AI in the Workshop: Insights from Cars & Bytes 2024

AI is entering the workshop. The real questions are when, how and by whom. At Cars & Bytes 2024, it became clear that RepairGPT is not science fiction – it’s a system challenge.

Intro:

Cars & Bytes 2024 brought together experts from the automotive, tech and research sectors to discuss what’s next for the aftermarket. The core topic: how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming workshop processes, data governance and customer value creation. I had the opportunity to speak on this topic – not from a technical hype perspective, but from a system-level viewpoint focused on structure, trust and interoperability.

Panel discussion at Cars & Bytes 2024 on AI in the workshop – featuring Philipp Janczewski, Florian Pinger, Dennis Christ, Juan I. Hahn, Ralf Würzburg, Boris Peters, Manfred T. Wölfle and Hannah Bellmann.

Context: One of the most relevant reference points was the German research and innovation project Autowerkstatt 4.0, supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK). The goal: to create a nationwide platform for sharing automotive repair data and AI models in a secure, interoperable, and privacy-preserving way. The project is not just about technology – it’s about solving real challenges across trust, security, and partner orchestration. Initiatives that combined domain-specific semantics and workshop-level integration, are needed for success.

Signals from Cars & Bytes 2024:

• RepairGPT is coming – and it’s viable. The question is no longer if AI will enter the workshop, but when and how. Systems like LLMs and diagnostic AI will need industry-wide infrastructure and semantic alignment.

• Data spaces will define who can play. Access to relevant, structured, and federated data is key for innovation in diagnostics, parts matching, and lifecycle services.

• Gaia-X standards are not optional. Sovereignty, interoperability and security by design are prerequisites for scalable collaboration between OEMs, suppliers and SMEs.

• The future of the aftermarket is AI-ready – or irrelevant. The competitive edge will go to those who can integrate AI into real processes with trustworthy, explainable logic.

What it means for the ecosystem:

AI in the aftermarket is not just about efficiency – it’s about enabling new business models and system-level collaboration. Projects like Autowerkstatt 4.0 show what’s possible when industry, policy and infrastructure align.

At HAHN Network, we support this transformation by helping partners translate signals into scalable execution: from use case to platform logic to viable system infrastructure.

Final Thought:

"It’s no longer about whether RepairGPT will happen – it’s about when, how, and who builds the system that makes it work."

Curious about AI in the automotive aftermarket? Let’s talk.