Tech Mahindra partners with DFKI to develop AI smart factory solutions
PUNE, INDIA, and KAISERSLAUTERN, GERMANY — Tech Mahindra has entered into a nonprofit partnership with Germany-based artificial intelligence (AI) research center DFKI to co-create next-generation smart factory solutions.
In its press release, Tech Mahindra notes that the collaboration aims to bridge the gap between academic research and industrial application by developing practical AI solutions for the German manufacturing sector.
“As manufacturing enters an era where AI and robotics will define competitiveness, our collaboration with DFKI exemplifies our commitment to building the next generation of adaptive, AI-powered manufacturing ecosystems,” said Harshul Asnani, President and Head of Europe Business at Tech Mahindra.
From AI research labs to factory floors
Tech Mahindra is a global technology solutions and consulting firm that leverages its applied innovation and industry expertise. The company was previously ranked #9 in the OA500 2025, an objective index of the world’s top 500 outsourcing companies. DFKI, in turn, disseminates its knowledge globally through comprehensive research.
The cooperation will help develop responsible, human-oriented AI that will directly affect manufacturing enterprises, and the laboratory’s ideas will be translated into the factory assembly line.
The collaboration’s structure is deliberately designed to facilitate this bridge. Tech Mahindra will expand its R&D activities in Germany and integrate DFKI’s AI technologies into its Manufacturing Experience Center and customer projects.
For DFKI, this offers an immediate avenue to implement its research in industrial contexts, making its developments scalable, secure, and usable for businesses.
Asnani notes, “Together, we aim to bridge the gap between research and real-world impact, enabling customers to unlock intelligence across their value chains while ensuring every innovation remains ethical, sustainable, and human-centred.”
Building adaptive, human‑centric manufacturing with AI
The organizations will collaborate on R&D in fields such as generative AI, robotics, digital twins, and agentic AI.
It is through this emphasis on new technologies that manufacturing ecosystems should not only be more efficient but also be able to make autonomous decisions and work more closely with humans, as the future of factories.
“The important cooperation between DFKI and Tech Mahindra enables production to be raised to a new level of value addition through agentic AI. Next-generation robots will become more efficient through smart software and will be able to work ever more closely with their human colleagues,” said Prof. Dr.-Ing. Martin Ruskowski, Head of the Research Department Innovative Factory Systems at DFKI.
The shared objective is to enable industries to transcend automation into the realm of actual intelligence, creating long-term value by developing sustainable, adaptive next-generation manufacturing capabilities powered by AI.
