The AI Impact Award 2026 for the effective use of Artificial Intelligence has been awarded to Ebm-papst, Infineon, and Rehau. With this award, Manager Magazin and Porsche Consulting are recognizing, for the first time, companies in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland that are successfully applying Artificial Intelligence in their business processes. An independent jury of leading experts from science and industry presented the award in the categories of Product and Customer Experience, Production and Supply Chain, and Organization and Administration.
The global industrial and technology leader Ebm‑papst was honored in the Product and Customer Experience category for its “Nexaira” project. The AI-based solution intelligently controls industrial ventilation and cooling systems and optimizes their operation in real time, enabling significant energy savings, for example, in the operation of data centers.
Infineon, one of the world’s leading semiconductor manufacturers, received the AI Impact Award 2026 in the Production and Supply Chain category for its “GenAI for Test Engineering” project. The application automates the creation of complex test programs in semiconductor development and accelerates both development and production processes.
Rehau, one of the world’s leading suppliers of polymer-based solutions for the construction, industrial technology, materials, medical, mobility, and furniture industries, was recognized in the Organization and Administration category for its AI-driven procurement automation project. The solution streamlines the entire procurement process, from demand identification to decision support, while preserving existing supplier relationships, many of them small companies.
At the award ceremony held at the ESO Supernova Planetarium in the southern German city of Munich, Dr. Michael Steiner, Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board and Member of the Executive Board for Research and Development at Porsche AG, emphasized the importance of practical AI applications: “AI is already having a real impact today: The AI Impact Award highlights how technology, when used responsibly, shapes the future.”