Mrs. Loos, in mid-September 2020 the Consortium Project “Artificial Intelligence: Understand – Apply – Benefit“ began. In a few words, what can people imagine?

At the beginning of the year, we published an AI study that looked at fields of action and general potential of AI in Saxony. Building on this, we now want to go deeper into the topic of AI with companies of different sizes, from different industries and with individual challenges. The aim is to find the individually optimal way to use Artificial Intelligence for each partner.

What are the advantages for the companies?

In the project, we work together with the knowledge service provider KEX AG to offer various added values for the establishment of AI in the participating companies. This includes an individual AI maturity assessment by experts – from an economic, technical and organizational point of view. In addition, competence development, for example in a 5-day AI intensive course, plays an important role. But we will also implement prototypes of selected use cases, derive concrete solutions and next steps for the companies and develop roadmaps.

What long-term goals do you expect from the project?

Our overall goal is to enable companies to understand how they can use AI to gain competitive advantages. The goal is to inspire even more companies in Saxony and beyond to use AI than before. For some, the wide range of applications opens up completely new possibilities for accelerating their product and process development. For others, it helps them to position themselves with business partners and customers as innovative companies.

In your opinion, how will AI develop in the coming years?

AI is nothing new, but in my opinion it will continue to establish itself in the economy in the coming years. AI will not be a panacea in the future, but will remain one of several possible approaches to solve a problem. Nevertheless, the methods are becoming an increasingly exciting tool for companies to differentiate themselves even more from their competitors. For the microelectronics location Saxony, for example, I see the development of AI hardware as a promising topic and an opportunity to secure the outstanding position of the Free State of Saxony in the future as well.

Which project by colleagues from other Fraunhofer Institutes do you find particularly exciting?

There are always many interesting activities at Fraunhofer. Against the background of the currently omnipresent topic of corona, some institutes have really creative and clever project ideas. For me, this includes not only the Corona Warning App, whose development was also accompanied by Fraunhofer. I am particularly interested in projects that are dedicated to the topic of resilience – for example of supply chains, business processes or systems. By the way, this is also an area that we are working on at Fraunhofer IIS / EAS. For me, this is an important point, not only to master these and other crises, but also to grow from them.

If you were allowed to meet a famous person – alive or dead: Who would it be and why?

I recently read the biography of Michelle Obama and was deeply impressed by her personality and the competence she radiates in so many areas. She is definitely someone I would like to meet personally.

About Anne Loos

Anne Loos studied economics at the Technical University of Dresden and obtained her Master of Business Administration at the Technical University of Chemnitz. Afterwards she gained professional experience in project management, among others at PricewaterhouseCoopers AG and futureSAX, the innovation platform of the Free State of Saxony. Since 2016, she has been working for the Dresden-based EAS division of Fraunhofer IIS in the area of marketing and business development, where she has been in charge of business development since last year. In this context, she is, among other things, the first point of contact for customer projects on Artificial Intelligence.