BMW's Regensburg plant now runs generative AI quality inspections across roughly 1,400 cars a day, with a car completed every 57 seconds on a single mixed line. The pilot, called GenAI4Q, was developed in-house with Munich-based startup Datagon AI and pushes an individual inspection catalogue to workers' smartphones for each vehicle.

The system analyses vehicle specifications, real-time production data and factory conditions to define what gets checked, in what sequence, for which car. Regensburg builds ICE, plug-in hybrid and fully electric variants of the BMW X1 and X2 on one line, so a checklist written for the average build misses the point. The AI prioritises likely trouble points linked to specific options, suppliers or production shifts.

What does this change for quality teams?

The practical shift is that the machine now defines inspection priorities while trained personnel still perform the checks. "Our AI tool generates an individual inspection catalogue for each specific customer vehicle," said Rüdiger Römich, responsible for Test Floor and Finish at Regensburg. The app guides the sequence, and a microphone icon activates voice recording.

A speech recognition engine transcribes technician comments and applies standardised coding, which supports traceability and later analytics. The learning-based model adapts its logic as conditions evolve, so accuracy should sharpen over time rather than depend on static checklists.

Plant head Armin Ebner frames the project within the group's wider digital push: "The use of artificial intelligence supports the digital transformation of BMW Group production towards an intelligently connected factory – for example, we are using AI for quality control in vehicle assembly." He added that BMW is "optimising production processes and creating added value for our products and, ultimately, for our customers."

Context: a flagship site preparing for NEUE KLASSE

Regensburg, operating since 1986, recently won "Factory of the Year" in the large-series assembly category. It is one of more than 30 BMW Group production sites globally and a flagship for the iFACTORY strategy, which targets flexibility, efficiency and digitalisation across the value chain. BMW has already built a virtual replica of the plant to simulate the future operating model for the next-generation NEUE KLASSE architecture, due to enter production there in the second half of the decade.

The sister site in Wackersdorf, which handles cockpit production and parts supply for overseas operations, adds its own capacity moves:

• A new battery testing centre goes live in autumn 2024.
• A dedicated door and flap centre for Rolls-Royce is being established.
• BMW employs about 9,250 people across Regensburg and Wackersdorf, including 350 apprentices.

What to watch next

The markers to track are scale and transfer. Watch whether GenAI4Q moves beyond pilot status at Regensburg, whether BMW replicates it at other iFACTORY sites, and how the Wackersdorf battery testing centre performs from autumn 2024. The NEUE KLASSE launch in the second half of the decade will be the real test of whether AI-defined inspection can hold quality across an entirely new architecture.