"Almost two thirds of our experts are of the opinion that we in Germany lack the skills to use AI technologies efficiently," said VDI President Dr. Volker Kefer at the start of the Hannover Messe 2019. A recent VDI member survey on artificial intelligence (AI) shows this sobering result: only 14% of respondents still see Germany in a leading position in international competition - a drop of 53% compared to the previous year. "This strongly suggests that Germany is losing ground in the global AI competition," continued Kefer.

The top position among the leading AI nations is likely to change hands soon: Where just under a year ago there was still a large gap of 25% between the USA and China, the Asians will be able to close the gap significantly. Currently, 67% of experts still see the USA in the lead and 61% China.

In order for Germany to catch up in AI, the grand coalition must initiate the investments promised as part of its AI strategy as quickly as possible. Kefer: "We still don't know how much the funding will actually be or from which pots it will come and, above all, where it will actually go. We only know that 100 new professorships are to be created. I wonder where the corresponding staff will come from."

The German government must follow up the well-intentioned AI strategy with concrete action as quickly as possible. "It would be negligent to continue to lose ground in AI. The VDI is therefore calling for sufficient funding to be invested specifically in the area of industrial applications of AI technologies and in strengthening general AI expertise. AI methods must be added to the toolbox of engineers as quickly as possible, comparable to mathematics and physics. After all, engineers play a key role in integrating AI into technical systems." 80 percent of respondents in the survey agree with this.

Empty labor market
In addition to the lack of expertise, the empty labor market is also not contributing to an upward trend in Germany in the near future. In the fourth quarter of 2018, there was a monthly average of 126,000 vacancies on the engineering and IT job market. A third of these - just under 43,000 - were in the IT sector alone. Compared to the same quarter of the previous year, this corresponds to an increase in IT vacancies of around six percent.

Many companies, especially SMEs, are desperately looking for qualified personnel to implement IT and digitalization projects. The association warns that the high demand and low supply of these specialists means that many projects cannot be realized and Germany is losing ground in international competition. In the AI sector in particular, this represents a missed opportunity, as according to the VDI survey, half of German industry would prefer to rely on domestic AI providers for data protection reasons.

View of the potential of AI applications is shifting
"The global competition for the best position in terms of artificial intelligence applications has begun," says Dr. Kurt D. Bettenhausen, Member of the Board of the VDI/VDE Society for Measurement and Automation Technology and Chairman of the Interdisciplinary Committee for Digital Transformation at the VDI. "We now need AI applications in Germany that bring the right value proposition and benefit people. This is exactly what we see confirmed in our survey."

The VDI survey shows a strong shift in the assessment of the potential of AI applications: Away from driving, flying and robotics towards traffic liquefaction, diagnostics, the relief of people through to education and security and an improvement in public administration. In other words, applications that are firstly technically feasible, secondly likely to meet with a high level of acceptance and at the same time promise very high benefits. as