Business as Bridge Builders
Companies carry a special responsibility for connecting
technology with values and responsibility. AI must not be
reduced to a tool of efficiency but understood as a strategic
enabler.
At AVL, this means combining engineering expertise with
advanced methods in simulation and testing. AI does more
than accelerate processes – it transforms how knowledge
is applied to create enterprise value. By codifying expertise
and enabling seamless collaboration, AI shortens time to
market, improves quality, and strengthens long-term com-
petitiveness. At the same time, trust is essential: only sys-
tems that are transparent, verifiable, and explainable can
serve as a reliable foundation for future business success.
Relevance for the Mobility Industry
Few sectors illustrate the transformative power of AI as
clearly as mobility. Across the entire value chain, AI drives
innovation, enables sustainable business models, and safe-
guards competitiveness in a global market.
For companies, this also means a redefinition of value
itself. Data, algorithms, and platform effects are becoming
strategic assets, intangible yet decisive for enterprise suc-
cess. Leaders must learn to evaluate these new forms of
capital while ensuring that compliance, safety, and societal
acceptance remain intact.
Shaping the Future with Responsibility
AI is a mirror of our thinking. It reflects the values and
responsibility with which we use it. The real risk is not
the technology itself but our passivity, whether through
hesitation, overregulation, or neglecting the education and
empowerment of future generations. To move forward,
three priorities stand out:
• Invest strategically: in research, infrastructure, and skills
to remain competitive
• Embed responsibility: make transparency, fairness, and
accountability core design principles of AI systems
• Foster human learning: ensure that people continue to
develop judgment, creativity, and resilience alongside AI.
Responsibility and strategy must go hand in hand. Only by
combining innovation with accountability can AI become a
trusted partner that creates both societal benefit and sus-
tainable corporate value. For the mobility industry, and for
AVL in particular, this is not an abstract debate. If embraced
with vision and responsibility, AI will not diminish human
ingenuity but amplify it, helping us reimagine mobility as
safer, cleaner, and more sustainable.
Imagination and Courage
Are the True Capital of the
Age of AI
Artificial intelligence is the most profound shift since
Gutenberg’s press. Just as movable type reshaped soci-
ety’s relationship with knowledge, AI is redefining how we
generate insight, make decisions, and create value. It is not
just an incremental tool, but a new grammar of thought
– one that extends our capabilities while shifting parts of
reasoning to systems we must carefully govern.
In mobility, legacy industries are burdened by entrenched
processes, slowing adoption compared to fast-moving sec-
tors like consumer electronics. Overcoming this demands
imagination and courage to rethink structures, redesign
engineering and testing, and pioneer workflows that unlock
innovation despite constraints.
AI is also an engine of discovery. It accelerates research
and simulation, opening frontiers from material science to
predictive vehicle design. What once took years of trial and
error can now be explored in weeks. For leaders, the key
question is not only how to capture efficiency, but how to
invest so that AI expands the frontier of possibility.
However, efficiency gains will not fall evenly. Some will
benefit platforms and productivity; others may free up per-
sonal time. Whether we use it for connection, reflection, or
creativity will decide if AI enriches life or merely accelerates
business.
Imagination and courage will always involve mistakes and
failures. Responsibility in AI does not mean avoiding all
errors, but managing them openly, correcting them quickly,
and turning them into learning. Leaders must create
environments where failure is possible without eroding
trust – where responsibility doesn’t stifle innovation, but
strengthens it.
At AVL, we see ourselves as bridge builders: creating
technology that advances mobility while serving trust, re-
sponsibility, and sustainability. In the age of AI, imagination
and courage are not luxuries - they are the true capital that
turns technology into progress, and the only currency that
secures a future worth having.
by Yorck Schmidt
Chief Financial Officer
2025