The Research Council Industrie 4.0 and the Plattform Industrie 4.0 criticise the use of the term “Industry 5.0”. Industry 4.0 was presented to the general public for the first time at the Hannover Messe 2011 with an industrial model that is still highly topical and is spreading worldwide. The Research Council Industrie 4.0 and the Plattform Industrie 4.0 criticise the unfounded and unnecessary use of the term “Industry 5.0”, which contains no new content and contributes to uncertainty. Industrie 4.0 stands for the fourth industrial revolution and its ongoing transformation, which encompasses all areas of society.

The term “Industry 5.0” has been used more frequently recently to focus on “human-centricity”, among other things. However, according to the Research Council Industrie 4.0 and the Plattform Industrie 4.0, the term Industrie 4.0 has always had the benefit for society as its most important goal. In addition, the term Industrie 4.0 stands for the fourth industrial revolution, which, like all previous revolutions, will take a long time to be fully realised. This includes people making use of new technologies and value creation models. The typical software abbreviation “4.0” symbolises the importance of software in this process but should not be understood merely as a version number and replaced by “5.0”.