AI Marketplace

Task and objective

The AI Marketplace project was a research project funded with a grant of 11 million euros from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. An ecosystem for artificial intelligence (AI) in product development was created in the project, which ran for three and a half years. A key component was the digital platform developed during this time, which brings together industrial users of AI and solution experts, provides a knowledge platform covering every aspect of AI in product development and offers support services.
The prostep ivip Association was one of 21 consortium partners involved in developing the platform and the ecosystem. Core tasks included the identification of use cases for AI in product development, the analysis of engineering IT standards with regard to their AI-specific usability and broad dissemination of the project results.

Focus and concrete results 2023

The publicly funded research project was brought to a successful close in mid-2023 following a six-month, cost-neutral extension. The work performed in 2023 therefore focused on finalizing the platform's functions and ensuring smooth transition of the work performed in the project to commercial operation. The company AI Marketplace GmbH was founded in 2022 for this purpose and took over operation of the platform following the end of the project. The prostep ivip Association and the other partners in the research consortium are not involved in the commercial enterprise. The technical work packages were successfully completed by prostep ivip in 2022. Therefore focus in 2023 was placed on a variety of marketing activities with the aim of expanding and consolidating the community.

What the project coordinator says

Having run for 3.5 years, the outcome of the AI Marketplace research project is extremely positive. The continued high level of interest shown in the project results, such as the reference process for product development, the use cases for AI in product development and the analysis of engineering standards, demonstrate the high level of practical relevance.
Collaboration within the project consortium this year was again excellent – something that cannot be taken for granted with a group this size. Another example of the AI Marketplace team's good, long-term collaboration is the successfully established AI Day, which prostep ivip organized again in 2023 together with it's owl – even though the AI Marketplace project had already been brought to a successful close.
We wish AI Marketplace GmbH all the best for the continued successful operation of the AI Marketplace.