Eine Deutschland AG der Daten: the time is now

Can Germany compete with the AI giants of the U.S. and China? Artificial Intelligence holds tremendous promise, but it’s nothing without data.

In their thought-provoking guest article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, our CDQ colleagues Prof. Dr.-Ing. Boris Otto and Dr. Sebastian Muschter argue that Germany and Europe need a radically new approach to data collaboration to stay competitive in the global AI race.

Rather than relying on small-scale pilots and fragmented initiatives, the authors call for a bold leap: Eine Deutschland AG der Daten - a coordinated, cross-industry data ecosystem that unites companies, public institutions, and technology partners to share and enhance organizational master data. This foundational data is the ideal starting point: low in complexity, high in impact, and essential for scalable AI applications and improved supply chain data quality - laying the groundwork for domain-specific AI models that reflect Germany’s industrial strengths.

Key insights from the article include:

• Why generative AI can’t thrive without large-scale, high-quality data, and how Europe’s fragmented data landscape poses a challenge.
• How specialized, domain-focused AI models could become Europe’s competitive edge.
  The role of Data Spaces and ecosystems like Catena-X in building trust and enabling secure, sovereign data sharing.
• Why organizational master data is the ideal entry point for cross-sector collaboration, and how it offers fast, scalable returns.
• Real-world examples of successful data-sharing initiatives, including CDQ’s Trusted Business Partner Data and Catena-X services.
• A clear call to action for businesses and the public sector to jointly shape a sovereign, innovative data economy - starting now.

Read the full article (in German) to discover how a bold data strategy could redefine Germany’s role in the AI age.