Kai Hackbarth

Kai Hackbarth is an independent advisor and interim manager for IoT and AI transformation. 25 years of operating experience, ten of them in the Bosch group (via the ProSyst acquisition in 2016), most recently Head of Products & Solutions Europe. Active in the OSGi Alliance since 2001, board member 2016–2020; co-chair of the IIC OTA SIG 2018–2020. Focus: industrial IoT, industrial AI and connected products. MIT Sloan Executive Education, “Implementing Agentic AI” (2026).

Kai Hackbarth is an independent advisor and interim manager with 25 years of operating experience in industrial IoT, connected products and industrial AI. Most recently Head of Products & Solutions Europe at Bosch Software and Digital Solutions; before that Business Owner Industrial IoT Platforms at Bosch.IO, where he scaled the Bosch IoT Suite from an internal tool into a commercial enterprise platform with full P&L responsibility and around 40 FTE. His profile spans FOTA mandates at OEM scale under UNECE R156 to current AI initiatives such as the HACK4INDUSTRY hackathon (agentic AI for off-highway vehicles) at Hannover Messe 2025.

Active in the OSGi Alliance since 2001, four of those years on the board (2016–2020). Steering committee member of the OSGi Working Group at the Eclipse Foundation (2020–2024) and co-chair of the OTA SIG at the Industrial Internet Consortium (2018–2020). Onalytica “Top 100 IIoT Influencer” (2020) and “Who is Who in IoT” report (2022). 2026: MIT Sloan Executive Education, “Implementing Agentic AI: Building Your Organizational Playbook”, with the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing.

He publishes a weekly annotated reading list on industrial AI, IoT and European tech sovereignty at kaihackbarth.com/reading.

Kai Hackbarth brings 25 years of operating experience in building and scaling industrial IoT and AI platforms. His career connects the early pioneering work on open standards for connected devices with today’s interface where software meets physical systems — now focused on industrial IoT, industrial AI and connected products.

After 15 years at ProSyst Software (most recently Senior Product Manager, Evangelist and lead for standardisation and research) he joined the Bosch group in 2016 through its acquisition of ProSyst. As Business Owner Industrial IoT Platforms at Bosch.IO he scaled the Bosch IoT Suite from an internal tool into a commercial enterprise platform business with full P&L responsibility and around 40 FTE. His remit included FOTA mandates at OEM scale in UNECE-R156-regulated automotive contexts and platform implementations in energy and smart-building programmes.

From 2022 at Bosch Software and Digital Solutions — first as Senior Technology Evangelist, from 2024 as Head of Products & Solutions Europe — he drove enterprise AI adoption among upper-mid-market industrial companies and large industrial groups, was global brand ambassador for Bosch CPIoT, and co-organised the HACK4INDUSTRY hackathon on agentic AI for off-highway vehicles at Hannover Messe 2025. His hybrid-AI showcase demonstrated a first-pass-yield improvement from 75 % to 89 % in industrial manufacturing. Master of ceremony of the Bosch Connected Experience (BCX) 2016, 2017 and 2020 — Europe’s largest IoT hackathon. Co-founder and host of the international event series Bosch Bytes (Athens 2024 & 2025, Copenhagen 2025).

On standards work: more than two decades in the OSGi Alliance (since 2001), four of them on the board (2016–2020); two years as co-chair of the Over-the-Air Special Interest Group at the Industrial Internet Consortium (2018–2020); four years on the steering committee of the OSGi Working Group at the Eclipse Foundation (2020–2024) — contributions to open standards and governance patterns that billions of connected devices run on today.

International speaking: Bosch Connected World, Hannover Messe, IoT Tech Expo (Europe & North America), EclipseCon, The Things Conference, IEEE, IFA, CeBIT. Third-party press includes Handelsblatt (April 2025, quoted on the agentic-AI project for off-highway vehicles), IoT Now, The New Stack, Outgrow “Marketer of the Month”. Trade-press contributions since IEEE 2004; recent writing on IoT architectures, CRA-compliant EV-charging infrastructure and industrial-AI readiness. Onalytica recognition as a Top 100 IIoT Influencer (2020) and in the “Who is Who in IoT” report (2022). 2026: MIT Sloan Executive Education, “Implementing Agentic AI: Building Your Organizational Playbook”, with the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing.

Available now, independently, for freelance projects (4 weeks), interim mandates (3–9 months) and ongoing advisory to boards and supervisory boards. In focus: upper-mid-market industrial companies with platform ambitions, industrial-tech scale-up founders targeting enterprise go-to-market, and private-equity partners with commercial or tech due-diligence mandates.