Dr. Tanja Rückert
Back in 2020, Bosch made a commitment at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas that by 2025 every product and solution in its portfolio would either contain AI or be developed or manufactured with its help. It was a promise that was met two years earlier than planned, according to the firm’s Dr. Tanja Rückert, member of the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH, who told this year’s Vegas gathering:
Our heavy investments in this area are bearing fruit. By the beginning of the next decade, we aim to generate sales of over €6 billion with software and services. Of course, a lot of this will feature AI: after all, we employ some 5,000 AI experts, and we’ve filed more than 1,500 AI-related patents in the last five years. This makes us the European leader for AI patents, by the way.
That’s only part of the story though, she said, pointing to the firm’s CES tagline of Coded#LikeABosch:
Not the literal lines of code, of course, but something far more fundamental. In a nutshell, “Coded #LikeABosch” describes the approach we take in all our digital activities – an approach that is above all guided by our “Invented for life” ethos…[it] reflects our focus on identifying what people need and want – especially when it comes to things like safety, convenience, and efficiency. On that basis, we create digital solutions that bring them real benefits – not just novelty.
It’s also about partnerships and collaborations with third parties, she added:
As a matter of principle when it comes to our digital activities, we pursue a collaborative, hardware-agnostic, open-platform strategy. This is because on a fundamental level, we believe that in this sphere, more can be achieved by opening up than by narrowing down.
Trust again
Trust is another fundamental priority, argued Rückert, marking Bosch down as one of an increasing number of providers to have recognized the importance of putting down a marker in this respect at this year’s show:
In our digital activities, we prioritize the building of trust in new technologies. This is something we’ve been talking about for a long time, but it’s more relevant than ever today. At Bosch, we recognized at an early stage that without trust, many digital technologies are never going to achieve widespread acceptance and adoption. This is why an essential part of our digital strategy has been to put the focus on users of our technology, and to ensure that people’s concerns are addressed above all.
Nowhere is this more important than in the realm of AI. This is why we’ve made it a priority to develop AI in a way that is safe, secure, robust, and explainable. Several years ago, we developed our AI code of ethics, which guides all our development activities in this domain.
We’re also strong proponents of a standardized, easy-to-understand AI Label, which puts the core idea of the European AI Act into practice and will provide transparency to consumers. We believe these are important tools for convincing people to trust our digital technologies like they’ve long trusted our analog ones. And they will also help ensure that people remain the focal point of the development and application of AI technologies.
Human Intelligence
And while the focus is on artificial intelligence, the importance of human intelligence can never be overlooked, Rückert advised:
We aim to use these technologies to complement and support human intelligence and abilities, not to replace them – especially when it comes to AI.
But there’s a lack of a balanced perspective on AI in wider society, she warned:
On one hand, there is a lot of fear and misunderstanding, and this is leading to hesitancy or even outright rejection of AI. On the other hand, its strongest proponents often downplay legitimate concerns and are over-confident about what AI can do. As is so often the case, the reality is somewhere in the middle. If used wisely and responsibly, AI is a valuable tool that works together with and complements human intelligence. It can be an assistant, a companion for life and work. But it cannot – and should not – operate independently of people or be designed to replace them.
This is why skills matter so much, she argued, something that appears to be recognized in the latest Bosch Tech Compass survey:
Interestingly, a widespread belief in the importance of building AI-related skills was reflected in the results. For instance, 82% of global respondents are planning to educate themselves on matters related to AI. In line with this, 63% also believe AI should be taught as a standalone subject in school, which means people think such skills are increasingly fundamental and should be acquired early.
But there’s a but:
In contrast, employers are at an early stage in recognizing the importance of AI skills – only about a quarter of respondents report that they have received any on- the-job AI training.
Bosch is setting a standard here with its AI Academy, open to everyone at the company and offering a broad portfolio of both virtual and in-person training opportunities for associates at all levels of expertise. To date, more than 65,000 people have completed training related to AI and gen AI.
It’s in line with what Bosch sees as a “vast new landscape of possibilities”, she concluded:
AI and gen AI have the potential to help enable greater comfort, efficiency, cost savings, and sustainability in nearly every domain – if the right approach is taken. We believe such an approach should put the focus on people.
My take
Well, we’re always on the look out for organizations on the sell-side who are eating their own dog food and Bosch has pretty much licked the bowl clean it seems. Practical examples abounded at the firm’s CES presence this week in terms of products, but also use case exemplars across a variety of industries. But it’s the ‘human intelligence matters’ message that resonates most strongly. It’s an ethos that finds 100% favor here at diginomica – and you may be hearing a lot more about that as the year progresses.
