Bosch invests heavily in AI as a growth driver

Bosch was an early adopter of AI, bringing it together with in-depth industrial knowledge and, says the company, gaining a clear competitive advantage. Furthermore, in the past five years, the company has filed more than 1000 patent applications for inventions in the field of AI – making it one of the leading applicants in Europe.

One area where Bosch wants to utilise the advantages of AI is in assisted and automated driving. Even if momentum in this area has not yet reached its peak, Bosch has no doubt that automated driving will achieve long-term market success. The company offers the right solutions for this and is confident: Bosch expects its sales of software, sensor technology, high-performance computers, and network components to double by the mid-2030s to well over 10 billion euros.

Bosch uses AI in automated driving, for example for visualising the vehicle’s surroundings and for route planning. Thanks to AI, the vehicle thinks ahead, anticipates how other road users will behave, and calculates the next steps to get to its destination safely. AI not only ensures greater safety in vehicles, however; it also helps significantly shorten development times for new products. For example, Bosch can draw on a unique database of vehicle sensor data to feed a generative AI solution – and thus train systems much faster and more efficiently. This could pave the way for even more reliable driving assistants and automated driving functions in the future.

When AI talks to AI
In manufacturing, Bosch is already focusing on the next level of artificial intelligence: agentic AI, which is able to make its own decisions and carry out its own actions.

The revolutionary technology enables various processes to run in parallel. Several AI agents can form a team, a multi-agent system that’s supervised by humans or a coordinating agent. Bosch is already making use of this possibility in-house: multi-agent systems monitor devices in manufacturing, predict maintenance requirements, and optimise personnel scheduling. 

Besides Bosch’s own plants, other companies will benefit from Bosch’s expertise in agentic AI: Bosch is developing a platform that will be made available to other companies as of fall 2025, enabling them to create their own multi-agent systems with little or even no programming knowledge. The goal here is to make manufacturing more efficient, reduce costs, and be able to react more flexibly to market requirements. In this way, comprehensive, orchestrated use can save several million euros.

AI is an innovation booster for Bosch, not only in the areas of industrial production and automated mobility but throughout the entire company. For example, the intelligent Bosch Revol crib can be used to monitor a child’s vital signs, such as heart and respiratory rate. On an e-bike, AI helps dispel range anxiety with the Range Control feature, and in the kitchen, it takes on the role of chef: the Bosch Series 8 oven can recognise around 80 dishes and automatically set the optimum cooking method and temperature. Artificial intelligence also helps with DIY: a wall scanner can look inside walls and detect electrical cables, metal beams, and empty spaces.

In-house academy 

Bosch is also getting its associates on board: the company fosters the development of AI skills in-house through its AI Academy, which has trained over 65,000 associates since 2019. Nearly 5,000 AI specialists are working on intelligent AI solutions. AI skills are essential for the future of the working world outside of Bosch as well.

“One thing is becoming increasingly clear: a society without AI capabilities will fall behind in global competition,” says Stefan Hartung, chairman of the Bosch board of management.

A majority of people have obviously already recognised the implications of AI: according to the Bosch Tech Compass, four out of five respondents worldwide plan to pursue AI training, and around two-thirds are in favor of AI as a school subject. In Germany, 72% believe that AI will be the dominant technology of the next decade in their country. Bosch is already well equipped for the dawning age of AI.

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