"It is important to me to exemplify the values that I hope to see in the world," says Tanja Schwarz. Since the beginning of June, she has been part of the HSZG as a research assistant in the BMBF project "PerspektiveArbeit Lausitz" at the Faculty of Economics and Industrial Engineering in the SCO-TTi research team under the direction of Prof. Dr. Sophia Keil.

In the project, 5 universities and 27 companies in Saxony and Brandenburg are researching and working on using data-based assistance systems to make work in Lusatia efficient, attractive and healthier. The aim is to use AI to support structural change in the Lusatia region and create new employment opportunities in order to facilitate the transition from the coal industry to a long-term, stable and sustainable economy. This will be done while taking into account the core values of people-centricity, sustainability and competitiveness. The term PAL in English means "buddy", meaning that the AI solutions are intended to serve as welcome support for users.

There are 2 PAL research groups at the HSZG that cooperate closely with each other. At the Zittau site, we are investigating ways of integrating AI into the value chains of regional SMEs in the production and logistics sector. Our focus here is on the development of chatbots that can be used internally for training purposes, employee competence support, document management support and externally for customer requirements such as product support. In order to ensure the protection of company data, the internal chatbots should operate offline, while chatbots for customer companies are secured using other methods such as VPN and firewalls. In addition, we are researching the acceptance behavior of employees with regard to the use of chatbots.