The shortage of skilled workers has long been a reality. According to the ifo Institute, almost 30 percent of companies in Germany report that they cannot find enough qualified employees. IT, technology and knowledge-intensive areas of industry are particularly affected. For companies, staff shortages in production, service and quality management are becoming a brake on growth. And the trend will continue to worsen: By 2035, it is estimated that a further 3.5 million workers will be missing.While the search for new talent is becoming increasingly difficult, the topic of digitalization is moving into focus for many managers - but knowledge management is often left out of the equation. Yet the two topics are closely linked.
"Many companies invest in their digitalization strategy - but often without thinking about knowledge management. It is not only the decisive lever for networked production based on a valid data basis, but also an effective solution to the shortage of skilled workers. Because one thing is clear: the best machinery or the most modern IT is of little use if the knowledge for operation, service and further development is only in the heads of a few experts - and is lost when they retire."
Achim Steinacker, Product Manager, Empolis
Contents
- Why digitalization and knowledge management belong together
- What is Empolis Industrial Knowledge?
- Cleverly combining AI capabilities with in-house expertise
- Conclusion: Digitalization and knowledge management belong together strategically
Why digitalization and knowledge management belong together
Many companies see digitalization primarily as automation, IoT or paperless processes. However, without the context-based provision of decision-relevant knowledge, any digital transformation remains incomplete.
The problem: although knowledge is available, it is hidden in unstructured documents, emails or the minds of employees. The search for details quickly becomes a Sisyphean task - too many data sources, unclear timeliness, cryptic document names. In the end, people often end up asking their colleagues. All of this costs valuable working time, is tedious and not very efficient.
Especially in times of a shortage of skilled workers, it is not only who companies hire that matters, but above all what knowledge remains and how accessible it is. This is why knowledge management must be part of every digitalization strategy. With the AI-based Empolis Industrial Knowledge solution, companies can already secure expert knowledge, optimize processes and create the basis for sustainable growth.
What is Empolis Industrial Knowledge?
Empolis Industrial Knowledge is a standard SaaS software for AI-based knowledge management that makes industrial expertise available throughout the entire company - exactly where and in the right format where it is needed. It structures, networks and distributes knowledge from a wide variety of sources so that every user - be it employees, customers or partners - can access up-to-date, secure information at any time.
The platform maps the entire knowledge cycle - from collection and processing to use and continuous improvement. Selected AI technologies are used to provide expert knowledge intelligently, secure it sustainably and make it usable for both man and machine.
Cleverly combining AI capabilities with in-house expertise
The key question is: how can the knowledge that already exists be better utilized and made available to everyone?
This is exactly where AI-based knowledge management comes in. Empolis takes a holistic approach with its market-leading software for industry. The tool supports the entire knowledge cycle so that employees can easily integrate the creation of new knowledge articles into their everyday work.
With the recently released Knowledge Forge feature, building and maintaining a modern knowledge base has never been easier. While generic GPT tools are often unstructured and do not take existing content into account, AI-based text creation is perfectly tailored to the requirements of the industry:
- Quickly identify relevant knowledge from unstructured data: Knowledge can be filtered out of unstructured data such as documentation, emails or service reports and converted into usable information.
- Enrich knowledge databases with little effort: New knowledge articles use existing technical terms, understand correlations thanks to Knowledge Graph and are already optimized to the existing knowledge model.
- Use of different templates depending on the purpose: AI-based text creation delivers extracted knowledge based on existing data with just a few clicks. This saves valuable time, accelerates the creation of the knowledge base and significantly reduces manual effort.
- Quality check included: thanks to intelligent duplicate checking and embedding in the existing knowledge model, the knowledge base remains consistent, up-to-date and clear. Manual approval processes also ensure quality.
This puts Empolis a decisive step ahead of other providers: Knowledge Forge combines the speed of Generative AI with the precision and reliability of an industry-standard knowledge management system. This allows practical content to be generated from existing information in the company at the touch of a button.
In practice, this means that knowledge contained in various service tickets can be generated into structured articles in the formats problem, cause, solution, safety instructions, tools and spare parts - or according to individual templates - at the touch of a button. Decision trees and checklists can also be created directly from instructions in any text form. This reduces errors, costs and accident risks in service, production and quality and also speeds up the onboarding of new employees.
Employees can thus transfer newly created solutions into new knowledge articles in the shortest possible time. This shows how quickly valuable knowledge can be secured and processed thanks to modern AI methods. And it also gives an idea of the potential that lies dormant in the thousands and thousands of documents in companies.
And this is just the beginning: the Knowledge Forge feature is being continuously developed and improved. Soon, entire decision trees will be generated automatically on the basis of unstructured data.
Conclusion: digitalization and knowledge management belong together strategically
Knowledge management is a fundamental component of any digitalization strategy. Companies that invest in AI-based knowledge management now kill two birds with one stone: they secure institutional knowledge and make it usable for humans and machines at the same time. This turns corporate knowledge into a powerful lever against the shortage of skilled workers and for accelerating their own digital transformation - through efficiency, transparency and sustainable learning.
Is your company already using AI to create or maintain knowledge articles - or is your valuable knowledge still stuck in documents that hardly anyone can find or in minds that are about to retire?
