Volkswagen Group has announced plans to invest up to one billion euros in artificial intelligence (AI) by 2030. The announcement was made during the IAA Mobility trade fair and is part of the company’s existing investment strategy. The focus will be on using AI in vehicle development, industrial applications, and expanding IT infrastructure.
According to Hauke Stars, Member of the Board of Management for IT at Volkswagen Group, “With artificial intelligence, we are igniting the next stage on our path to becoming the global automotive tech driver. AI is our key to greater speed, quality, and competitiveness – across the entire value chain, from vehicle development to production. Our ambition is to accelerate our development of attractive, innovative vehicles and bring them to our customers faster than ever before. To achieve this, we deploy AI with purpose: scalable, responsible, and with clear industrial benefits. Our ambition: No process without AI.”
Currently, more than 1,200 AI applications are active within Volkswagen Group’s operations. Several hundred additional applications are either in development or close to implementation. The company expects that consistent use of AI could result in efficiency gains and cost avoidance totaling up to four billion euros by 2035.
In collaboration with Dassault Systèmes, Volkswagen Group is developing an AI-powered engineering environment for all its brands globally. This system aims to support engineers through virtual testing and component simulations, which could shorten product development cycles by about 25 percent.
The company’s Digital Production Platform connects over 40 manufacturing sites through a “factory cloud.” This platform integrates new AI tools into production processes to optimize assembly lines, improve energy and material use efficiency, reduce costs, and lower CO₂ emissions.
Volkswagen also emphasizes cybersecurity improvements and knowledge sharing as benefits of adopting more AI-driven solutions across its business units.
To prepare its workforce for these changes, Volkswagen launched the WE & AI initiative in spring 2024. This program aims to educate employees about practical uses of AI throughout the organization. More than 130,000 employees have participated so far.
Volkswagen is exploring further partnerships with European technology companies for industrial-scale AI models based on real manufacturing data from participating firms. One possible model for such cooperation is Catena-X—an open platform enabling secure data exchange among automotive sector stakeholders including BMW, BASF, Mercedes-Benz, SAP, Siemens, ZF, T-Systems and Volkswagen itself.
The company advocates for regulatory frameworks that support innovation in Europe’s competitive landscape. Stars stated: “We support the innovation-friendly evolution of European regulation. In addition, targeted incentives are needed: We must make more of what we’re capable of. This includes, above all, funding programs that strengthen spin-offs from universities and research institutions and accelerate the transfer of scientific knowledge into market-ready applications.”
Volkswagen also plans significant expansion of its private cloud infrastructure within Europe as part of efforts toward digital sovereignty—ensuring sensitive information remains stored and processed locally for increased resilience against external risks.
