Last week, we kicked off the second cohort of our 𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗣𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺, led by REHAU New Ventures.

15 colleagues. Different backgrounds and from across the REHAU Group including REHAU Interior Solutions, REHAU Water Technologies, REHAU Industrial Solutions, Global Business Services, RAUMEDIC, Meraxis Group.

Over the course of four months, the Pioneers will identify impactful business pain points, explore new perspectives and AI possibilities, evaluate potential solutions, and work towards practical pilots.

Why now? Change is getting faster, and AI speeds it up further. No single function can keep up alone. With Venture Clienting, we start from real business topics and test startup solutions in pilots under real conditions. The Pioneers know these problems first-hand from their daily work, so innovation starts where the business is.

Thank you to all Pioneers for this strong start! Thank you to Audrey Matarage, Anton Bahtinov and Melanie Gabriel from the REHAU New Ventures side for building and running the program.

This was the beginning. Over the next weeks, we'll share insights on the method behind the program and what comes out of it.

Follow along if you want to see how pain points become pilots.

#REHAU #VentureClienting #Innovation #Pioneers #AI

𝗔𝗜 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮𝗻 𝗜𝗧 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁

Last week, we welcomed the Hochfranken entrepreneurs' initiative to REHAU New Ventures. Representatives from companies across the region came together to discuss an important question: How can we approach AI without missing opportunities or taking unnecessary risks?

For REHAU, this is about more than technology. It means helping employees build the skills to use AI, identifying where it can make a difference, and turning promising ideas into practical solutions.

This is where REHAU New Ventures comes in. We discussed innovation as a service and the importance of bringing people along. Audrey Matarage, Senior Innovation Manager, shared how we put this approach into practice.

“Our companies face similar challenges. They need to compete successfully on the international stage and continually evolve to do so.  AI can and will make an important contribution,” said Jürgen Werner, REHAU Industries, spokesperson for Unternehmerinitiative Hochfranken.

Thank you to bitzinger GmbH, dennree GmbH, Einstein1 Digitales Gründerzentrum, Hudetz Business GmbH, Hydrotec GmbH Wasseraufbereitung, LAMILUX, Meraxis Group, Motor-Nützel Gruppe, RAPA Gruppe, RAUMEDIC and SCHERDEL for the open dialogue.

We hope this kickoff is the first of many events like this. It was a great reminder that transformation takes people, learning and continued exchange. If you are on a similar #AI journey, let's connect.

#AI #Transformation #Innovation

Poznań. 1.5 days. Full focus on AI.

We brought together the Business Service Center team for an AI workshop. Managers, beginners, advanced users. Three sessions, one location, one shared goal: find out where AI fits into daily work.

Our CEO Nils Wagner opened the session with a clear message: AI matters for everyone in the room and across the group. We need to truly integrate it into how we work – with management encouraging adoption and success stories being shared.

Shared mailboxes with 200+ emails a day. AP dashboards built on 15,000-line SAP exports. Pages of process documentation. The colleagues in Poznań came prepared with their own use cases and challenged us on feasibility, data security, and integration limits.

They built their first AI assistants during the session. One colleague is already testing a chatbot for internal AP queries, another is automating email triage across shared inboxes.

Thank you Karol Szulc & Michael Vergunenko for the invite, hosting, and bringing everyone together.

The REHAU AI Roadshow: Another stop. Another team building their first AI use cases.

𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗥𝗘𝗛𝗔𝗨 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗴𝘂𝗲𝘀: Got the perfect location for the next stop? Reach out to the REHAU New Ventures Team.

Anton Bahtinov, Audrey Matarage, Maximilian Forster, Wilhelmine Schlosser, Christopher Heiß, Ronja Stoffregen, Nils Wagner

AI adoption does not happen in isolation. It takes people testing, learning and, yes, talking about it. Within organizations and beyond.

A couple of days ago, our REHAU New Ventures colleague Audrey Matarage shared a practical experience report of REHAU’s AI journey with the IHK Foreign Trade Committee: from tool selection and piloting to a group-wide rollout.

For many companies, generative AI and multi-model platforms are still not part of day-to-day work. The discussion showed the value of sharing real experiences, open questions and concrete approaches for meaningful impact.

Our colleague Sergey Tatarenko initiated the session to connect perspectives. For us, it was a valuable opportunity to share REHAU’s experiences from an industry and cross-functional view. What encouraged us most was seeing many participants leave motivated to explore the topic more deeply in their own organizations.

Thank you to Sergey for the invitation and hosting, to the IHK für Oberfranken Bayreuth, and to everyone involved for the open and constructive discussion.

We look forward to exchanging experiences with other companies and learning how different organizations are approaching #AI adoption. If you are working on a similar journey, we would be happy to connect.

𝗔𝗜 𝗶𝗻 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 - 𝘁𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗼𝘄.

We joined the 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗟𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗵 of REHAU Interior Solutions to share how #AI is already changing daily work. Thank you Maximilian Forster for taking the mic. Another practical, hands-on stop on our AI Enablement Roadshow.

Maximilian Forster introduced the REHAU AI Space: a platform that gives employees an easy entry point into AI – for real use cases, first AI agents, and with a supporting AI Academy.

The key takeaway? AI isn't a future topic. It's delivering real value today – from efficiency gains to entirely new ways of thinking.

What makes it work? The curiosity of the people joining the discussion – not the technology alone, but the colleagues who actively use it and push it forward. That's what's driving AI transformation.

Thanks to everyone who joined, and especially to Carsten Kröber and Matthias Haasler for the invite and your valued input. 🙏

𝗪𝗲 𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗸𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗳𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗜 𝗘𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗥𝗼𝗮𝗱𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄 with the REHAU Window Solutions SCM team, Anton Bahtinov and Wilhelmine Schlosser in Sibiu.
 
Half a day with a clear mandate: Make AI real for a team sitting at different starting points.
 
This is what a workshop on our roadshow looks like, no theory-only sessions:
 
‣ Use case-based live tour of the 𝗥𝗘𝗛𝗔𝗨 𝗔𝗜 𝗦𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲: models, integrations, agents.
‣ Create a common understanding of where #AI really helps – and where it doesn't.
‣ Teams evaluating real use cases, in their context, building first solutions with the tools they already have access to.
 
The team left with use cases across three horizons - ready now, in build, strategic - and a commitment to complete the 𝗥𝗘𝗛𝗔𝗨 𝗔𝗜 𝗔𝗰𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗺𝘆 together.
As they put it: "from vague interest to a concrete starting point in half a day."
 
Many thanks to Tobias Walther, Holger Kresser and the SCM team for the invite.
 
More to come.