News

As organizations collect ever-increasing amounts of data from more and more disparate sources, the demand for personnel with skills in data science continues to grow. Simultaneously, the field of data science is complex and has evolved over time, making it difficult for organizations to identify what job roles and associated skills they need to conduct data science successfully. This lack of clarity leads to the misconception that one person, the so-called data science unicorn, can do it all.

In collaboration with psychotherapists from University of Greifswald, Florian Onur Kuhlmeier, Leon Hanschmann and Alexander Maedche at the human-centered systems lab (h-lab) of the Institute for Information Systems (WIN) are exploring how to train AI systems to provide cognitive behavioral therapy to young people with depression. The team developed a chatbot using large language models that learns therapeutic techniques similar to how human therapists are trained, using, treatment manuals, artificial users and feedback from trained psychotherapists.

Two industry talks offered valuable insights into the use of AI agents in two distinct business domains: software development at SAP and customer service at Allianz. We were excited to welcome Prof. Dr. Tobias Schimmer and Dr. Philipp Hoffmann from SAP SE, as well as Dr. Peyman Toreini and Magdalena Feldmeier from Allianz Kunde & Markt GmbH. The talks highlighted current challenges and benefits of introducing agentic information systems for internal stakeholders, such as software developers, and the combination of internal/external stakeholders, such as customer service employees and customers.

The paper co-authored by Florian Kuhlmeier, Luise Bauch, Ulrich Gnewuch and Stefan Lüttke investigates the problems faced by youth with depression and their adaptive coping strategies, as well as attitudes, expectations, and design preferences for chatbots designed to treat depression. A qualitative study, consisting of a semistructured interview and a concurrent think-aloud session, in which participants interacted with a chatbot prototype with 14 youth with a current or remitted depressive episode as conducted. 

We are delighted that the paper "Designing Context-Aware Urban Citizen Science Systems for Sustained Citizen Engagement: A Pilot Study in Urban Heat Island Detection" by Niklas von Heyden (KIT, WIN, h-lab) and Jeff Parsons (Memorial University of Newfoundland) won the 1st Runner Up Award for Best Conference Short Paper at ECIS 2025.  

Bachelor's and master's students studying information systems (IS) at KIT can apply for an IS scholarship. The scholarship will start on October 1st, 2025 and will run for 12 months. Scholarship holders are supported with 300 Euros per month. The scholarship is awarded by the non-profit association "Die Wirtschaftsinformatik e.V." and serves to promote young people in the field of IS.

We are happy to welcome Doga Dogan (https://www.dogadogan.com), research scientist at Adobe Switzerland. He will give an industry talk titled “Ubiquitous Metadata: Design and Fabrication of Embedded Markers for Real-World Object Identification and Interaction” as part of our B.Sc. lecture Foundations of Interactive Systems (FOIS) on July 15th, 2025, at 9.45 AM. Doga Dogan (PhD’24 from MIT CSAIL) focuses on embedding intelligent interactions and machine-readable information into everyday items.

WinPod is a digital service provided by the Institute for Information Systems (WIN) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) that leverages AI to convert research papers into high-quality audio content, making scholarly work at the Institute for Information Systems (WIN) more accessible and easier to digest.

Agentic Enterprise Systems are enterprise systems (like ERP, CRM, or Business Intelligence & Analytics Systems) that leverage AI agents with autonomous, goal-directed behaviors to make decisions, execute tasks, and adapt dynamically.

Google is shaping how generative AI is evolving from simple tools to "Agentic AI," capable of autonomous reasoning and action within organizations. The industry talk will showcase real-world applications like L'Oréal's media generation using Vertex AI and explore the potential of Agent Development Kits for building custom AI agents. The industry talk will take place remotely.

The paper "TESY: A Usability Test-Driven Prototyping Assistant Connecting Designers with Crowd-Testers" has been published in the Proceedings of the ACM on HCI.  The paper will be presented at the ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW). The conference is the premier venue for research in the design and use of technologies that affect groups, organizations, communities, and networks.