On October 14, 2026, TechBase Regensburg served as a one-day gathering place for everyone in the region involved in artificial intelligence: The second AIR.CON brought together around 200 participants from companies, universities, schools, hospitals, and the startup scene. Uwe Pfeil, cluster manager at TechBase Regensburg GmbH, led the program. The conference was opened by Mayor Dr. Thomas Burger and TechBase Managing Director Alexander Rupprecht.
The technical program kicked off with the panel discussion “Trustworthy AI: Between Innovation, the EU AI Act, and Digital Sovereignty”.Prof. Dr. Udo Kruschwitz from the University of Regensburg and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Mauerer from OTH Regensburg shared the research community’s perspective, Nadine Stockinger reported on her work implementing the EU AI Act in the BMW Group’s vehicle development process, and Christian Volkmer, Managing Director of Projekt 29 and President of the Regensburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the Upper Palatinate/Kelheim, added the perspective of small and medium-sized enterprises. The discussion centered on the question of how technological progress, regulatory requirements, and the responsible use of AI can be reconciled. The discussion was lively and humorous, and the panel was by no means always in agreement: proponents of the EU AI Act were pitted against outspoken critics. In the end, however, there was consensus on the fundamental issue—AI simply cannot function without rules. Differing views emerged primarily regarding what form these rules should take.
After the lunch break, the guests split up into four parallel forums. In the startup forum, moderated by Judith Rank of the Upper Palatinate Digital Startup Initiative Oberpfalz, Bastian Graßl and Quirin Schneider from Pendura demonstrated how voice agents in small and medium-sized businesses answer calls, schedule appointments, and forward inquiries. Prof. Dr. Kambis Veschgini of Veschgini Consulting explained how an appropriate software architecture improves the quality of AI-generated code and mitigates its risks. Dominik Hommer and Benedikt Veith from Patronus Protect provided an overview of potential vulnerabilities when using AI in business, such as prompt injection and the leakage of confidential data, and Helene Nicole Hellwig from Movitus presented how AI structures transportation requests, thereby helping to avoid empty runs.
The Medtech Forum, moderated by Dr. Ilja Hagen of BioPark Regensburg, focused on AI in diagnostics and therapy. Prof. Dr. med. Dr. h. c. Martina Müller-Schilling of Regensburg University Hospital used the example of interventional endoscopy to illustrate how AI supports physicians today and also discussed risks such as an uncritical reliance on algorithms. Danilo Weber Nunes from OTH Regensburg presented the EndoPlan-3D project, which reconstructs three-dimensional models from endoscopy videos for procedure planning. Dr. Raphael Kozlovsky from lifespin presented Deep Health, a basic AI model for analyzing NMR blood spectra.
How AI is changing learning was the topic of the forum on schools and universities, moderated by Sandra Guder from MINT-Labs Regensburg. Dr. Stefanie Nickel from the University of Regensburg reported on the use of AI in elementary schools as part of the KIGaR project, Jakob Müller from the Pindl Private Schools explored the question of which skills will become important when answers are available at any time, and Prof. Dr. Simon J. Preis from OTH Amberg-Weiden demonstrated how in-house AI learning tools can enrich teaching without compromising academic integrity.
In the Industry & Energy Forum, moderated by Steve Schumann of TechBase Regensburg, Maximilian Deichsel of Infineon Technologies discussed how AI and advanced analytics can be sustainably integrated into companies through change management, training, and industry standards such as the Asset Administration Shell. Leonid Verhovskij, Lead Architect at Consolinno Energy, presented AI-based energy management in industry using real-world examples.
Between program sessions, participants took advantage of the accompanying trade show to talk with ten exhibitors: dab: Daten – Analysen & Beratung GmbH, edih dina (partner of TechBase & Fraunhofer IGCV), Intelstrom GmbH, Mittelstand-Digital Zentrum Augsburg (ibi research GmbH), Norizon, Movitus UG, Synnotech AG, TNG Technology Consulting GmbH, trinnovative GmbH, and 8solutions.
NOTE
The event is part of the German federal government’s transformation networks (funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, BMWE). The Regensburg-based project transform.r supports companies in navigating structural change in the automotive industry.