Germany’s Path to Synergistic Development of AI Technology and Talent

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a key area for Germany to enhance its national technological innovation capabilities and compete in the global tech industry. To seize opportunities in AI development and address challenges such as the disconnect between technology research, talent supply, and industrial demand, Germany has successively launched the “Federal Government AI Strategy” and its updated versions in 2018, 2020, and 2023, and initiated the “High-Tech Agenda” in 2025. This top-level design aims to build a development system characterized by “strategic guidance, core universities, platform support, and collaborative interaction,” promoting the integrated development of AI education, technology, and talent, thereby creating a unique German path that offers valuable insights for other countries in systematically laying out their AI education and talent strategies.

On April 20, a man experiences VR equipment at the Siemens booth during the Hannover Messe in Germany.

Top-Level Strategic Guidance: Anchoring Integrated Development of Education, Technology, and Talent

Talent is the core link connecting education and technology, and is the primary resource for AI development. Germany has consistently utilized national strategy as a lever, iterating its top-level design to clarify the synergistic relationship among education, technology, and talent, progressively strengthening the strategic direction for integrated development, and providing solid policy support and funding guarantees for various practical measures.

Visitors experience rehabilitation equipment at the 2025 International Medical Devices Exhibition in Düsseldorf, Germany.

The 2018 “Federal Government AI Strategy” clearly identified education and talent as decisive factors for ensuring the research and development of AI in Germany. It emphasized the need to systematically expand AI education supply, popularizing AI knowledge and skills across all levels of the education system, aligning educational content with future societal development needs.

In 2020, the German federal government updated its AI strategy, increasing funding to 5 billion euros. The government stressed that a broad and high-quality professional talent pool is fundamental for Germany to join the ranks of global leaders in AI research and application. This requires expanding the talent reserve through higher education, vocational training, and continuing education across multiple channels.

In 2023, in response to the rapid development of generative AI and the new challenges it brings, the federal government updated its strategy again, issuing the “AI Action Plan,” which places talent alongside research, data, and computing power as the four fundamental elements driving AI development. This is seen as essential for maintaining Germany’s technological sovereignty and global leadership.

In 2025, the new German government further reinforced the strategic direction of integrated development in its first top-level science and technology innovation strategy, the “High-Tech Agenda.” This agenda positions key technologies like AI as breakthrough points for innovation, listing the cultivation and introduction of professional talent as a key support for successful implementation. To realize this strategy, the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Aerospace allocated 1.5 billion euros in its 2025 budget to support research innovation and talent cultivation in key technologies like AI, enhancing Germany’s competitiveness in these critical fields through collaborative investment in technology and talent.

On April 20, people watch a robotic dog performance at the Hannover Messe in Germany.

Core Universities Taking Action: Building a Comprehensive Talent Cultivation and Research Support System

The German federal government positions higher education as the core hub for the integrated development of education, technology, and talent, implementing a series of measures to promote the comprehensive integration of AI into university research and teaching, and to strengthen universities’ research and educational capabilities.

The “AI Funding Initiative in Higher Education” was launched to fully integrate AI into the higher education system. In November 2020, the German federal government and state governments jointly approved this initiative. From 2021 to 2025, the federal and state governments will jointly invest approximately 133 million euros in a 9:1 ratio to fund universities to fully incorporate AI into their teaching systems. The funding targets two aspects: first, to support universities in developing AI course systems or teaching modules to enhance academic talent cultivation; second, to fund the application of AI technology in university teaching and management. Independent universities can receive up to 2 million euros, while those applying jointly with other universities can receive up to 5 million euros. A total of 54 projects were funded, benefiting 81 universities.

A large-scale increase in AI professor positions has been initiated to solidify AI’s foundation in universities. In the first AI strategy in 2018, the German federal government proposed to add at least 100 AI professors nationwide by 2025 to address the shortage of faculty in AI fields at universities and enhance their academic research and teaching capabilities. This goal was achieved ahead of schedule in 2022. By 2023, the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Aerospace had actually added over 150 professor positions through various support paths, including the Humboldt Foundation, the German Research Foundation, AI competence centers, and pre-employment-tenure-track programs. These positions are widely distributed across major comprehensive and technical universities in Germany, strengthening the foundation for AI academic research and education.

AI-related degree programs have been established, forming a complete training chain from undergraduate to doctoral levels. German universities offer a complete range of AI courses covering core areas such as machine learning, neural networks, natural language processing, and computer vision, with the number of courses ranking among the highest in Europe. Additionally, German universities place great importance on the interdisciplinary nature of AI, integrating AI knowledge into traditional disciplines such as philosophy, economics, medicine, media, and law. As of 2022, the number of interdisciplinary AI courses outside of computer science has increased fivefold, totaling 109 courses, most of which are offered in an “open course” format accessible to students from all majors. To strengthen the cultivation of master’s and doctoral talents in AI, in 2022, the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Aerospace, in collaboration with the German Academic Exchange Service, launched a graduate program named after German computing pioneer Konrad Zuse—the “Konrad Zuse AI Excellence Academy.” This program features interdisciplinary, cross-field, and international teaching, bringing together top experts from academia and industry to form a mentoring team that provides academic guidance, research topics, and practical opportunities for students, while supporting their participation in international exchanges. Three academies are led by Darmstadt University of Technology, Dresden University of Technology, and Technical University of Munich, in collaboration with several research institutions and enterprises, focusing on key areas such as machine learning, trustworthy AI, and health AI. Each academy receives up to 3 million euros annually from the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Aerospace for operational funding.

An audience member shakes hands with a humanoid robot at the 2025 International Consumer Electronics Show in Berlin, Germany.

Building Platform Carriers: Strengthening Collaborative Efficiency in Research Innovation and Talent Cultivation

Germany emphasizes the establishment of diversified platform carriers, integrating resources from universities, research institutions, and industry to promote deep collaboration between research innovation and talent cultivation, overcoming bottlenecks in computing power, technology, and talent in AI development. This has led to the construction of a collaborative development system characterized by “competence centers leading, professional alliances supporting, and infrastructure guaranteeing,” enhancing the overall effectiveness of integrated development in education, technology, and talent.

AI competence centers have been established to create a national team for AI research and a hub for talent cultivation. Since 2018, the German federal government has set up five AI competence centers at top universities such as Technical University of Berlin, Dortmund University of Technology, Dresden University of Technology, University of Tübingen, and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, covering major research directions and methodological systems in AI, aiming to promote breakthroughs in frontier science, cultivate young scientific talent, and build a core platform representing national standards for AI technology research, application, and talent cultivation. These competence centers are established in collaboration with research institutions and closely cooperate with enterprises, forming a national-level AI collaborative network characterized by resource sharing and interconnectedness. In 2022, the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Aerospace shifted the funding model for competence centers from short-term project-based to permanent institutional funding, aiming to provide long-term support for AI research and talent cultivation through stable funding. The ministry and the state governments where the centers are located jointly provide long-term funding in a 5:5 ratio, with an annual total of up to 100 million euros, and each competence center receives between 15 million to 25 million euros annually.

The networked German Robotics Research Institute has been established to create a top national robotics research alliance and talent development factory. Robotics technology, as a key area of AI, presents significant opportunities for innovation in Germany. In 2024, the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Aerospace, in collaboration with 14 top universities and research institutions, as well as over 20 partner organizations, established the German Robotics Research Institute (RIG), providing 20 million euros in funding over four years to promote top-tier robotics technology research and education, helping Germany become a global leader in embodied AI. RIG has developed a research-oriented talent cultivation plan that spans from undergraduate to doctoral levels, aiming to meet the growing demand for professional talent in the robotics field. Specific measures include offering introductory courses in robotics to guide undergraduates into research, providing a master’s program in robotics taught in English, and establishing fast-track doctoral programs to accelerate high-level talent cultivation. Additionally, through industry internships and specialized training, students’ practical capabilities in the industry are reinforced.

The National High-Performance Computing Network for Universities has been established to overcome bottlenecks in research computing power. The National High-Performance Computing Network (NHR) is a national-level AI infrastructure project jointly funded by the German federal government and state governments, aimed at integrating and enhancing high-performance computing resources in universities, providing internationally competitive computing power support for university researchers. NHR consists of computing centers from nine universities, including RWTH Aachen University, Darmstadt University of Technology, Dresden University of Technology, Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Frankfurt University, University of Göttingen, Berlin University Alliance, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and Paderborn University, covering major research clusters in Germany. In addition to providing critical computing power support for research in frontier fields such as AI and big data, NHR places great emphasis on talent cultivation, offering a series of training courses from basic to advanced levels to enhance researchers’ methodological capabilities, and establishing the NHR Graduate School, which offers up to nine doctoral scholarships annually. In terms of funding, the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Aerospace and state governments jointly invest 62.5 million euros annually in NHR, with funding periods from 2021 to 2030. In 2024, the ministry further proposed in the “German AI Computing Infrastructure Action Plan” to equip NHR with processors suitable for AI applications to continuously enhance its technical support capabilities.

AI technology is the core engine driving a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation. The deep integration of education, technology, and talent is key to promoting high-quality development in AI. Germany has formed a collaborative development model that is guided by national top-level strategy, centered on higher education, and supported by platform carriers, effectively linking universities, research institutions, and industry in the integrated development of AI education, technology, and talent. This provides a reference experience for countries worldwide to address challenges in AI development and improve their layouts in related fields, injecting lasting momentum into the sustainable development of AI technology.