Reimagining Scholarly Publishing Through AI, Technology, And Global Collaboration

Akhilesh Ayer, CEO of Cactus Communications (CACTUS), discusses the company’s journey, the growing role of human–AI collaboration in scholarly publishing, and how technology is reshaping research communication and accessibility on a global scale. Excerpts.

AABP: Tell us about the journey of Cactus Communications and the transformation from the first academic servicing company to a multinational technology company.

Akhilesh: Cactus Communications (CACTUS) was founded in 2002 with a clear purpose: to ensure that valuable research and innovation can find expression, credibility, and global reach through publication and dissemination. At the time, many researchers were producing strong science but struggled to communicate it effectively or navigate the publishing process. CACTUS was created to reduce this friction by bringing together deep domain experts across disciplines to work closely with researchers, helping their work become publication-ready and reach reputable journals and the wider scientific community.

As we worked with researchers globally, it became clear that to serve a rapidly growing and increasingly complex research ecosystem, it was important to make early and sustained investments in technology. We set out on this path by building large-scale workflow systems, AI-augmented expert network management platforms, and tools that ensured quality, consistency, and speed across millions of research interactions.

We also recognized that strengthening research communication meant supporting the entire scholarly publishing value chain. CACTUS began working closely with publishers, institutions, and societies to address editorial efficiency, peer review workflows, research integrity, accessibility, and dissemination. Along this journey, we invested heavily in developing our own AI platform and selectively acquired companies that strengthened our AI and technological capabilities.

Although founded in India, our early growth in Japan shaped our global perspective and sensitivity to local research cultures, guiding our expansion across Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Today, CACTUS is a multinational technology company that combines human expertise and advanced AI to support every stage of the research lifecycle, helping science move from idea to impact at global scale.

AABP: What are the different solutions you offer, and how do you elevate the publishing ecosystem with technology and expertise?

Akhilesh: At CACTUS, we combine human expertise with advanced AI to empower every stakeholder in the research ecosystem including researchers, institutions, publishers, and societies.Using insights from a rich data lake built over two decades, we have developed AI-driven solutions that leverage Natural Language Processing, Applied Machine Learning, and Big Data to streamline research workflows and strengthen the publishing process.

For researchers and institutions, our solutions provide personalized support across discovery, writing, literature surveillance, funding and dissemination.Paperpal, our comprehensive AI writing and research assistant, supports students, researchers, and academic institutions with real-time writing and editing, translation, grammar correction, and submission readiness checks, all while preserving author’s original voice and intent. R Discovery accelerates literature search with personalized feeds and access to over 250 million articles, while Mind the Graph enables creation of high-quality scientific visuals effortlessly.

CACTUS also offers a comprehensive suite of technology-led solutions tailored to the needs of publishers across the entire publishing value chain.Through products such as Paperpal Preflight for Editorial Desk, we provide hybrid AI plus human screening of manuscripts for language quality, technical compliance, and potential research integrity issues before or during peer review. We also support publishers with high-quality human peer review services, journal matching, and cascading solutions to help manage growing submission volumes.

Beyond screening and review, we help publishers attract quality submissions, strengthen integrity checks, and improve research publication and dissemination through capabilities such as alt text generation, audio generation, rejection analysis, generative AI search,and data analysis. By embedding AI directly into editorial workflows, our solutions improve throughput, uphold quality standards, and reduce friction across the publication process, enabling faster and more reliable publication outcomes.

AABP: What is the biggest change or evolution you have witnessed that has contributed to your growth?

Akhilesh: One of the most significant shifts has been the ongoing evolution of scholarly publishing into a more collaborative, and transparent ecosystem. Authors, editors, institutions, and publishers are increasingly working together to make research more accessible, ethical, and inclusive. This continued transformation has played a pivotal role in shaping our growth and priorities.

Another major shift has been the sharp rise in global research submissions and the rapid adoption of AI tools across the publishing workflow. As authors increasingly depend on AI-powered writing and editing support, and publishers integrate AI for screening, research integrity checks, and workflow automation, CACTUS’ role at the intersection of authors and publishers has become even more critical.

Our AI and expertise driven solutions significantly enhance manuscript quality by improving language, structure, technical compliance, and research integrity checks. This results in reduced rework, fewer rejections, better AI detection and integrity screening, and ultimately higher acceptance rates. For publishers, this leads to smoother editorial workflows and faster decision-making and for authors, it reduces friction and increases their chance of publication success.

AABP: What are your views on human-AI collaboration, and in which areas has Cactus Communications leveraged this synergy?

Akhilesh: At CACTUS, we see AI as a critical enabler for researchers, editors, and publishers working under increasing pressure. The true value of AI lies in strengthening human expertise, not replacing it, and in enabling people to focus on higher order thinking, judgment, and decision making.

The scholarly publishing ecosystem is stretched thin by volume and complexity. At CACTUS, our approach is to use AI practically, to shoulder the repetitive, high-volume tasks such as initial integrity scans or assistive completeness checks in peer review, so that human experts can focus on what they do best. This means that our AI might flag a potential issue or streamline a workflow, but it is always a human expert who takes the final call, providing a deep contextual understanding, and upholding the ethical standards.

This human-in-the-loop partnership is built into everything we do. For instance, AI assists with initial quality screening and providing data points, but editors and reviewers retain full authority over substantive evaluation and decisions. The result not only showcases efficiency; but it also highlights trust and integrity at scale, ensuring that technology truly serves the researchers who are taking science ahead.

By combining AI-driven efficiency with human expertise and accountability, we improve quality, speed, and cost efficiency across the value chain, helping more high-quality research to move… forward with confidence and integrity. This approach recently earned CACTUS the ISO/IEC 42001:2023 certification for its AI Management System, validating our commitment to responsible, well-governed AI aligned with global best practices.

AABP: What are your views on accelerating India’s research and innovation?

Akhilesh: India has been steadily strengthening its research and innovation ecosystem over the past decade. The country’s growing emphasis on R&D, coupled with government-led initiatives such as One Nation One Subscription (ONOS), Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF), National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) reflect a commitment to advancing scientific progress and enhancing global competitiveness.

India’s next leap in research excellence will be driven by technology, collaboration, and greater accessibility. AI-powered tools can play a transformative role in improving access to global research, simplifying writing and publishing workflows, and supporting more transparent peer review. This will allow researchers to focus on innovation rather than administrative processes.

CACTUS remains committed to strengthening India’s research landscape through collaborations with institutions and investing in capacity-building initiatives that promote greater equity, impact, and visibility for Indian research. Our AI-powered solutions and ecosystem expertise help improve research productivity, minimize inaccuracies, and preserve the integrity of author’s voice. We also support the funding lifecycle through AI-enabled grant management systems that offer intelligent screening, reviewer matching, and analytics, contributing to a more efficient and equitable research ecosystem.

AABP: How is AI revolutionizing accessibility?

Akhilesh: AI is redefining accessibility in ways that were unimaginable a decade ago. Accessibility today is no longer limited to improving readability; it encompasses making research understandable, usable, and inclusive for diverse audiences. This shift is enabling true inclusivity in global knowledge sharing by ensuring that research can be understood, and accessed by everyone regardless of educational, linguistic or technological barriers.

In India, the launch of the One Nation One Subscription (ONOS) scheme marks an important step towards equitable access to knowledge. However, ONOS is only the beginning of the journey toward true accessibility. Achieving meaningful accessibility requires expanding availability through plain-language summaries, visual abstracts, multilingual outputs, and alternative formats that extend the reach of scientific knowledge to policymakers, educators, industry, and the broader public.

At the same time, governments, universities, and funders must ensure that ONOS itself is easy to navigate and benefits disadvantaged communities. Solutions such as AI-powered literature discovery tools built on top of ONOS, or automated alt-text, audio, and multimodal outputs can significantly enhance usability and remove barriers for students, researchers, and individuals with disabilities. Across Europe and Asia, CACTUS has been working with academic institutions and research ecosystems to improve how researchers discover, access, and use subscribed research content. Our AI-powered literature search tool, R Discovery, makes research easier to find and use, helping institutions create more inclusive and effective knowledge platforms.

AABP: What trends in AI do you see that will disrupt the publishing ecosystem?

Akhilesh: The publishing ecosystem has entered a phase of AI-enabled transformation, with technology starting to influence every stage of the research lifecycle. Key trends include the use of AI-assisted peer review to identify ethical risks and methodological inconsistencies earlier in the evaluation process. Integrity-checking tools are also becoming more sophisticated, helping publishers to identify image manipulation, citation anomalies, plagiarism, papermill activities, and other red flags with far greater accuracy.

Another emerging trend is the pace of innovation itself. With each publisher attempting to build their own proprietary systems, the result is slower progress, higher costs, and uneven outcomes across the industry. The ecosystem will benefit if publishers collaborate with industry-leading partners instead of creating more technical debt by developing isolated solutions.

However, the most significant disruption is likely to be cultural rather than technical. As AI accelerates the speed and scale of content creation, the sector will face increasing pressure to safeguard research integrity and maintain trust. The long-term impact of AI will depend on how effectively the ecosystem balances technological advancement with the foundational principles of transparency, ethics, and credibility in scholarly communication.

AABP: In today’s time, what do you think is the role of publishers in making research more accessible?

Akhilesh: The role of publishers has evolved significantly from being custodians of knowledge to enablers of transparency, discoverability, and reproducibility. Accessibility is often equated with open access, but its scope is much broader and deeply connected to inclusion. Publishers are uniquely positioned to advance this by supporting multilingual outputs, enabling diverse formats, and creating workflows that strengthen the discoverability of research.

Another critical role of publishers is establishing standards and frameworks that ensure research can be accessed, understood, and validated by a wider global audience. The future of publishing will depend on how effectively the ecosystem empowers every credible voice to participate in scholarly communication, regardless of language, geography, or institutional affiliation.

AABP: Would you like to highlight any specific examples of your work across scholarly publishing?

Akhilesh: Our work with a national research body in West Asia evolved into a large-scale service to strengthen research communication at a systematic level froman initial request for publication support. We developed a framework that combined author training, institutional capability building, and technology-enabled workflows, helping accelerate national scientific visibility.

Across Asia, we run multi-year programs with universities to enhance their global research presence. These initiatives include support in research planning, submission strategy, citation improvement, and faculty training. By blending editorial expertise with AI-driven manuscript assessment, we help institutions improve research quality in a structured and scalable way.

Our AI powered screening checks for authors, which assess language readiness and compliance with journal requirements, have reduced desk rejection by nearly 70 percent and helped institutions improve acceptance rate significantly. These checks ensure that manuscripts meet basic quality and compliance standards before submission, leading to smoother peer review and stronger outcomes.

We also support publishers through AI integrity checks that flag 5-15 percent of incoming manuscripts for serious ethical or scientific concerns. Identifying these issues early helps publishers manage risks, prevent potential retractions, and maintain trust in the research they publish.

As a result of our end-to-end support, around 71 percent of authors we work with achieve publication in Q1 and Q2 journals, reflecting how early guidance, integrity safeguards, and submission readiness together improve author outcomes and confidence.

AABP: How have you worked with global collaborations for innovation, growth and excellence?

Akhilesh: Global collaborations have been integral to CACTUS’ growth. We actively partner with all key stakeholders in the scholarly publishing ecosystem including leading publishers, universities, research institutions, and industry bodies to advance the entire research and publishing journey.

In Japan, our longstanding presence has earned us a trusted role in policy-related discussions with government bodies inviting us to share insights that shape national research and science communication initiatives. At CACTUS, we help streamline the research value chain by engaging with policymakers, improving submission quality through AI tools, supporting funding compliance and collaborating with industry bodies such as STM.

We also collaborate with universities as innovation partners, allowing us to pilot new approaches, test emerging technologies in real academic environments, and address institutional needs holistically. In India, we have established strong partnerships with institutions such as the IIMs, NITs, IISERs, and several major universities and government bodies to help enhance research output and global visibility.

Our cross-border approach ensures that AI capabilities developed in our R&D hub are tested with editorial and delivery teams globally, ensuring that our solutions address diverse research contexts.

AABP: Your message to the publishing industry.

Akhilesh: Technology must be viewed as a strategic enabler, not merely a cost lever. The future of publishing will be shaped by how effectively the industry integrates AI and automation with deep human expertise. At CACTUS, our value comes from decades of understanding researchers, authors, and editorial workflows.

Author expectations are shifting rapidly, and rising manuscript volumes have created significant pressure on peer reviewers and editorial teams. With our global footprint and infrastructure, CACTUS is well positioned to help publishers strengthen capacity while maintaining consistency, and quality across workflows.

As the ecosystem evolves, publishing must become more global, interoperable, and aligned with the needs of authors, institutions, and funders. Shared infrastructure, data, and standards will be critical. CACTUS is committed to partnering with publishers to build this foundation through AI-powered peer review support, reviewer discovery, author services, and efforts to elevate research from underrepresented markets.

The opportunity ahead lies in shaping a collaborative, technology-enabled ecosystem that amplifies trust, accelerates discovery, and makes scholarly communication more inclusive worldwide.