Germany’s industry is currently undergoing a digital transformation – and with Industrial AI, a powerful tool is being leveraged to achieve this. Industrial AI is creating a new level of dynamics, requiring companies to be more agile and faster, and to empower each other. 

With Industrial AI, we are mutually ensuring competitiveness, sovereignty, and resilience. To achieve this, we are harnessing the work being done by Plattform Industrie 4.0 as well as innovations by the 8ra and Manufacturing-X initiatives, using these as a foundation for integrating AI into the application. After all, Industrial AI only scales data when these data are shared securely, independently, and interoperably in line with European values in decentralized cloud–edge infrastructures. Together, these innovations strengthen SMEs, hidden champions, and major industrial players in equal measure – thus creating the Industrial AI ecosystem for industry ­– Empowering Industrial AI ecosystems.

Industrial AI in focus at the joint booth and at the Leaders’ Dialogue 

Throughout ten years of mutual work, the Plattform Industrie 4.0 has created the foundation now being used for AI-supported applications. What this means in concrete terms is what visitors can discover at the more than 500-square-meter booth. 

Innovative projects such as RoX are already building the interface between a data ecosystem and Industrial AI today. RoX is presenting this visually with the help of a demonstrator for AI-supported robotic systems. SOOFI (Sovereign Open Source Foundation Models), a project first started in late 2025, shows how it is laying the groundwork for an independent European AI ecosystem. CUBE-C is presenting an interactive demonstrator for cloud-supported, real-time road signage recognition for vehicles to improve the quality of traffic sign recognition. 

Moreover, interested persons can learn more on site about the new major European project IPCEI-AI. The aim of this Important Project of Common European Interest is a high-performance AI ecosystem in Europe.

Industrial AI is also a key topic at the Leaders’ Dialogue taking place on April 21 at the Center Stage of Hannover Messe. Here is where high-caliber representatives from politics and industry will discuss the status of this ambitious transformation project: How will we scale Industrial AI and digital added value – and what is needed to transfer the spirit of enthusiasm into real impact?

8ra initiative: Foundation for sovereign infrastructure

European technological sovereignty with the use of open standards and federated infrastructures, instead of dependence on individual providers – in an open and sovereign „Multi-Provider Cloud-Edge Continuum“, cloud and edge resources are being used seamlessly across providers and country borders. At the Plattform Industrie 4.0 booth, the 8ra initiative is presenting the latest status of implementation and giving an outlook into how the existing developments of the cloud–edge infrastructure are being linked to the new IPCEI-AI initiative.

The interactive 8ra centralized demonstrator (SAP, Siemens, Deutsche Telekom) visualizes the 8ra architecture and ecosystem with the use of various application scenarios. PoQuaSIA (Rheinmetall) and CUBE-C (Bosch) are demonstrating that teleoperations and AI in traffic are already a reality, and that cloud–edge networks are already guaranteeing today extremely low latency and the highest security. 

In addition to RoX, the GREEN-Twin project is bringing decentralized ecosystems for AI-based robotics and digital twins to SMEs to monitor energy. 

Manufacturing-X: Industrial data ecosystems are a reality

The Manufacturing-X booth area is presenting the implementation status of independent, interoperable industrial data ecosystems. What began as a vision is now becoming a reality, and demonstrators show how collaboration across branches and ecosystem borders is already working today. 

A highlight at the booth is the mutual demonstrator from Semiconductor-X and Decide4ECO. It is showing live for the first time how two independent data ecosystems can be seamlessly integrated with one another and how the exchange of data works in real life. 

Factory-X is presenting, with the use of an interactive visualization, various MX Port configurations and is thus making it clear how different application scenarios (e.g. sharing data with individual suppliers, sharing confidential data along a supply chain, or sharing non-sensitive data) can be realized in a flexible, modular, and scalable way using the building blocks of the interoperable Manufacturing-X framework architecture.

Cofinity-X, Smart Systems Hub, and the Industrial Digital Twin Association (IDTA) are currently taking together the decisive step from theory to industrial application, and showing how data ecosystems can continue to be operationalized and used across the spectrum of industry applications. 

Visit us at our joint booth at Plattform Industrie 4.0 from April 20 to 24, 2026 – in Hall 13, Booth C24. 

Partners at the booth:

8ra Initiative | Aerospace-X | Antrieb 4.0 | ApeiroRA | Catena-X Next | Chem-X | Cofinity-X | Construct-X | Cube-C | Decide4ECO | Ecosystem Mobility | EdgeConnect | Energy Data-X | Factory-X | Fluid 4.0 | GoGlobal2 | GREEN-Twin | International Manufacturing-X | Kicks for Edge | nxtAIM | Plattform Material Digital | PoQuaSIA | RoX | SCALE-MX | Semiconductor-X | Smart Systems Hub | SOOFI