DIGITAL X 2026: Our Recap from the Rheinauhafen in Cologne

Karlsruhe, 9 September 2026. DIGITAL X 2026 is over, and we were there. On 8 September we spent the day at the Rheinauhafen in Cologne, invited at short notice and with our new product in our bags: automation with Artificial Intelligence for software that offers no interface.

DIGITAL X 2026 in Cologne: a day at the Rheinauhafen

DIGITAL X is one of Europe's largest digitalisation events, and you notice that the moment you arrive. For one day the Rheinauhafen turned into a fairground: stacked containers in magenta, flags along the promenade, a Ferris wheel with the DIGITAL X logo above the quay. On top of that, a stage programme and masterclasses on networks, cloud, security, and Artificial Intelligence. The motto was written in big letters across the containers: Control the next wave. And the weather played along, sunshine over the Rhine.

What stood out was how naturally sovereignty now appears on the banners. Not in the small print, but in letters you can read from the other bank. A good sign for us, because it is the first question we ask on every project: where does the data run, and who holds it?

What we brought: automation for software without an interface

Almost every company runs software you cannot get at. Industry solutions, specialist applications, legacy systems, supplier portals. No API, no usable export, no way in except through the screen. The gap is bridged by hand: retyping, copying, maintaining lists, reconciling figures.

Classic RPA solves such cases with rigid click paths and breaks as soon as a layout changes. We approach it with Artificial Intelligence, on the surface that was built for people anyway. The goal is a digital worker that operates your applications itself. Behind it sits a model of our own, running in our house, on our own hardware. How we work with AI in general is set out on our Intelligence page.

How far the product has come, we showed in Cologne, face to face and on the device. That stays the same after the fair: we show the state of development in person, not here on the blog.

What we talked about at the Rheinauhafen

Our approach on site was the same as in the announcement: the other person's real task rather than a prepared demo. Three questions kept coming up.

• Which of their applications have no interface, and how much manual work piles up there every day.
• Where automation through the screen holds, and where a clean export or conventional software is cheaper and steadier.
• How to run something like this without sensitive data leaving the company.

That last point matched the mood on the grounds. Anyone who lets an Artificial Intelligence look at their screens wants to know where the model runs. Our answer is short: in our own house, on our own hardware, with no provider taking your screen contents along for training.

What stays with us

A long day, a lot of conversations, and the confirmation that software without an interface is not a niche problem but ties up working hours in almost every business. Thank you to everyone who approached us at the Rheinauhafen, and to everyone who made our short-notice visit possible.

If we did not finish our conversation in Cologne, or you could not make it, write to us through the contact page. Where you can meet us in person next is on our Events page. For what a fair day with our own booth looks like, see our recap of the Hinterland of Things 2026.

Updated on 9 September 2026: this post announced our visit on 5 September and is now our recap.