VoBAKI

VoBAKI - Procedure for the evaluation and selection of AI competencies in SMEs

2025, 110 pages

Project no. 568
Final report

Abstract:

The economic potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in the manufacturing industry is now undisputed. The technology has become an important tool in the manufacturing industry for achieving a variety of corporate goals. However, the implementation of AI projects often only considers the development of AI models, which is why many project results gather dust as prototypes and are not successfully applied in processes or products. One reason for this is that there is no holistic view of the AI application across its entire life cycle. In particular, tasks that arise during operation and when integrating an AI application into a company's processes and products are often unknown or underestimated.

SMEs are also faced with the challenge of finding the AI skills required for the tasks involved

- not only for the application itself, but also for upstream and downstream processes.

- processes.

The aim of the "VoBAKI" research project is to enable companies to providethe tasks and skills required throughout the entire life cycle of an AI application and to derive suitable sourcing strategies. As part of the project, a comprehensive process model was developed with the participation of the project committee and other experts from the business world using various complementary methods (including literature research, interviews, workshops and qualitative content analyses). The results include the collection of operational goals for the use of AI applications and the description of AI use cases. Another key result is the detailed development of roles, tasks and required competencies in the AI life cycle. Furthermore, as a result of the research activities carried out, prerequisites for AI projects are named and central criteria are explained that should be taken into account when selecting strategies for the procurement of relevant AI skills. Further results are impact matrices that show the correlations between corporate goals and sourcing strategies, as well as recommendations for organizational design. The developed process model supports SMEs and other companies with different levels of AI experience in the successful evaluation and selection of sourcing strategies for AI skills and the implementation of AI projects.

The goal of the research project has been achieved.