Inside DEKRA's AI Strategy: The Future of Digital Trust

In Episode 15 of Espresso Talks, we sit down with Petra Finke, Chief Digital Officer and Member of the Management Board at DEKRA SE, to explore how a global testing, inspection and certification company is approaching AI—and what digital trust means in an increasingly software-driven world.

DEKRA’s long history has created a vast foundation of testing, inspection and engineering data. The challenge is turning that knowledge into accessible, high-quality data that can support new AI applications while maintaining the trust, governance and compliance required in a highly regulated environment.

Petra shares how DEKRA’s two-pronged AI strategy combines using AI to improve its own services and processes with the growing need to test, validate and certify AI-enabled products throughout their lifecycle. The conversation also looks at practical applications, from vehicle inspection and document processing to using sensor and time-series data to understand product performance and predict future outcomes.

A key part of the discussion is DEKRA’s partnership with Sphere Energy. Together, the companies are exploring how technical data, domain expertise and AI models can be combined to unlock new insights—from battery health and lifecycle prediction to broader engineering applications.

The episode also explores how large engineering organizations can move from experimentation to scalable AI: building reliable data platforms, giving experts easy access to the right models, and using fast iterations and proof-of-value projects to identify what is worth scaling.

Ultimately, the future of AI in engineering is not just about adopting the latest models. It is about combining trusted data, domain expertise and the right technology to make products safer, more efficient and more trustworthy.