The project primarily pursues the transfer goal ("third mission") of better anchoring findings from university research into artificial intelligence (AI) in the commercial sector in order to stimulate the development of innovative products there, especially services, which sustainably strengthen Germany as a business location. To this end, a project team consisting of university professors from the University of Duisburg-Essen and the Technical University of Dortmund has been formed within the framework of the University Alliance Ruhr (UA-Ruhr). It is made up of university teachers from the fields of computer science as well as production and logistics, information and project management and healthcare.

In the AI Lab, "data-driven" application areas of AI products are to be supervised particularly intensively. These include, for example: Sensor data from the maintenance of container gantry cranes, video data from intralogistic systems, sensor data for monitoring medical implant kits, video data from MRI scans, audio data from urban environments as well as action, customer, supplier and product data in project management. Based on new research findings, AI applications are being developed that range from "intelligent" online evaluations of sensor or video data to the "intelligent" reuse of data from projects already carried out for the planning of new projects.

To fulfil the above-mentioned transfer objective, qualification offers regarding the practical use of AI hardware, AI software and AI brainware are to be developed within the framework of an AI laboratory, primarily for companies from the region. These qualification offers extend both to the "experimental" use of AI products from the three aforementioned AI areas "on site" in companies that are won as cooperation partners, as well as to multimedia online training courses up to blended e-learning offers that can be used "sustainably" by interested parties from the commercial sector, especially after the project funding ends.

The AI Lab is to be set up and used in particular in close cooperation with corporate partners from business practice. In addition, numerous practice-related bachelor's, master's and doctoral theses are planned in the context of the AI Lab, which are intended to stimulate deeper cooperation between business and universities with a "bidirectional" transfer of knowledge between the project partners in the AI field. Finally, the AI Lab will serve as a platform for further professional qualification. On this platform, offers will be made in "digital" formats for the in-service qualification of specialists and managers in the field of the use of AI systems and AI methods in the commercial economy.