Best Practice Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence for SMEs #4
On March 19, 2026, the fourth edition of the conference “Best Practice Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence for SMEs” will take place. At a time when digitalization and artificial intelligence are becoming key success factors, the event brings together CEOs, company executives, IT and digitalization managers, technical and production leaders, as well as innovation and R&D departments, medium-sized industrial and service companies, data scientists, university and technology transfer representatives, and networking organizations.
The organizers – the Lars and Christian Engel Foundation (LUCE), fortiss, and the Ostbayerische Technische Hochschule Amberg-Weiden – serve as a point of contact to identify action needs together, regardless of how far companies have progressed in their digital transformation. The conference will present results from current AI research projects as well as practical digitalization solutions from development and research environments. The event takes place at the Future Lab in Weiherhammer, providing space for professional exchange and networking.
CEOs, company executives, IT and digitalization managers, technical and production leaders, innovation and R&D departments
This event is conducted with the support of the TASTE Transformation-Hub.
15:00 h | Welcome
Severin Hirmer (Chairman, LUCE Foundation)
Prof. Dr. med. Clemens Bulitta (President, OTH Amberg-Weiden)
Dr. Wolfgang Köhler (Head of fortiss Mittelstand)
15:20 h | Introduction to AI Agents
Dr. Severin Kacianka (Head of Code, Co-Creation & Engineering, fortiss)
15:40 h | Deep Learning in Industrial Knowledge Management
With the ongoing digitalization, extensive and heterogeneous data sources are emerging across various domains, containing significant informational potential for addressing diverse domain-specific questions. This presentation explores how this implicit knowledge can be effectively extracted, processed, and efficiently utilized using deep learning methods, particularly in the field of Natural Language Processing.
Jan Schuster (M.Sc.), Prof. Dr. Christian Bergler, Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schäfer (TTZ NEW)
4:00 h | Break and Networking
4:30 h | Autonomous Multimodal Observation-Guided Policy Learning for Robotic Systems
This talk provides an overview of research on learning visuomotor control strategies for robotic systems from multimodal human demonstration videos. Focus is on goal-conditioned imitation learning, reward-based deep reinforcement learning, and hybrid approaches combining both paradigms. The presentation outlines how these methods can be used and further developed to create robust, generalizable, and interpretable policies for new tasks, objects, and environments.
Tobias Lettner (M.Sc.), Prof. Dr. Christian Bergler, Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schäfer (IKKI)
4:50 h | Best Practice: Achieving Efficient Processes with AI and Automation
Johannes Ostner demonstrates how artificial intelligence and automation can already be pragmatically applied in everyday work with manageable effort. Using concrete practical examples, he shows how AI features, automation, and initial agents can deliver real efficiency gains. The focus is on actionable approaches – from simple automation logic to intelligent workflows with tools like n8n – emphasizing practical benefits: simplifying processes, saving time, and integrating AI effectively into existing operations.
Johannes Ostner (42 Coding Solutions)
From 5:15 h | Closing and Networking
