Vossloh Combines Innovation and Heritage with the EdChat

Vossloh, a leading company in rail infrastructure, has developed the AI platform EdChat in collaboration with synsugar to optimize bureaucratic processes and increase employee efficiency. Inspired by company founder Eduard Vossloh, the EdChat was created as a personal AI assistant that not only offers practical benefits but also creates a special connection to the com

pany's history. Through this innovative solution, workflows at Vossloh are simplified and new opportunities are made available, while synsugar simultaneously laid the foundation for the development of their own AI Suite.

Artificial Intelligence at Vossloh: A new path to greater efficiency

Vossloh, named after founder Eduard Vossloh, is an internationally active company from Werdohl that operates primarily in rail infrastructure and the rail network. Since its founding in 1888, Vossloh has grown into a global company with several thousand employees and locations in 30 countries, whose rail fastenings are currently used in over 85 countries. As the company also cares deeply about sustainability and innovation, the sensible implementation of artificial intelligence in day-to-day business was an important goal.

Vossloh recognized the enormous potential of generative artificial intelligence early on and wanted to make this technology available to all its employees to simplify bureaucratic processes within the company. So why not just use ChatGPT, the software from OpenAI? It quickly became clear, however, that ChatGPT can neither be linked to internal company data nor meet Vossloh's requirements in terms of security and protection of sensitive data. Vossloh therefore decided to develop its own solution, which is operated in the internal Microsoft Azure Cloud while using modern language models. This is where the collaboration with synsugar was able to connect.

From collaboration to an individual solution: the emergence of the EdChat

Following this decision, the path to an in-house solution began, one that can precisely and efficiently implement the company's specific use cases in a protected environment. In their search for experts with many years of experience in the fields of data and artificial intelligence, they finally came across synsugar. The mutual interest in innovation and synsugar's expertise in data science and software engineering provided a good basis for going new ways together and developing an individual solution.

So the collaboration began in February 2024. After just one month, a first version of the so-called "EdChat" was in place – Vossloh's very own personal AI assistant, inspired by founder Eduard, or Ed for short. This first version still needed revision in many places and can hardly be compared with the current version, but it provided an initial starting point and, over time and through several tests, eventually created a vision of what the EdChat would become. There was quick agreement on further development, on problems and how to overcome them, so that Vossloh and synsugar were able to work hand in hand to develop and implement an individual AI solution. Using the EdChat has enabled many time-consuming and bureaucratic processes to be resolved quickly and precisely, significantly easing the working day for the more than 1,000 users and freeing up capacity for other important areas.

"You can assign my Copilot license to someone else. I prefer the EdChat." — Employee in purchasing, Vossloh AG

Deceased company founder represents the EdChat

But the special relationship with and appreciation of the software came not only from its practical benefits, but above all from the personal avatar that answers every question and problem employees have as the face of the AI software. Based on a single pixelated photo of the founder from the 19th century, precise prompting and multiple revisions finally produced an avatar that probably comes quite close to the founder. This very individual connection to the company's history and the possibility for employees to turn to the founder himself rather than just a machine proved to be a thoroughly successful idea and now forms an integral part of the collaboration. When there is a problem with the software, users often contact synsugar with words like "Can it be that Ed is on vacation? He's not answering me anymore." In this way, a company with strong traditions can honor its history while looking innovatively to the future.

From the EdChat to the AI Suite for medium-sized companies

The collaboration with Vossloh and the development of the EdChat also gave synsugar the idea for their own product, the AI Suite. Especially among medium-sized companies, there is often no lack of interest in AI solutions, but a lack of transparency about costs and knowledge of how AI can be meaningfully integrated into business processes makes access more difficult.

The AI Suite offers a way to give all employees access to AI technology in their working lives. At the same time, compliance with the GDPR and the EU AI Act can ensure data protection through operation on European servers. The AI Suite also makes it possible to securely connect company data with AI models in order to find internal knowledge more quickly. Specially trained AI assistants also provide support for specific tasks in individual departments such as customer support, legal or technical sales.

"Our partnership is characterized by professionalism and mutual trust. Together we plan to develop a number of innovative ideas to establish Vossloh as a digital pioneer internally as well. I look forward to our continued collaboration!" — Volker Jürgens, Corporate Head of IT, Vossloh AG

Would you also like to move your company forward through the sensible use of artificial intelligence? Our AI Suite offers an individual, innovative and transparent way to make AI accessible to all your employees. Contact us for a non-binding consultation or a free demo of the AI Suite. Feel free to use our contact form.