German Companies Tap 50 Years of Factory Data for AI Modernization as Adoption Still Lags
Updated
Updated · Financial Times · Nov 11
German Companies Tap 50 Years of Factory Data for AI Modernization as Adoption Still Lags
3 articles · Updated · Financial Times · Nov 11
Summary
German manufacturers are starting to turn decades of factory records into AI tools to improve product quality, speed development and cut costs as the sector tries to regain competitiveness.
Herding—an industrial filtration company with 400 employees and more than €60 million in 2025 sales—says its roughly 50 years of production data gives it an edge, while also using AI to digitize handwritten reports and safety files.
Safelog has reorganized around an internal AI platform rolled out earlier this year, and Delo is using image analysis and data on 200 chemical properties to detect defects and develop new formulations with fewer samples.
Adoption remains limited: only 1% of Mittelstand companies use AI to automate machinery and 3% use it for data analytics, according to KfW, partly because many SMEs lack clean, usable data and face costly digital overhauls.
The push comes after years of post-pandemic stagnation, high energy and labor costs, weak infrastructure and stronger Chinese competition, though public spending and McKinsey's outlook suggest Germany could still emerge as a European AI automation leader.