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Snippet: By scaling these AI tools, Volkswagen expects efficiency gains and cost savings of up to €4 billion by 2035.

Volkswagen Group announced at the IAA Mobility trade fair that it will invest up to €1 billion ($1.17 billion) in artificial intelligence by 2030, making AI a cornerstone of its vehicle development, manufacturing, and IT infrastructure strategy.

“AI is our key to greater speed, quality, and competitiveness — across the entire value chain, from vehicle development to production,” said Hauke Stars, Volkswagen’s board member for IT. “Our ambition: No process without AI.”

The company is already running more than 1,200 AI applications across its operations, with hundreds more in the pipeline. By scaling these tools, Volkswagen expects efficiency gains and cost savings of up to €4 billion ($4.7 billion) by 2035.

In vehicle development, Volkswagen is partnering with Dassault Systèmes to build an AI-driven engineering environment for virtual testing and simulations, cutting product development cycles by as much as 25%. In production, its Digital Production Platform links over 40 plants worldwide, embedding AI to optimize assembly, reduce energy use, and cut CO₂ emissions.

Volkswagen has also trained more than 130,000 employees under its WE & AI program and is exploring a Large Industry Model with other European manufacturers and tech firms to share industrial data and optimize processes across sectors.