Hannover Messe 2026: Bosch focuses on the interplay between humans and AI

Stuttgart and Hannover, Germany – At Hannover Messe 2026, Bosch will be demonstrating how artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming the driving force behind profitability and competitiveness in the manufacturing industry. The focus is on tried-and-tested AI applications that increase efficiency and quality and make the vision of the intelligent, resilient factory a reality. “Artificial intelligence is the decisive lever for future-proofing German and European industry in the face of global competition. It’s no longer a question of ‘if,’ but rather ‘how’ and especially how quickly AI gets used for this purpose,” explains Tanja Rueckert, member of the Bosch board of management and responsible for the Industrial Technology business sector.

The focus is on people: AI as an intelligent partner

AI is used as an intelligent assistant for skilled workers in manufacturing. For example, voice assistants make it easier to input data and can provide direct instructions for troubleshooting in the event of a fault. At the same time, the technology offers a pioneering solution for the demographic change that industry faces in the years ahead: AI systems can record and structure seasoned experts’ invaluable knowledge before they retire, thus ensuring it can be passed on to the next generation of workers. This makes experience-based knowledge scalable and retains it for the company.

Industry expertise meets IT expertise

Bosch Connected Industry is addressing these industry requirements and expanding its portfolio around its agentic AI solution, Manufacturing Co-Intelligence®. With the help of Microsoft technologies, agentic AI offers new opportunities to increase production efficiency. At Hannover Messe 2026, Bosch will be demonstrating how its expertise in industrial data and AI complements Microsoft’s IT infrastructure and platform expertise. Application scenarios built on Microsoft Azure will be presented for the first time this year, including AI-supported condition monitoring and connectivity for machine control systems (OT systems) with Bosch Rexroth’s ctrlX AUTOMATION.

Delivering efficiency through multi-agent systems and people

The agentic AI used in Manufacturing Co-Intelligence® ensures that problems arising in the production process, e.g. for threaded connections, are detected at an early stage and downtimes are minimized. Even a single agentic use case in a plant can achieve annual savings of almost a million euros. The potential grows with the scope of use: customers who roll out Manufacturing Co-Intelligence® more broadly can achieve productivity gains of 5–15 percent, cut costs by 10–30 percent in specific areas, and solve operational problems up to 50 percent faster.

Agentic flows improve interactions in manufacturing

Agentic flows allow individual agents, tools, and data to be orchestrated into end-to-end workflows. One example is the combination of two agents, Shopfloor and Smart Maintenance: as a specialized team in the multi-agent system, the AI supports humans during planned and unplanned maintenance measures. From fault analysis to guided and optimized servicing instructions and independent documentation, the AI is always at workers’ side and ensures a major reduction in downtime. This also has advantages for future rounds of maintenance: since the data is processed in a structured manner, the AI can immediately suggest possible causes – even drawing on error patterns that occur in other plants around the world belonging to the respective network.

AI on the rise: Bosch Tech Compass shows growing importance

The Bosch Tech Compass confirms the growing importance of AI. Fully 70 percent of survey participants worldwide now consider AI to be the dominant technology of the future – a huge increase over just 41 percent in comparison to 2023. This clearly sets AI apart from all other technologies; its perceived relevance has almost doubled in just three years. A recent Bitkom study shows that 42 percent of industrial enterprises are already using AI in manufacturing and 82 percent consider it to be crucial for their future competitiveness.

Our solutions make AI tangible and prove that it has a direct impact on profitability. Bosch gives companies the means to make their manufacturing not only more efficient, but also more resilient and sustainable,

said Tanja Rueckert, member of the Bosch board of management and responsible for the Industrial Technology business sector.

Network for industrial AI “knowledge assistants”

This is supported by the work of any.site, a cross-company network for industrial AI that Bosch Rexroth will be developing together with ServiceNow and the Next Level Mittelstand initiative. The platform connects machinery manufacturers, service providers, and manufacturing teams via AI-supported “knowledge assistants,” making it easier for experts to search for information around the clock during commissioning and maintenance. The network surrounding any.site’s range of solutions and infrastructure is constantly being expanded. “With any.site, AI becomes the defining link in production. It makes experts’ and manufacturers’ know-how accessible at any time and thus raises efficiency and collaboration to a new level,” Rueckert says. It’s not just users in manufacturing who stand to benefit from any.site, but also machinery manufacturers. In the future, they will be able to monetize their product knowledge by bringing their expertise to the shopfloor via AI-supported knowledge bots. By combining machinery manufacturers’ documentation, service data records, and shopfloor data, these bots can provide the machine’s operators with validated instructions, troubleshooting steps, and spare parts guidance.