German industry grapples with AI at trade fair

Synthetic intelligence is ready to carry sweeping change to fashionable life, however at an industrial honest in Germany many corporations surprise how they match into the tech revolution.

“We use ChatGPT a bit,” shrugged one enterprise consultant, from a metals processor based mostly in southern Germany, at this week’s Hannover Messe.

The expo grouping 4,000 companies promised guests methods to “expertise the longer term” and discover AI’s “sensible functions in areas similar to manufacturing, robotics and vitality, all at their very own tempo.”

One eye-catching show—a big Rolls-Royce plane engine whose manufacturing was optimized by AI from Microsoft and German firm Siemens—drew many curious onlookers.

However on the sidelines, the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which are the spine of Germany’s financial system—the so-called Mittelstand—usually had much less to say on the topic.

Andrea Raaf of Herz Aetztechnik, which makes use of lasers to make car and electronics components, mentioned AI was lower than the job.

“The components we manufacture are very particular person, so we won’t actually see the purpose of AI,” she informed AFP.

Others have been extra engaged, together with family-owned Koerner Electrical, which mentioned it has been utilizing AI for the previous three years.

Standing in entrance of custom-built circuit boards, its technical director Dennis Koerner mentioned AI had helped with the manufacturing course of and to research optical and electrical measurements.

“We now have written a small AI with which we are able to generate programming a lot sooner,” mentioned Koerner.

“It was essential to get sooner and extra secure outcomes while not having a number of staff for the job.”

Lagging behind

As soon as a byword for top expertise, German {industry} is aware of that it’s lagging behind US and Chinese language competitors in the case of the digital applied sciences that can dominate the subsequent century.

Many German companies stay not sure the way to use the quickly evolving expertise within the type of high-end engineering they specialise in.

“It is necessary to not shrink back from introducing AI,” mentioned Agnes Heftberger, managing director of Microsoft Germany. “In any other case Germany will discover itself lagging behind within the face of worldwide competitors.”

Additionally featured on the honest have been so-called “AI brokers,” programs which autonomously carry out duties from writing code to helping with conversations.

Microsoft gives programs to place machine information into easy language and establish upkeep wants upfront.

However Loke Olsen, an automation engineer at Verify A/S, a Danish subcontractor to the pharmaceutical {industry}, was considerably skeptical about AI’s potential errors and talent to right itself.

“We now have to ensure that AI works 100% as a result of now we have to adjust to very strict well being laws,” he informed AFP.

For some, price is a matter. Koerner mentioned that it looks as if “we are able to hardly afford” a few of the AI merchandise being showcased on the honest.

‘Sport changer’

Virtually half of German industrial companies use AI for some enterprise features, a Microsoft survey discovered, however most are way more reluctant to make use of it to develop their merchandise.

Solely 7% of machine builders plan to undertake generative AI to assist with product design, mentioned a research by the machinists’ affiliation VDMA.

“There are some preliminary makes an attempt, however funding continues to be too low,” mentioned Guido Reimann, VDMA’s deputy managing director of software program and digitalization.

The research discovered that GenAI, by optimizing effectivity and boosting gross sales, might increase the sector’s annual income by many billions of euros.

However though 52% of managers noticed AI as a possible “recreation changer,” it mentioned, “its use has thus far usually been restricted to experimental or proof-of-concept initiatives.”

The highest issues listed have been an absence of information high quality, shortages of AI specialists and technical challenges.

Germany’s Fraunhofer analysis institute has been touring Germany since 2023, exhibiting producers concrete AI functions from carpentry to well being care.

“It usually helps to community smaller corporations with one another as a result of AI all the time works with information,” mentioned institute spokeswoman Juliane Segedi.

“The extra information you could have, the higher an AI can change into. And in case you have an analogous downside that must be solved, you may pool the information to give you an answer that’s good for everybody.”

Different challenges stay. Many individuals concern AI will at some point steal their job.

An necessary step, Segedi mentioned, will likely be convincing labor unions to not “see AI as a menace however as one thing that may contribute to their concepts.”

© 2025 AFP