Artificial Intelligence within Material Products – Exploring Challenges and Solutions for Product Development

The Product Development Process (PDP) is largely responsible for the value creation of industrial companies. It has evolved over time due to technology-related trends such as the Internet of Things, Process Automation, and today Artificial Intelligence (AI). Previous research has focused on the inclusion of these technologies into the PDP itself. In contrast, we focus on the changes to the PDP that are caused by the integration of AI into the material products to be developed and produced. Our goal is to derive a framework that identifies changes in the PDP and presents existing challenges and solution approaches. To achieve this, we conducted a structured literature review and interviews with 19 experts – mainly PDP practitioners integrating AI into their products. We show that to prepare the PDP for products integrating AI, aspects such as additional roles, modified process activities and further technological solutions become relevant.