25 years where software meets physical systems.
Twenty-five years of IoT platforms, built at industrial scale.
An international career from running my own digital agency, through scaling a global software company (ProSyst), to commercial responsibility within Bosch — with a verifiable track record in P&L ownership, product commercialisation, international market expansion, and leading complex change programmes.
Commercial leadership for the European business of Bosch’s Connected Product and IoT (CPIoT) solutions. Global brand ambassador, Sales Support team lead, builder of technical-champion relationships with CTOs and VPs of engineering across the upper industrial mid-market and at large industrial enterprises. Co-founder and host of the international event series Bosch Bytes (Athens 2024 & 2025, Copenhagen 2025). Drove the Agentic AI and Physical AI agenda: co-organiser of the HACK4INDUSTRY AI-agent hackathon (Hannover Messe 2025) and responsible for the Hybrid-AI showcase that documented a first-pass-yield improvement from 75% to 89% and a 90% reduction in report preparation time.
Business Owner for the external commercialisation of the Bosch IoT Suite — commercial accountability, not engineering. P&L responsibility for low double-digit million euro third-party revenue following the Bosch acquisition of ProSyst (2016). Scaled the platform from a Bosch-internal asset into a commercial enterprise offering; ~40 FTE across GTM, solutions architecture, pre-sales, and partner management. Stewarded the OEM-scale mandates including FOTA programmes in a UNECE R156-regulated environment. Master of Ceremony of Bosch Connected Experience (BCX) 2016, 2017, 2020 — Europe’s largest IoT hackathon with around 1,000 developers, startups, and enterprise partners each year.
Senior Product Manager and Evangelist at the European IoT middleware pioneer (acquired by Bosch in 2016). Coordinated all standardisation activities: active in the OSGi Alliance (since 2001), the Home Gateway Initiative (HGI), the UPnP Device Management Working Group, and the Broadband Forum (TR-069, TR-157). Led every EU- and internationally-funded research project across automotive, IoT, and ambient-assisted-living, including the US Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) programme that shaped V2X standardisation. International speaker at IEEE conferences, EclipseCon, OSGi Community Events, IFA, CeBIT, and Telematics Detroit.
What I stand for, and how I work.
Decide vendor-neutral
On agentic AI I act as the owner’s representative: whether the move is worth it, build or buy, which implementation partner — EU-compliant from day one (AI Act, CRA, NIS2). I write the spec, select the partner and sign off their work. I never bid on the build.
Open standards first
Open standards and open source before in-house builds — a stance I have held for 25 years. Four years on the OSGi Alliance board (2016–2020), four years on the Steering Committee of the OSGi Working Group at the Eclipse Foundation (2020–2024), co-chair of the OTA SIG at the Industrial Internet Consortium (2018–2020). Open interfaces are how a business keeps control of its own business model.
Ecosystems, not single products
Industrial platforms live or die by partners, standards, and communities — not by feature lists. Bosch Connected Experience (Master of Ceremony 2016, 2017, 2020), Bosch Bytes Athens and Copenhagen, HACK4INDUSTRY at Hannover Messe: formats that put OEMs, startups, and standards bodies in the same room.
Built myself, not only recommended
Anyone signing off on AI roadmaps should have worked with the models themselves. SchulHeld (React/Firebase/Vercel) built end-to-end with Claude Code in five days, agentic architectures and prompt engineering done myself. Anything I put in front of a CTO, I have run on my own keyboard first.
From pilot into the P&L
Models and showcases work — a business only starts once a pilot lands in revenue, cost centres, and operations. Scaled Bosch IoT Suite from internal tooling to low double-digit million euro ARR, ran FOTA for over 4 million vehicles of a global automotive manufacturer under UNECE R156, drove a Hannover Messe showcase from 75% to 89% first-pass yield. That is the bar, not demo day.
Direct & handover-ready
A grounded read, a clear position — even when it is uncomfortable. A mandate ends, the team stays: deliberate delegation, individual development, handover to accountable people with clear ownership — not to documents.
25 years on the same boundary
The interface where software meets physical systems has been my desk for 25 years — from OSGi gateways in over a million households and a million connected industrial engines, through FOTA at premium automotive scale, to agentic AI architectures for off-highway vehicles. What is now called Physical AI is home ground for me.
Understand
Architecture, GTM, and stakeholder reviews with engineering and sales leadership. A first considered assessment — in writing. Listening precedes opinion.
Plan
From assessment to a robust plan: owners, milestones, KPIs, cost envelope. Aligned with the board and engineering before execution starts — no roadmap that only I know.
Deliver
Weekly status meeting, monthly note to the board or supervisory board, clear ownership map across the team. First verifiable results within 60 days.
Hand over
Selection or internal development of a successor with a documented handover plan. At end of mandate the team operates without external support — and can demonstrate it.
Not only talking about it — building with it.
Frontier AI is not a theoretical concept. I use it in production — as a tool for my own projects, as a sales lever, and as an architectural principle in client work.
Hybrid AI at industrial scale.
IoT Remote Manager with Hybrid AI (GenAI + IoT) — real-time quality analytics for industrial manufacturing. Showcased at Hannover Messe 2025, delivered with the Bosch team.
SchulHeld
schulheld.app ↗A personal test project to validate agentic AI workflows: a full-stack app (React, Firebase, Vercel) built end-to-end with Claude Code in five days. Direct experience transfer into enterprise roadmaps: where frontier AI genuinely accelerates today — and where the real bottlenecks remain.
AI certifications 2025–2026.
What collaborators say.
“I had the distinct pleasure of collaborating with Kai on a global open-source IoT project. He brings the kind of leadership and deep technical expertise that can only be forged through years of building large-scale IoT solutions. He was truly the face of Bosch’s IoT initiatives. To this day, Kai remains my absolute go-to advisor for understanding how IoT works at scale. A true visionary in the space — I cannot recommend him highly enough.”
“Kai is in the top five of ecosystem builders globally. He connects people, products, ideas and technical architectures. He creates flow in meetings and events — a talent that becomes more and more important in the age of AI, in which the latter can take over some skills but never personality.”
“I’ve worked with Kai for around 15 years now. His passion for all things IoT, AI and Edge is genuinely infectious, and his insights into what really matters in technical systems — and why — are at the forefront of the industry. Kai is a dedicated professional, a pleasure to spend time with, and I look forward to many more years of collaboration.”
“Kai has the rare ability to maintain a big-picture perspective while mastering technical details, making discussions both strategic and highly practical. He doesn’t just follow trends — he actively contributes to them, bridging the gap between industry players, technical experts, and business needs. I wholeheartedly recommend him for any project involving IoT solutions, Edge computing, or environments that require both technical insights and strategic vision.”
“I have worked with Kai for many years, even before he became my customer (and partner). Kai has the unique talent of knowing technology in depth, while understanding business priorities, building communities and being a human that everyone wants to work with. This is a unique and rare combination in the tech world. Kai is a great leader to work with for IoT, AI and across verticals. He is curious and learning fast by being hands on. Hope to continue working with him for more years.”
Bosch
Around ten years inside the Bosch group — from Business Owner of the IoT Suite platform to commercial responsibility for Products & Solutions Europe. References from former managers and board peers on request.
OSGi Alliance
Over two decades involved with the consortium behind the OSGi standard, four of them on the board. References from peer board members on request.
Eclipse Foundation
Four years on the Steering Committee of the OSGi Working Group at the Eclipse Foundation — guiding the evolution of the standard after the OSGi-to-Eclipse transition. References from the committee on request.