BMIMI secures continued funding: AI-Mobile Austria tours through Austria - focusing on industrial companies Experience Artificial Intelligence on-site - mobile demo and workshop studio enters the next phase
The AI-Mobile Austria brings Artificial Intelligence (AI) where it creates value: directly into the industry. In Austria's first mobile AI studio, real applications demonstrate how AI is already supporting quality assurance, production planning, document analysis, logistics, and occupational safety – practical, dialogue-oriented, and accessible.
The project is supported by a strong founding consortium: Fraunhofer Austria, the Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna), the Metaltechnology Industry Association (FMTI), and the PRO-GE Production Union. The continued funding secured by the Federal Ministry for Innovation, Mobility and Infrastructure (BMIMI) allows this successful format to be continued and expanded throughout Austria. Thus, the AI-Mobile contributes significantly to the transformation of the Austrian industry, making it fit for Artificial Intelligence. It strengthens the competitiveness of the location and prepares professionals specifically for dealing with future technologies.
“The Federal Ministry for Innovation, Mobility and Infrastructure plays a key role in the further development of the Austrian AI sector. With the establishment of the 'AI Factory Austria', we have already achieved an important milestone. Artificial Intelligence is a cross-sectional technology that can provide companies with crucial competitive advantages while also bringing new solutions to major societal challenges. The AI Mobile brings these possibilities to where they need to be used: to companies. Therefore, I am pleased that despite necessary budget cuts, we have secured the funding from the BMIMI,” emphasizes Minister of Innovation Minister Peter Hanke.
The AI Mobile thrives on its mobile concept: With a specially adapted VW ID. Buzz Cargo, interested industrial companies are visited and advised directly on site. Based on the experiences of Fraunhofer IAO in Germany, the mobile setting offers a low-threshold access to Artificial Intelligence: Technologies can be immediately tried out, specific application cases experienced, and critically discussed. A modular catalogue of demonstrators, which is continuously expanded, allows companies to select relevant topics.
Since December last year, the AI Mobile has been touring throughout Austria and has visited over 50 companies and events so far. The focus is on employees, works councils, managers, training officers, and apprentices. The target groups are actively involved in order to convey a basic understanding of AI, reduce reservations, and openly discuss opportunities and risks. Especially for small and medium-sized enterprises, the AI Mobile offers practical orientation in a complex field: It shows mature, economically applicable solutions and promotes dialogue on an equal level.
Particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises, the format offers a low-threshold access to the technology. Because entering AI is often fraught with uncertainty: between inflated expectations and real challenges, there is a lack of holistic overview and a professionally based assessment. The AI Mobile provides clarity - it shows which solutions are economically and participatively applicable.
The AI Mobile continues to be bookable nationwide at no cost thanks to the BMIMI funding - both for half-day training formats including workshops directly at the company and for use at professional conferences, trade fairs, or public formats. Target groups are manufacturing sector companies, but also cross-sector organisations.
The project partners underline the added value of the format:
“AI is a key technology of the future, which - when used correctly - has significant potential to increase the competitiveness of Austrian companies and secure the economic location. At Fraunhofer Austria, we see ourselves as partners in digital transformation and as bridge builders between research and the economy. We bring innovation and know-how to the industry. This principle guides us in all our projects, but especially in the AI Mobile Austria. I am very pleased that the BMIMI supports this important initiative for innovation transfer into the industry” , says Sebastian Schlund, Managing Director of Fraunhofer Austria.
“The AI Mobile Austria offers TU Vienna the unique opportunity to transfer its expertise in the field of artificial intelligence directly into practice. We are particularly pleased to be able to continue offering a mobile information solution for employees and employers, as well as for small and medium-sized businesses, on the challenging topic of AI. With the AI Mobile, we are putting our motto 'Technology for People' into practice and bringing forward-looking technologies into the service of society” , emphasizes Peter Ertl, Vice Rector of the TU Vienna.
“A strong industrial location needs technological excellence. And it needs the ability to bring innovation into the everyday life of operations. This is precisely what the AI Mobile achieves: It translates the topic of Artificial Intelligence into operational reality - practical, understandable, and accessible for companies of all sizes, from apprentices to management. Especially for small and medium-sized industrial companies, it is an important lever to strengthen their competitiveness, secure value creation in the country, and actively shape the digital transformation” , says Christian Knill, Chairman of FMTI.
“In production, Artificial Intelligence is on the rise with a multitude of application areas: Autonomous forklifts, cobots, or programs that record every screw in a product and even document the torque during assembly. AI-based assistance systems can also make work safer or less burdensome for people. It is important that there is transparency in the company about what data an AI application collects and processes and which other systems it is connected to. The AI Mobile project should therefore make companies more aware that digital transformation only works with people. Because it is still often recognised too late that the early involvement of the works council and employees is crucial for the successful use of AI applications” , says Reinhold Binder, Federal Chairman of the Production Union (PRO-GE).