WENZEL relies on artificial intelligence

On January 20, 2025, the final event of the program funded by the Bavarian State Ministry of Digital Affairs took place in Munich AI Transfer Plus instead of. The focus was on the exchange between science, politics and industry about innovative AI solutions. For WENZEL Group GmbH & Co. KG, Klara Wenzel and Sebastian Lutz, Head of CT Technology, were on site to present the results of the project and progress in AI development.

‍

Insights into WENZEL's AI development
As part of the program, WENZEL has developed an intelligent chatbot that is to be used for internal and external knowledge management. The aim is both to optimize internal work processes and to improve communication with customers. This relieves support and sales teams and increases customer service efficiency. The project impressively demonstrates how medium-sized companies can benefit from AI — through sustainable process optimization and innovative solutions.

‍

‍

Sebastian Lutz explained the particular challenges of implementing the project in the wrap-up plenary session:

‍

“Preprocessing the data in particular was a challenge when implementing our chatbot platform, as the quality of the answers depends largely on this. We have now reached a very satisfactory level and want to make the application available to users as a next step. ”

‍

Cooperation with THWS
Special thanks go to Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Arndt Balzer and his team from Würzburg-Schweinfurt University of Applied Sciences (THWS), who have supported the project with their expertise and made a significant contribution to its success. Cooperation between science and industry has proven to be a decisive success factor.

‍

Presentation at the closing event
At the WENZEL stand, the AI solution was presented using a poster that summarized the most important use cases and learnings of the project. A particular highlight was the visit by the Bavarian Minister of Digital Affairs, Dr. Fabian Mehring, who personally found out about the results of the program and sought an exchange with the participating companies.

‍

‍
 
The AI Transfer Plus program
The AI Transfer Plus program is a unique funding program in Germany that holistically accompanies companies into the AI era. It is funded by the Bavarian State Ministry of Digital Affairs and by appliedAI Initiative GmbH, Europe's largest initiative for trustworthy AI technology, coordinates. Participating companies receive support from regional AI centers located at universities across Bavaria. Within nine months, companies are supported in the areas of knowledge development, strategy development and use case implementation. Since the start of the program in 2021, numerous companies have already been successfully introduced to the introduction of AI.

‍

Learnings and outlook
The findings show that the preprocessing and qualitative preparation of data are decisive for the success of AI projects. Through iterative development, the chatbot could be specifically adapted to the needs of the company and users. This not only creates a solid basis for further AI initiatives, but also sensitizes the workforce to the potential of artificial intelligence.

‍

Images courtesy of ©Fernanda Vilela.