Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology FIT
The WIRKsam Competence Centre helps companies in the Rhenish textile and lignite region shape tomorrow's work and stay competitive during structural change. By using Artificial Intelligence (AI), WIRKsam shows how people, technology, and organizations can successfully integrate AI into daily operations. In an immersive XR showcase built by Fraunhofer FIT, visitors can experience future workplaces first-hand. Our interactive demonstrators make WIRKsam’s visions tangible - even without visiting the companies themselves. We rely on open standards to keep the demos flexible and ready for future devices.
Our first demonstrator focuses on WIRKsam’s core vision: What does AI bring, and how can AI support employees without replacing them? This demo focuses on AI-supported quality control in a recycling plant during a sorting task. Users experience the process hands-on in VR, first without AI and then with AI assistance highlighting metal objects. In the end, they see how AI impacted their performance immediately.
The second demo takes users to AIRCONCEPT, where they inspect vehicle carbon fibre wings for defects. Here, users also switch between manual and AI-supported inspection. They discover why human expertise still matters – even AI can miss a spot.
The WIRKsam Competence Centre is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of the program “Regional Competence Centres for Labour Research” and supervised by Project Management Agency Karlsruhe (PTKA), funding code: 02L19C601.