The Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Economics, Labor and Tourism is funding 16 regional AI labs in Baden-Württemberg with a total of 3.1 million euros as part of the “Action Program AI for SMEs.” Among them, the KI-Lab Kurpfalz of the Heidelberg Technology Park will receive nearly 200,000 euros.

“With the AI Labs, we want to ensure that economically viable AI solutions are put to use even faster, thereby also strengthening the competitiveness of our SMEs,” said Economics Minister Dr. Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut. The global market for AI solutions for business is developing extraordinarily dynamically. Worldwide, AI value creation is expected to increase fivefold from the current level of around 100 billion U.S. dollars to around 500 billion U.S. dollars by 2028, which corresponds to annual growth rates of around 40 percent.

The regional AI labs are intended to inform SMEs in particular about AI use cases as well as opportunities and challenges. They are also intended to contribute to the visibility of “AI made in Baden-Württemberg” and bring together AI companies, research institutions and SME users in the regions. According to the Monitoring Report 2020 – Wirtschaft Digital Baden-Württemberg, 8 percent of companies in the state were using AI at the time. In addition, 34 percent of companies across all industries planned to use AI by 2030.