“Artificial intelligence is transforming companies, products, and entire value chains. For technological potential to translate into sustainable benefits in practice, it takes more than just good ideas and powerful models. It requires quality, transparency, security, regulatory guidance, and trust,” says Bürkle.

This is exactly where the AI Quality & Testing Hub comes in. The startup helps companies and organizations evaluate and refine their AI systems in a practical way before potential problems arise in production, with customers, or during audits. With the AI Quality Testing Framework, AIQ has launched a product that allows a wide variety of AI models to be tested for reliability and security.

AI Quality as a Critical Factor for Businesses

Joachim Bürkle studied computer science at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology from 1990 to 1995. His career has taken him to companies including Bosch Telecom USA, Nortel, and Ericsson. From March 2014 to June 2026, Bürkle worked at DB Systel, most recently serving for more than six years as a product owner in the “Innovations & Ventures” unit.

At the AIQ, Bürkle succeeds Dr. Cord Schlötelburg, who will be taking on a new role within the VDE.

“In the three years since its inception, the AI Quality & Testing Hub has carried out projects with various partners and now offers the AI Quality Testing Framework—a system that can be flexibly applied across all industries and at all levels of testing,” says Dr. Beate Mand, Deputy Chair of the Executive Board of the VDE Group and Chair of the AIQ Supervisory Board.

Bürkle is the right manager to establish the framework in the market now. “Artificial intelligence presents a major opportunity for companies that also want to demonstrate that their AI is powerful, secure, and trustworthy. Here, we at VDE—through our joint startup with the state of Hesse—are a partner to the business community.”

Hesse’s Minister for Digital Affairs, Prof. Dr. Kristina Sinemus, also sees increasing regulation as a key driver of AI quality: “Now that the provisions of the AI Regulation are gradually coming into effect, AI quality and compliance are becoming a real business case.” With AIQ, the State of Hesse and the VDE recognized the importance of these issues early on and built up key expertise to support businesses and public administration. Under the new leadership, the company’s strategy will continue, and the company will be guided into the next phase of its development.”

For Bürkle, a key advantage of the AIQ lies in bringing together different perspectives. “It is precisely the collaboration between the State of Hesse and the VDE that allows us to combine different perspectives,” says Bürkle. For him, it is crucial that the work yields tangible benefits. “Our goal is to support companies and organizations in developing AI systems responsibly, testing them thoroughly, and successfully implementing them,” he says.