The unit will mine VW’s huge trove of data.

Volkswagen (ETR: VOW3) has announced the establishment of a dedicated AI unit in Detroit. According to Abdallah Shanti, chief information officer for the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand, AI competency will help leverage the immense database which the company has accumulated, and which can be used to enhance its business. (Just Auto)

Daniel Weimer will lead a team of AI scientists and software engineers. Their mission: to apply breakthrough developments in machine learning and AI to automotive engineering that will develop, produce and sell futuristic cars.

“We want to leverage new opportunities in applied Artificial Intelligence to further improve products and services for our customers, employees and becoming even more efficient as a company,” said Johan de Nysschen, chief operating officer at Volkswagen Group of America.

Not aimed at replacing employees

The first target for Weimer and his team is to keep abreast of the latest in AI, and to customize those developments at Volkswagen brands including Audi and Bentley by creating smart solutions that will solve real-world problems in car manufacturing.

The idea is not to replace people with software – rather, the aim is to use AI to empower them.

“It is key to develop technologies that serve and support Volkswagen employees,” Weimer said. “You let the AI do things it is good that, like finding patterns in huge datasets. However, ultimately, our algorithms must always serve human decision-makers. After all, humans are better in strategic decisions, more innovative and more creative.”

For example, the AI unit in Detroit developed a scheduling tool for Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga. The algorithms developed by the AI unit found an optimal schedule for management and workforce that helped improve plant productivity, reduced worker stress, and cut down on sick days.

In another example, the AI unit will trawl terabytes of sales data going back two decades to optimise parameters for a successful model launch.

The outputs will be placed before decision-makers at the corporate level and in marketing.

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