Germany's Dr. Wolff cosmetics company is going all in on AI

Published 7 June 2026 · tech

This medium-sized, family-run business has embraced artificial intelligence to stay competitive. All employees are encouraged to learn about and apply LLMs. "We are busy enough

This medium-sized, family-run business has embraced artificial intelligence to stay competitive. All employees are encouraged to learn about and apply LLMs. "We are busy enough with the production side of things," Inna Hilgenberg told DW. She's the deputy head of the packaging department at Dr. Wolff, a Bielefeld-based midsize cosmetics and pharmaceutical company. Behind her, black and red shampoo bottles are filled while they glide down the conveyor belt. "Writing instructions while busy with these tasks is not that easy," she added. That's why Hilgenberg has come to appreciate her company's very own artificial intelligence (AI) tool WolffGPT, which she uses practically every day. Her job involves scheduling and instructing staff in the filling and packaging department, as well as ensuring hygiene and safety standards are met. She relies on WolffGPT to write workflows, design presentations, edit Word files and Excel spreadsheets. "I only see advantages in AI," she told DW. Inna Hilgenberg is very satisfied with the use of AI at Dr. Wolff Image: Matilda Jordanova-Duda/DW Many of the company's employees had already started using ChatGPT in their free time and would have liked to use it at work too. However, no company data can be shared with public large language models, or LLMs. That's why Dr. Wolff developed an in-house AI model on the basis of existing LLMs. It's connected to selected company systems and data and, therefore, sensitive company data remains protected. In Germany, large companies are more likely to use AI than smaller ones. Manufacturers most commonly make use of AI to generate texts, images and code, according to a future technologies study conducted by ifaa, a Düsseldorf-based institute of applied work science.

The study found that over 40% of companies surveyed already use AI, with 37% planning to do so. Increasing competitive pressure is forcing many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector to consider using AI to boost productivity and efficiency, according to the IfM, a German institute that looks into small and medium-sized enterprises. It found that reservations in the workforce had slowed down the widespread adoption of AI. Humanoid robots steal the show at German trade fair To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Wolff staffers embrace AI Hilgenberg was one of the first staffers to embrace AI at Dr. Wolff. She completed an online training course at the company's AI Academy and now supports others in her team who want to use the technology. The company has about 110 such AI pioneers among its 930 employees worldwide. "They are ordinary colleagues who don't necessarily have to have a technical background," the company's AI manager, Zhuo Li, told DW. AI manager Zhuo Li says many staffers are open to learning about LLMs Image: Matilda Jordanova-Duda/DW These AI pioneers spend around 10 hours watching short instructional videos and completing small tasks to get up to speed. Topics covered include how to craft good prompts and what happens to data in LLMs. They then spend part of their time identifying potential AI applications in their day-to-day work and developing and testing prototypes for them. They also assist colleagues who want to learn more about AI. "We have been able to find people in each team who have good ideas, a keen interest in the topic and a desire to pass on their knowledge," Li told DW.