This is supposed to be a revolution on a par with smartphones. Bosch has an idea for using AI

• Bosch will invest more than €2.5 billion in the development of artificial intelligence by the end of 2027.
• The company aims to achieve sales exceeding €10 billion by 2035 thanks to assisted and automated driving solutions based on this technology.
• - The development of AI enables faster innovation and commercialization, says Stefan Hartung, CEO of Bosch.

- The development of artificial intelligence gives us new opportunities, it accelerates the implementation of innovations and business - said Stefan Hartung, Chairman of the Board of Management of Bosch . By the end of 2027, the company will invest more than EUR 2.5 billion in the development of solutions based on artificial intelligence.

According to the company, artificial intelligence will enable faster implementation of innovations and an increase in the number of products and services offered – it will enable greater safety of automated driving, reliability of production processes and simplification of everyday life of consumers, both professional and private.

Over the past five years, Bosch has filed patents for more than 1,500 AI-based solutions, which the company says are possible by combining Bosch’s unique expertise in industrial processes and technologies with the capabilities of artificial intelligence.

Good solutions do not always arise from good assumptions

The vast industrial experience and available amount of data should, according to Stefan Hartung, help Europe take the leading role in creating new solutions based on artificial technology. However, he is concerned whether Europe itself will be among the leaders in the production of solutions based on artificial intelligence. It is slowing down due to excessively extensive regulations.

- As we know, Europe wants to build uniform regulations ensuring the credibility and responsibility of artificial intelligence. These assumptions are fundamentally correct for two reasons: firstly, AI is not created for its own sake, but to serve people, and secondly, this technology will only become economically viable if buyers trust it - admits Stefan Hartung.

He points out, however, that while we are still working on creating regulations, on other continents companies are already working on new artificial intelligence capabilities .

In the European Union, manufacturers do not know how they can develop artificial intelligence, because the announced regulations are still missing, so it is not known what standards the solutions must meet. Detailed regulations are to be introduced later, which, according to Stefan Hartung, is causing concern especially for manufacturers of high-risk systems, such as autonomous driving. In addition, in the EU, artificial intelligence solutions are to be constantly monitored, documented and reported

- This mixture of regulatory uncertainty and bureaucracy makes the European Union an increasingly unattractive place for companies working on AI solutions - emphasizes Stefan Hartung.

Bad regulations can completely destroy industries and technologies.

As an example, we can cite the AI ​​Index published by Stanford University, according to which last year 40 significant AI solutions were created in the United States, 15 in China, and 3 in Europe.

- By creating regulations that contradict the directions of technological development, we can "regulate" our industry to death - warns Stefan Hartung.

The issue of regulation is all the more important for Bosch because the company devotes a lot of space in its work to technologies that are exposed to regulatory uncertainty - it wants to use the advantages of AI, among others, in the area of ​​assisted and automated driving. Although the boom of this market is still ahead of us, the company has no doubt that automated driving is the subject of the future.

Bosch already offers the right solutions today, and sales of software, sensor technology, high-performance computers and network components are expected to double to more than €10 billion by the middle of the next decade.

AI increases safety and shortens product development time

AI is used in automated driving to visualize the environment around the vehicle and plan the route. Thanks to this, the system predicts the behavior of other road users and suggests the next steps to ensure that passengers reach their destination safely. AI not only increases safety, but also significantly shortens the time to develop new products.

Bosch says it collects sensor data in a unique database, which enables faster and more efficient training of generative AI. This in turn contributes to the creation of reliable driving assistants and automated driving functions in the future.

In production, Bosch is already focusing on the next stage of AI development: AI agents (agentic AI), or assistants that can make their own decisions and actions. " Agents can give AI a boost similar to what the smartphone gave the internet, " said Tanja Rueckert, a member of the Bosch management board.

The revolutionary technology enables different processes to run in parallel. Several AI agents can form a team, a multi-agent system supervised by humans or a coordinating agent. Bosch is already using this possibility in its plants – multi-agent systems monitor production equipment, predict the need for maintenance and optimize staff planning . - We have reached the next level. The result is a reduction in unplanned downtimes and an overall increase in productivity - said Tanja Rueckert.

The revolution will be the change in communication between machines and people

The company is developing a platform that will allow you to create your own multi-agent systems, even with minimal programming knowledge. The goal is to increase production efficiency, reduce costs and enable flexible adaptation to market requirements. Such an integrated and coordinated approach could result in savings of millions of euros. The solution will be available in autumn 2025.

Tanja Rueckert emphasized that the savings are not to result from employee layoffs, but from better supervision of AI agents over the process, anticipating possible problems or damage, and thus avoiding costly production downtime, as well as reducing the level of costs and generated waste.

Tanja Rueckert also stated that another revolutionary element will be the change in communication between machines and humans, which will be enabled by the use of artificial intelligence.

- Agentic AI can not only improve individual applications, but also intelligently coordinate many sub-processes. This in itself is a huge advance. In addition, it is much easier to interact with AI: agent systems often only require a description of the desired goals. Usually, lengthy and expensive modeling can be dispensed with. This significantly lowers the entry barriers, especially for companies without extensive knowledge of AI, says Tanja Rueckert.