ENGAGE-KI: Artificial Intelligence in Engineering for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

What is ENGAGE-KI?

Artificial intelligence can help companies develop technical systems more quickly, more robustly, and more efficiently. It analyzes requirements, evaluates documentation, prepares models, integrates knowledge from various sources, and assists with recurring engineering tasks.

However, many small and medium-sized enterprises are faced with the question of how to turn individual AI experiments into productive applications. ENGAGE-AI develops practical solutions for everyday engineering work. The focus is not on AI as an end in itself, but on its benefits for productivity, quality, knowledge transfer, and collaboration.

AI Agents, Co-pilots, and Knowledge Management in Engineering

ENGAGE-KI focuses on four areas of technology that are particularly relevant to the future of engineering.

AI-based data and knowledge management is designed to help companies better locate, organize, and utilize existing engineering knowledge. Today, much of this information is scattered across documents, models, databases, or the experiential knowledge of individual employees.

Engineering co-pilots support engineers with typical tasks in the development process—such as requirements, models, technical documentation, data migration, or code.

AI agents take it a step further. They can break down tasks, plan intermediate steps, use tools, and consolidate results. This opens up new possibilities for preparing or partially automating recurring task chains in engineering.

Physical AI and humanoid robotics make AI tangible even in real-world work environments. Companies should be better able to assess the potential applications of humanoid robotics, what is already realistic today, and where current technologies still have limitations.

Humanoid Robotics and Physical AI in Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

ENGAGE-KI is designed as a seven-month performance initiative. The goal is to produce visible results in a short period of time that will provide companies with guidance and can be translated into further implementation opportunities after the project ends.

The project develops demonstrators, proofs of concept, and concrete applications for everyday engineering work. This is intended to help companies identify more quickly which AI applications are relevant to their development processes and how initial solutions can be tested in practice.

In addition, transferable solution components and reference architectures are being developed. These address issues such as data structures, interfaces, local or hybrid AI architectures, AI hardware, and integration with existing engineering tools. A demonstration and lab infrastructure also allows users to experience physical AI systems and humanoid robotics under realistic conditions.

In addition to technology, ENGAGE-AI also examines skills development, change processes, and new forms of human-AI collaboration. This is because AI is transforming tasks, roles, and decision-making processes. The project’s findings provide companies with guidance on how to organizationally integrate AI into engineering and involve employees at an early stage.

What Companies Get from ENGAGE-AI

ENGAGE-KI is aimed at medium-sized companies that want to do more than just experiment with AI in engineering—they want to use it systematically. The project helps them identify relevant areas of application, test initial solutions, and better prepare for the implementation of AI.

Companies benefit from faster development processes, fewer repetitive and documentation-intensive tasks, better utilization of experiential knowledge, and greater guidance from copilots, AI agents, and humanoid robotics. At the same time, demonstrators, training programs, and transferable solution modules are being developed to make it easier to get started with AI applications.

Transfer via the it’s OWL Network

ENGAGE-KI builds on existing expertise and preliminary work from the it’s OWL network. This includes, among other things, experience gained from Arbeitswelt.Plus, the AI Marketplace, the Engineering Automation Competence Center, and other projects in the fields of systems engineering and artificial intelligence.

Fraunhofer IEM contributes its research and development expertise in the field of AI-supported engineering. it’s OWL ensures that the results are disseminated to a broad range of small and medium-sized enterprises through networking, technology transfer, and training programs.