than 800,000 articles in 2025, while accepting fewer than 20 percent of submissions. Its screening process addresses risks including fabricated data, manipulated authorship, citation abuse, paper mills and misuse of AI.

Chief Technology Officer Jill Luber said RELX spends 2 billion dollars annually on technology and employs more than 12,000 technologists worldwide. Elsevier uses more than 120 approved AI models from providers including Anthropic, Google, OpenAI and Mistral, allowing it to balance quality, speed and cost rather than rely on a single supplier.

The company said it does not use customer data to train its models. Prompt and model optimisation reduced Sherpath AI token costs by nearly 50 percent during the year as usage increased, according to the report.

Investor focus shifts to monetisation

The update strengthens the case for RELX's strategy of turning proprietary information into subscription-based decision tools. For investors, the key test is whether adoption of products such as LeapSpace and Sherpath AI can sustain revenue growth while AI investment remains elevated. The main risk is that generic or lower-cost AI services could weaken pricing power in parts of the information portfolio.

The real-time quote of RELX stock was 36.89 euros on Lang & Schwarz at 11:43 CET on Thursday, November 5, 2026.

European information and analytics shares remain sensitive to the broader technology and growth-stock environment; investors can follow the FTSE 100 market for the main UK benchmark.

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