German industry doubts AI pioneering role

Artificial intelligence (AI) plays an important role for a large proportion of business models in the digital economy. This is the result of a study recently presented by the German Digital Economy Association (BVDW).

This summer, when the German government published the cornerstones of its AI strategy, it stated that the German economy should play a global pioneering role in the field of AI.

Only seven percent of the BVDW experts surveyed believe that Germany can play this pioneering role - 78 percent do not. This is probably also due to the current regulatory framework, for example in the area of data protection: The clear majority (61 percent) state that this does not meet the requirements and possibilities of AI.

Awareness of the business relevance of AI has penetrated into companies: 78 percent of the experts surveyed in the BVDW study state that AI already plays an important or rather important role for their business models.

On average, digital companies expect revenue growth of 22 percent.

"AI is not just another technical development. Rather, it is a grassroots innovation that will change numerous business models and enable new ones"

says BVDW President Matthias Wahl, who presented the results at the start of DMEXCO in Cologne. Although awareness of the relevance has set in, more than half of digital experts (52 percent) believe that their companies are not in a position to fully exploit the potential of AI.