KIT Institute for Information Systems (WIN)

What KIT Institute for Information Systems (WIN) does

The Institute for Information Systems (WIN) is a research institute at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), established on January 1, 2025 to investigate and design the digitalization of economy and society from a socio-technical perspective. WIN operates as a non-profit academic unit within KIT, employing 15 staff under a broader research community of professors, doctoral researchers, and students, and convening research groups including the human-centered systems lab (h-lab), KD2Lab for biosignal research, the Digital Service Innovation (DSI) group, and the DFG-funded KD2School Research Training Group. Its research agenda centers on human-centered AI, biosignal-adaptive systems, digital service innovation, and the digitalization of energy systems.

The institute's portfolio consists of applied research outputs and research infrastructure rather than commercial products. Named outputs include WinPod, an AI-powered service that converts research papers into audio; Ada, an AI-powered climate adaptation system developed with UIG e.V. for municipalities; and ASSUME, an agent-based electricity-markets simulation toolbox. AI capabilities span modalities including text (LLM assistants, chatbots), image (building documentation, emotion recognition), video (gaze-adaptive mixed reality), audio (podcast generation, speech translation), and multimodal biosignal-driven systems, supported by KD2Lab infrastructure housing EEG, eye-tracking, and wearable sensors.

WIN does not sell commercial products and does not publish revenue figures. Operations are funded through third-party grants from German federal ministries (BMBF, BMWK, BMAS), the DFG, and the European Union, alongside collaborative research contracts with industry partners including EnBW, SAP, IBM, BASF, Bosch, Porsche, Allianz, Google, and ABB. Teaching is delivered through KIT's degree programs in Information Systems, Industrial Engineering, and Digital Economics. Outreach is community-led through academic publications, conference presence (CHI, ECIS, ICIS, DESRIST, HHAI), the WinPod podcast, and the wir-forschen.digital citizen science platform, which engaged 1,972 citizens across 251 cities in the 2026 User Climate Test.

Name

KIT Institute for Information Systems (WIN)

Legal name

Institute for Information Systems (WIN) at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)

Website

https://win.kit.edu

Company type

Private

Founded year

2025

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The Institute for Information Systems (WIN) is a 2025-established, KIT-embedded non-profit research institute that investigates the digitalization of economy and society from a socio-technical perspective, focusing on human-centered AI, biosignal-adaptive systems, digital service innovation, and energy market digitalization, funded by public grants and industry research partnerships.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Karlsruhe

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Third-Party Research Funding: Research funded by government agencies (BMBF, BMWK, DFG), EU projects, and public funding bodies
2. Industry Partnerships: Collaborative research with industry partners including EnBW, SAP, IBM, BASF, Bosch, and others
3. Teaching and Education: University education programs generating tuition-based revenue through KIT

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

WIN is an academic research institute at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) that conducts research and teaching on the digitalization of economy and society from a socio-technical perspective. The institute operates multiple research groups covering human-centered AI, biosignal-adaptive systems, digital service innovation, and energy markets. Its deliverables include research publications, open-source tools, industry-funded research collaborations, and degree programs.

Product overview

KIT Institute for Information Systems (WIN) is a university research institute established in 2025 at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. WIN operates as a research and teaching organization rather than a commercial product company. Its portfolio consists of research applications and digital services developed through academic projects. Key offerings include WinPod (AI-powered podcast conversion for research papers), Ada (AI-powered climate adaptation system), and ASSUME (Agent-Based Electricity Markets Simulation Toolbox). WIN maintains several specialized research labs including the human-centered systems lab (h-lab) focused on personalization and adaptive systems, and KD2Lab for biosignal research infrastructure. The institute also hosts the DFG-funded KD2School research training group on biosignal-adaptive systems. Research areas span human-centered AI, digital service innovation, energy markets, and democratic participation.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• h-lab (human-centered systems lab): Research group focused on human-centered systems, personalization, adaptive systems, and human-AI interaction
• KD2Lab
• WinPod

Products and services

• WinPod A digital service that uses AI to convert WIN research papers into high-quality audio content, making scholarly work more accessible to broader audiences.
• Ada - AI-powered Climate Adaptation System An AI-powered climate adaptation system developed in collaboration with UIG e.V. that helps municipalities develop effective climate adaptation strategies despite expertise gaps and limited resources.
• ASSUME (Agent-Based Electricity Markets Simulation Toolbox) An agent-based modeling toolbox for electricity market simulations used in energy economics and energy policy research, featuring deep reinforcement learning capabilities.
• Academic Teaching Programs (Information Systems) Degree programs in Information Systems at KIT including undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral education, combining research- and practice-based teaching with industry involvement.
• Industry Research Collaboration Services Collaborative research projects, capstone projects, and Industry-on-Campus programs (e.g., EnBW Digital Lab, IBM DSI Group) where WIN researchers and students work with enterprise partners on AI, digital services, and information systems challenges.

Quantifiable outcome

• 2026 User Climate Test: nationwide user climate index of 3.39 on scale 1-5, system usability scale (SUS) of 69.80 points across 1,972 citizens from 251 cities
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers12 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability17 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Twelve partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AGcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 6 May 2025Industry on Campus partnership to closely integrate corporate practice and research ecosystem for investigating and designing innovative use cases for AI-based business processes. Up to three EnBW researchers supported as doctoral students at KIT.
• SAP SEcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 18 March 2025Research collaboration agreement on 'Human-centered AI for Sustainable Business'. Focus on designing human-centered AI-based assistants supporting sustainability professionals. Multiple design science research cycles performed.
• IBMcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 9 January 2025Strategic collaboration to jointly develop and strengthen digital innovations. Focus areas include 'Digital Innovations for Services and Platforms', 'Artificial Intelligence (AI)', and 'Human-Machine Collaboration'. IBM supports a tenure-track professorship at WIN.
• BASF SEminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerResearch project on human-centered design of LLM-based bots for BASF employees following a human-centered design process.
• UIG e.V.coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNon-profit organization collaboration on user-friendliness of digital services. Joint development of Ada - AI-powered climate adaptation system. Collaboration on MenschKI! project and citizen science platform wir-forschen.digital.
• CAS Software AGminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCooperation on digital networking platforms and open science platform development (openscience.kd2lab.kit.edu).
• Atruvia AGminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerIT service provider for German cooperative banks. Industry talks and capstone projects in Business Intelligence Systems using Databricks platform.
• GoogleminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerJoint workshops on UX research for Material Design, wearables, and personalization. Knowledge exchange on HCI, wearables, and personalization.
• BoschminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCooperation on Agentic Business Intelligence & Analytics Systems doctoral position and data-driven sensor applications project.
• Ed. Züblin AG / STRABAGminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPractice partner in NaiS building renovation project providing real-world requirements and use cases.
• Heidelberger Services AG (hsag)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerResearch collaboration on human-robot interaction and social robot design in customer service settings (Betti robot field study).
• respeak GmbHminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerinvestBW-funded project WeLearnAI for interactive AI competency development solutions.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• ETH Zurich AI Center: ETH AI Center is a broader, established European AI research hub with industry partnerships — comparable in scale and ambition to WIN's human-centered AI research, though operating across a much wider AI portfolio and as a much larger incumbent institution.
• Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR) Lab: BAIR is a large, established AI research lab — comparable to WIN in pursuing human-centered and beneficial AI research, though much larger in scale and operating as a broader AI research umbrella rather than a socio-technical IS institute.
• TU Munich AI research (e.g., School of CIT / MCML): TUM's AI research and MCML center conduct large-scale AI and machine learning research with industry partnerships — a comparable German-speaking AI research environment competing for similar grants, students, and industry sponsors.

Direct peers

• German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI): DFKI is Germany's largest AI research institute, operating research departments across AI topics with industry and government funding — the closest German peer to WIN in terms of applied AI research and industry collaboration at scale.
• Fraunhofer IAIS (Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems): Fraunhofer IAIS conducts applied AI, machine learning, and data analytics research with industry partners — directly comparable to WIN's applied AI focus and industry-sponsored project model within the German research ecosystem.
• Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI): Stanford HAI researches human-centered, trustworthy AI with strong industry partnerships — directly comparable to WIN's h-lab focus on human-centered AI, explainability, and societal benefit, with a similar academic-industry collaboration model.
• MIT Center for Information Systems Research (CISR): MIT CISR conducts research on digital business, information systems strategy, and enterprise transformation — closely aligned with WIN's focus on the digitalization of economy and society from a socio-technical perspective, and similarly partners with large enterprises on applied research.
• University of Mannheim Information Systems group: Mannheim's IS group is one of Germany's leading information systems research centers, and Prof. Mädche (WIN's h-lab head) previously held a professorship there — making it a closely comparable German IS research group with similar research themes in human-centered systems and AI.
• Carnegie Mellon Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII): CMU HCII is a leading HCI research institute with strong biosignal and wearables research — directly comparable to WIN's KD2Lab biosignal research and h-lab human-centered systems focus, including wearable sensing and adaptive systems.

Others

• Karlsruhe Institute of Technology other research entities: Other KIT institutes (e.g., AIFB, KSRI) operate adjacent information systems and AI research at the same parent institution — relevant as internal KIT peers sharing infrastructure, students, and the broader KIT research ecosystem with WIN.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/win_kit
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/win-kit

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about KIT Institute for Information Systems (WIN)