At this year’s CONTACT Open World in Bonn, the message for the industrial sector was straightforward. Under the banner “Industrial AI – From Top Floor to Shop Floor,” the event moved past the usual hype cycle to show exactly how artificial intelligence is already driving live production and reshaping legacy workflows.
Drawing roughly 650 participants, the conference cemented its role as a major hub for European digitalization. Opening the event, CONTACT COO Maximilian Zachries pointed out just how fast the landscape is shifting.
Strategies that were merely aspirational two years ago are now operational realities, with AI rapidly embedding itself into the core of the CONTACT Elements platform.
Streamlining Strategy and Expanding AI
On the corporate side, the company is tightening its focus. Zachries confirmed a pivot away from a scattered multi-brand approach, focusing entirely on CONTACT Elements as a unified, modular platform tailored for specific industry applications.
This shift aligns with the company’s recent majority stake acquisition in team neusta, a move designed to build out its strategic data and AI consulting capabilities.
On the product front, Head of Product Management Dr. Regine Wolters unpacked what is next for Fourier AI, the platform’s native AI layer. Her team demonstrated new features designed to do the heavy lifting for engineers, ranging from intelligent search and coding assistants to advanced geometric comparison tools.
Taking AI to the Factory Floor
The real draw was seeing the technology deployed in the wild. Industry heavyweights like Weidmüller, thyssenkrupp, Big Dutchman, and MANN+HUMMEL broke down their digital transformation playbooks. Global tire manufacturer Apollo Tyres delivered a standout session, with Chief Digital Officer Hizmy Hassen detailing how the company used CONTACT Elements to synchronize its global R&D operations. Their target is aggressive, aiming to use AI to cut tire development cycles squarely in half.
Across other panels, users demonstrated how Fourier AI is already analyzing customer inquiries, triggering automated IoT service workflows, and building operational resilience through better data mapping.
Beyond the partner exhibition and networking, the event wrapped with a closing keynote from athletes Jutta Kleinschmidt and Kati Wilhelm, challenging the industrial crowd to make bolder, faster decisions in an increasingly tight competitive landscape.
Discover all the highlights of Open World 2026, along with our highlight video, in our in-depth event recap.
