fig1

Figure 1. Overview of the six-level hierarchy for agentic MSE and its task mapping. (A) Progression from human-only workflows (Level 0) to fully autonomous AI materials scientists (Level 5); (B) Achieved autonomy levels across five core materials science tasks. Established: multiple independently published systems have demonstrated the capability with reproducible methods; Prototype: at least one published system has demonstrated the capability, but replication and generalization remain limited; Exploratory: the capability has been partially demonstrated in isolated or constrained settings, without full end-to-end validation; Visionary: no existing system has yet demonstrated the capability, representing a long-term research objective. MSE: Materials science and engineering; AI: artificial intelligence; LLM: large language model.