AI platform to increase workforce productivity

Business context

As a global technology leader with over 40,000 employees across diverse business units and geographies, ZEISS recognized the transformative potential of generative AI to enhance productivity, streamline workflows, and accelerate innovation. However, realizing this potential required more than just access to AI models - it demanded a secure, compliant, and user-centric platform that could integrate seamlessly into existing work environments while meeting the stringent security and governance standards expected of a leading technology company

The challenge: How could ZEISS democratize access to cutting-edge generative AI capabilities and its adoption while ensuring sovereignty, IP management, data security, regulatory compliance, and an exceptional user experience for employees with varying levels of technical expertise?

Project overview

ZEISS Digital Innovation partnered with Carl Zeiss AG to design and launch two interconnected solutions that form ZEISS's enterprise generative AI ecosystem.

The first stream focused on the GenAI Platform - a comprehensive infrastructure serving as ZEISS's central hub for AI technology, providing employees across the organization with secure access to large language models, standardized blueprints for rapid adoption, seamless tool integration, and enterprise-grade security and compliance.

The second stream delivered ZEISS GPT Plus - the flagship generative AI application running on this platform, offering multiple specialized use cases tailored to workforce productivity needs. This greenfield initiative spanned the entire product lifecycle from concept exploration through development, user experience design, secure deployment, and ongoing operations management. The engagement encompassed both front-end UI design for an intuitive user experience and close collaboration with the wider Carl Zeiss AG team on back-end development and platform integration, ensuring both solutions work seamlessly together to empower ZEISS employees with safe, trusted, and scalable AI capabilities.

Our approach

We took a holistic, user-centered approach that combined strategic consulting, iterative design, and agile development:

Strategic foundation & Green field development
Starting from a blank canvas, we worked closely with ZEISS stakeholders to define the platform vision, technical architecture, and governance framework that would support sustainable growth and adoption.
User-centric design philosophy
Recognizing that AI adoption depends accessible, user-friendly options we figured out an approach that make it extensively easy to access the modalities that we provide with the platform. The goal was to design the platform as open as possible so that users could not only use applications running on the platform – but build their own ones with functionalities that are provided centrally. To add: Platform Development means to be as open in an architecture as possible – we cannot ‘close’ doors that should be onboarded on the platform
Security-first architecture
From day one, security, compliance and data protection and Protection of ZEISS IP were embedded into every architectural decision, ensuring the platform met ZEISS’s rigorous enterprise standards.
Continuous evolution model
Rather than a one-time delivery, we established an ongoing partnership model with regular user feedback loops, performance monitoring, and iterative enhancements that keep the platform aligned with evolving business needs.

ZEISS GPT Plus a generative AI solution that is accessible for daily tasks - from content creation and data analysis to complex problem-solving and strategic decision support. The solutions includes four key pillars:

Conversational AI interface
Intuitive, natural dialogue powered by advanced language models. Employees interact with AI as effortlessly as consulting a trusted colleague - no technical expertise required.
Secure & compliant foundation
Enterprise-grade security protocols, comprehensive data governance, and regulatory compliance embedded at every layer. Intellectual property stays protected; operations stay audit-ready.
Scalable architecture
Built to support current workforce demands while seamlessly accommodating future growth, emerging use cases, and evolving business requirements across all divisions.
Continuous improvement engine
Adaptive learning driven by user feedback, usage analytics, and the latest AI breakthroughs ensuring ZEISS employees always work with best-in-class capabilities.
The GenAI Platform establishes the strategic infrastructure that will power ZEISS's AI future for years to come. It serves as the centralized backbone for all generative AI applications across ZEISS - a secure, scalable toolkit that eliminates redundancy and accelerates innovation. Core Capabilities:

Universal toolbox
Pre-built, production-ready components that any ZEISS team can leverage to create custom, safe AI applications—without reinventing foundational infrastructure.
Security by design
Enterprise-grade safety and compliance built into every building block, ensuring all AI solutions meet ZEISS standards from day one.
Elimination of redundancy
One robust platform replaces dozens of fragmented initiatives, reducing costs, complexity, and security risks while increasing speed-to-market.
Scalable & accessible infrastructure
Designed for effortless adoption across divisions, geographies, and technical skill levels - empowering both developers and business users to innovate confidently.

Our services

We delivered comprehensive end-to-end services across the entire platform lifecycle:

Strategic consulting & platform conceptualization
User experience (UX)
Conversational interface development
Full-stack platform engineering
Security architecture & Implementation
Compliance framework design
User acceptance testing & feedback integration
Deployment & change management support
Ongoing platform operations & maintenance
Performance monitoring & optimization
User support & training enablement
Continuous feature enhancement

Technical environment

Development & deployment:

Modern web technologies (Front-end framework: react)
Natural Language Processing (NLP) engines
Cloud infrastructure (Secure & scalable)
API integration layer

Operations & security:

Enterprise security protocols
Data governance framework
Compliance monitoring tools
Analytics platform
Performance management systems
Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipeline

Results

The solutions generated significant impact across the organization: The GenAI Platform has enabled ZEISS employees to leverage AI for diverse applications - from accelerating research and development workflows to enhancing customer communication and streamlining administrative processes. The intuitive user experience of ZEISS GPT Plus has reduced the learning curve typically associated with AI adoption, driving faster value realization.

ZEISS GPT Plus

has become a mission-critical productivity solution across the ZEISS organization.¹

40,000+ potential employees with platform access across the global organization
1.000,000+ messages processed monthly, demonstrating strong adoption and daily usage
>85% user satisfaction score based on feedback surveys and monitoring
40% reduction in time spent on routine content creation tasks

The GenAI Platform

has evolved into the backbone for trusted and transparent AI provisioning and consumption.¹

2.500.000+ monthly requests showcase wide-spread adoption and usage across all Business Units
1.600+ LLM requests per minute in peak times provide testimony of stability under high volume traffic
2x faster onboarding for new AI use cases compared to standalone solutions
99.8% platform uptime, ensuring reliable access when employees need it

ZEISS Digital Innovation didn't just build us a platform they became our true end-to-end partner in our AI journey. ZEISS Digital Innovation has been with us every step of the way. What impressed us most was their ability to balance innovation with security, and sophistication with simplicity. They understood that success wasn't just about deploying technology, but about creating an experience that our 40,000+ employees would actually embrace and trust.

Philip Standner Head of Digital Technology Accelerator, Carl Zeiss AG