Prof. Dr. Martin Eigner joins the AI² Advisory Board

Association Industrial AI (AI²) has appointed Prof. Dr. Martin Eigner to its Advisory Board. Eigner is widely regarded as a pioneer of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and model-based systems engineering, with more than four decades of impact across industry and academia.

After leading process, methods, and tools at Robert Bosch GmbH, Eigner founded Eigner + Partner in 1985 and grew it into one of the earliest PDM/PLM companies worldwide. He later established Eigner Engineering Consult, focused on engineering process optimisation and digitalisation. From 2004 to 2017 he held the chair for Virtual Product Development at TU Kaiserslautern, shaping modern concepts of interdisciplinary development and the digital thread from requirements through verification.

Eigner already serves as co-lead of AI²'s Product development & V-Model expert group, where practitioners work on embedding AI in structured development lifecycles so intelligent features remain safe, testable, and release-ready.

"Industrial AI only creates lasting value when it connects to how products are actually developed, verified, and changed," Eigner said. "That is where lifecycle management, systems engineering, and intelligent features must meet — not in isolated pilots."

Vlad Larichev, founder of AI² and Industrial AI Lead at Accenture DACH: "Martin shaped how Europe thinks about product data, engineering processes, and model-based development. That discipline is exactly what we need on the Advisory Board as AI² helps practitioners connect AI to regulated, traceable product lifecycles."

With Eigner on the Advisory Board, AI² strengthens its bridge between classic systems engineering and the new generation of AI-enabled industrial products — from PLM foundations to practical expert-group output.