Europe has not lost the AI race – in fact, it is picking up speed and changing the narrative. That is the central message of this DLD Munich 2026 expert panel, moderated by Solveigh Hieronimus (McKinsey), which brings together Andreas Blattmann (Black Forest Labs), Mirko Holzer (SPRIND), Peter Körte (Siemens), Antonio Krüger (German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence), and Sebastian Wossagk (Acton Capital Partners).
Europe has both the talent and the technological foundations to shape the next wave of AI, the panelists agree.
Blattmann highlights “visual intelligence” as the “next wave of transformative AI”, as this will allow machines have a better physical understanding of the world. Europe has “very strong labs” in this field, Blattman points out.
Körte stresses the rise of industrial AI and predicts “massive productivity improvements” as factories, buildings, and energy systems become optimized by smart algorithms.
Krüger agrees. “The economic impact will very likely come from much more specialized models”, he says. “Industrial models in a certain area”, such as material design.
Wossagk challenges the negative narrative about Europe by comparing investment levels: OpenAI may have received far more capital than France’s Mistral – but “is there a 20 times difference in quality in what they’re able to do?”, he asks. “No, there isn’t.”
Watch the video for further insights.
