The Awakening of AI Agents: Open Claw, Handelsblatt and What Really Matters Now for Germany’s AI Future

Open Claw and Co in the spotlight – and what really matters now

For almost two years, Handelsblatt has repeatedly placed Artificial Intelligence prominently at the centre of public debate – most recently with the article “Das Erwachen” (“The Awakening”). It compellingly describes how AI agents such as Open Claw are, for the first time, taking over entire work steps and thus ushering in a new level of automation. In San Francisco, Berlin and Düsseldorf, pioneers, developers and IT enthusiasts are discussing the opportunities and risks of this new generation of AI – from snack-machine bots that autonomously order replenishment to party bots that independently make contacts.

Yet despite all the fascination with new hype technologies such as Open Claw, keeping focus on the actual state of digitalisation and AI projects in Germany remains crucial. Because before autonomous AI agents become part of everyday life, one thing applies: first the essentials, then the extras.

Essentials before extras: Germany’s AI reality

Developments around Agentic AI are reminiscent of the story of autonomous driving: major breakthroughs have been announced for years, yet everyday reality remains more complex. The same applies to AI: the essentials must be completed before the extras. Current studies show how much catching up Germany still has to do:

• Only around 5% of German companies have AI applications in live operation.

• More than 87% of all AI projects fail.

• Hardly any AI project has so far made a measurable positive contribution to the bottom line.

The real “awakening” is therefore long overdue: companies must recognise the opportunities of AI and create the foundations that enable AI projects to be successful and sustainable.

AI is not a tool – but the new core of the company

AI is not just another tool; it is becoming the new core of the company. Those who view AI merely as an additional tool miss its true potential. AI fundamentally changes value creation, processes and decision-making logic. Organisations must reorganise themselves around AI – selective tool introductions or optimisations of existing structures are no longer enough.

For AI to become a productive, secure and legally compliant part of the company core, platforms are needed that are deeply integrated into IT systems and address key requirements such as governance, compliance, reliability and data sovereignty. Only in this way can dozens of AI applications, thousands of assistants, hundreds of agents and countless workflows be managed at scale.

With the neuland.ai HUB, a German AI platform already exists that enables exactly this:

• Company-wide orchestration of AI applications and agents

• Compliance with regulatory requirements (GDPR, DORA, BRAO, EU AI Act, ISO 9001 & 27001, etc.)

• Control over data and processes

This turns AI into an enabler of the major AI transformation and the foundation of the hybrid “AI-first organisation”.

Do your AI homework now – with neuland.ai

Germany faces the task of consistently tackling its own AI homework. Companies need an AI strategy that goes beyond the use of individual tools:

• Train AI assistants and workflows

• Analyse company data

• Automate routine tasks

• Rethink processes

Only this way can AI’s enormous value-creation potential be unlocked. According to the German Economic Institute, this potential amounts to €330 billion per year. What matters is not the size of the AI models, but the development of secure, reliable and company-specific AI solutions that protect data sovereignty and knowledge.

neuland.ai supports companies on this path – with more than 64 employees, over 100 customers and more than 150 successful AI projects, including at Rödl, the Archdiocese of Cologne, the German Economic Institute, CDU State Parliamentary Group NRW, Griesemann Group, SVT GmbH, CiS GmbH, GDW e.V., TÜV Rheinland, ThyssenKrupp and many others (Case studies).

Would you like to know what the path to an “AI-first organisation” looks like in concrete terms? Try our demo version of the neuland.ai HUB or contact our team. Let us shape the “awakening” together and turn essentials into excellence.

Karl-Heinz Land, CEO neuland.ai, with reference to the Handelsblatt article “Das Erwachen”. Read the article in Handelsblatt