“We’re busy enough on the production side,” Inna Hilgenberg told DW. She is deputy head of packaging at Dr. Wolff, a mid-sized cosmetics and pharmaceutical company based in Bielefeld. Behind her, black and red shampoo bottles fill up and slide down the conveyor belt. “Writing instructions while juggling these tasks is not that easy,” she added.
That’s why Hilgenberg has come to value her company’s artificial intelligence (AI) tool WolffGPT, which she uses almost every day. Her duties include scheduling and directing staff in the filling and packaging department and ensuring health and safety standards are met. She uses WolffGPT to create workflows, design presentations, and edit Word files and Excel spreadsheets. “I think AI has only advantages,” she told DW.
Many of the company’s employees had already started using ChatGPT in their free time and wanted to use it at work as well. However, you cannot share corporate data with public large-scale language models (LLMs). That’s why Dr. Wolff developed an in-house AI model based on the existing LLM. Connected to select corporate systems and data, so sensitive corporate data remains protected.
In Germany, large companies are more likely to use AI than small and medium-sized companies. Manufacturers are most commonly using AI to generate text, images, and code, according to a future technology survey conducted by Düsseldorf-based Institute for Applied Occupational Sciences ifaa. The study found that more than 40% of companies surveyed are already using AI, and 37% plan to use AI in the future.
Rising competitive pressures are forcing many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing industry to consider using AI to increase productivity and efficiency, according to IfM, a German research institute that tracks small and medium-sized enterprises. The results revealed that employee resistance is slowing down the adoption of AI.
Dr. Wolff’s staff embraces AI
Hilgenberg was one of the first staffers at Dr. Wolff to embrace AI. She completed an online training course in the company’s AI Academy and is currently supporting others in her team who want to use the technology. The company has about 110 such AI pioneers among its 930 employees worldwide.
“They are ordinary colleagues who don’t necessarily have a technical background,” Zhuo Li, the company’s AI manager, told DW.
These AI pioneers spend about 10 hours watching short instructional videos and completing small tasks to get up to speed.
Topics covered include how to create good prompts and what happens to the data in LLM. You then spend some of your time identifying potential AI applications and developing and testing their prototypes in your daily work.
We also support colleagues who want to learn more about AI. “In each team, we were able to find people with great ideas, a strong interest in the subject and a desire to pass on their knowledge,” Lee told DW. “I encourage everyone to try out what AI can do.”
A magic bullet?
Small businesses are leveraging AI to fill skilled labor shortages and attract younger talent. According to ifM, LLM enables companies to complete specific tasks, thereby reducing the workload of employees and the need for specialists.
The institute found that 25% of companies surveyed have already implemented AI. For example, a painting contractor uses robots to prime large surfaces, and digital assistants in the refrigeration department help plan transportation routes.
According to OECD statistics, only about 6% of small and medium-sized enterprises across Europe are currently using AI. A 2024 OECD study found that slow digitalisation, poor connectivity and misunderstanding of the potential benefits of AI are some of the barriers why companies are not adopting LLMs. However, IfM also said that some employees may already be using AI chatbots without notifying their employers.
“AI agents are being used in almost every field.”
Dr. Wolff also teaches employees how to use the company’s WolffGPT platform to create AI agents to perform specific tasks. This includes answering common IT support inquiries, standardizing international invoices, creating social media posts, and more.
“We are already using AI agents in almost every field,” Zhuo Li told DW. “Some agents are only useful for two people, while others are shared across departments,” Caroline Bauch, an AI communications expert in the company’s human resources department, told DW. “It makes my job a lot easier,” she said, adding that she has already built several AI agents herself.
“There’s been quite a bit of acceptance,” Bauch said. “When WolffGPT went down for a few hours, we all realized how much we already depend on it for our work.”
According to company statistics, almost 90% of all employees working at computer workstations have completed AI training modules since the fall. “These courses are completed during working hours,” Bauch explained. “That’s why we kept the lessons short so everyone could complete them at their own pace.”
Administrative and creative tasks are ideal for AI applications
So far, Dr. Wolff is primarily using AI to support administrative and creative tasks, but LLM applications are also being developed in the production department.
Anyone in your company can take an AI class, as understanding the basics of LLM benefits everyone, whether this knowledge is used at work or in a personal context. Factory workers and warehouse employees simply need to find a computer workstation.
Dr. Wolff wants his employees to learn about and apply AI as the family-owned company continues to face competition from powerful companies in Europe, Asia and the United States.
This article was originally written in German.
