• "The Apply AI strategy sends the right signals: artificial intelligence must be applied where it brings real benefits – in the real economy. It is particularly good that the strategy identifies robotics as well as production and engineering as sectoral flagships. It is precisely here where AI can help to increase productivity, resource efficiency and competitiveness of European companies in many industries." 

• “Machinery is the linchpin here: as Europe's largest industrial employer, technology supplier for almost all industries and, at the same time, user of AI, mechanical engineering companies, play a crucial role in Europe's technological leadership and competitiveness."  

• “A recent VDMA survey confirms the enormous potential: for more than 80 per cent of companies, AI already has medium to high strategic importance, but only 43 per cent have solutions in place. Another 48 per cent want to follow suit by 2028. This is where the EU's Apply AI strategy can provide the decisive boost – through practical guidelines, open data spaces and faster access to funding." 

• "The Apply AI strategy must not rely solely on financial support projects. It must also send a signal that innovation and technology are welcome and generate momentum for the planned regulatory relief – for example, for the Digital Omnibus, which currently offers the opportunity for concrete simplifications in the EU's digital regulatory framework." 

• "We need streamlined approval processes, interoperable standards and a reliable legal framework that protects innovation rather than hindering it. Then AI will become a driver of innovation that creates jobs and promotes Europe's industrial leadership."  

 Prof. Claus Oetter, Managing Director of VDMA Software and Digitalisation and Head of VDMA Informatics

VDMA represents 3,600 German and European mechanical and plant engineering companies. The industry stands for innovation, export orientation and small and medium-sized enterprises. The companies employ a total of around 3 million people in the EU-27, more than 1.2 million of them in Germany alone. This makes mechanical and plant engineering the largest employer among the capital goods industries, both in the EU-27 and in Germany. It accounts for an estimated turnover of around 870 billion euros in the European Union. Around 80 per cent of the machinery sold in the EU comes from a manufacturing facility in the internal market.