thyssenkrupp Automotive Body Solutions joins IPAI innovation platform to accelerate development of smart manufacturing solutions

• Body-in-white specialist thyssenkrupp Automotive Body Solutions strengthens its strategic focus on intelligent manufacturing with collaborative and smart robotics solutions

• IPAI membership provides access to AI technologies and research approaches, exchange with partner institutions, and learning and development opportunities for employees

• Falk Nüßle, CEO thyssenkrupp Automotive Body Solutions: “Joining IPAI marks a key milestone in our strategic transformation from plant engineering and series production to the integration and operation of smart manufacturing solutions – for body-in-white and beyond.”

Heilbronn, Germany – thyssenkrupp Automotive Body Solutions GmbH has joined the applied AI innovation platform Innovation Park Artificial Intelligence (IPAI) as a member. By taking this step, the company underscores its ambition to evolve into a platform for collaborative intelligent robotics.

“By joining IPAI, we are combining our industrial DNA with Europe’s most ambitious AI ecosystem. Our objective is clear: artificial intelligence must become an integral part of manufacturing. We envision factories that perceive, learn and continuously improve – enabling the next era of intelligent production for our customers,” said Falk Nüßle, CEO of thyssenkrupp Automotive Body Solutions.

Membership includes early access to emerging AI technologies and research initiatives, close collaboration with leading partners from industry, technology and academia, access to facilities such as real-world laboratories, and tailored learning and development opportunities for thyssenkrupp Automotive Body Solutions employees.

As a global specialist in integrated body-in-white solutions, thyssenkrupp Automotive Body Solutions combines more than 125 years of technology expertise in plant engineering with series production of body components. Building on its business model – spanning plant, tool and prototype engineering combined with series production of complex body components – the company is actively shaping the era of intelligent manufacturing.

As part of its “reboot” strategy, the company is positioning itself as a partner for intelligent manufacturing with collaborative robotics, expanding its market presence in the United States and Southeast Asia, and unlocking new customer segments beyond the automotive industry.“We are transforming from a plant engineering and series production specialist into an integrator and operator of smart manufacturing solutions – for body-in-white and beyond,” Nüßle added.

Today, thyssenkrupp Automotive Body Solutions already deploys self-learning AI-based image processing systems that automatically detect inline surface defects on body components. In parallel, AI-based acoustic process monitoring is being piloted to identify quality deviations in welding operations in real time.

About thyssenkrupp Automotive Body Solutions
thyssenkrupp Automotive Body Solutions GmbH is an integrated body-in-white specialist. Its product and service portfolio ranges from prototype, tool and plant engineering to the series production of body components. The company operates six development and production sites in Germany and six additional locations internationally. With more than 125 years of technology expertise and currently around 2,000 employees worldwide, thyssenkrupp Automotive Body Solutions shapes intelligent and highly automated manufacturing within the automotive industry and beyond. The business unit is part of the Automotive Technology segment of thyssenkrupp AG. In fiscal year 2024/25, the segment generated sales of €7.0 billion.

About IPAI
IPAI empowers organizations in their AI transformation – collaboratively, hands-on and holistically. Its vision is to establish an application-driven AI innovation and collaboration platform built on European values. Together with its members and partners from business, politics and society, IPAI is creating the “Global Home of Human AI” in Heilbronn – a central hub for the future of European AI. As a one-stop shop, IPAI bridges the gap between cutting-edge research and practical implementation by building an open ecosystem with a broad range of continuously evolving offerings tailored to the needs of companies and institutions for the joint development of innovative and responsible AI solutions. At the heart of this vision is the IPAI Campus. On a 30-hectare site in northern Heilbronn, IPAI is establishing the infrastructure for a distinctly European path in AI. Construction of the campus – designed to accommodate up to 5,000 people working in the field of AI – began at the end of 2025. The first buildings are scheduled for completion and occupancy by the end of 2027. The initiators of the IPAI platform include the state of Baden-Württemberg, the Dieter Schwarz Foundation, companies of the Schwarz Group, and the City of Heilbronn.