AI influences the function of markets and is increasingly evolving from a tool into an independent economic actor. The group in Osnabrück is developing answers to the question of what markets emerge when AI systems autonomously create, offer and negotiate services. The focus is on the design of AI-native business models and the technical and organisational prerequisites. In addition, the group is investigating the interaction between different actors and the orchestration of complex offerings within business ecosystems. Research is also conducted against the backdrop of regulatory frameworks such as the EU AI Act and the EU Digital Markets Act.
Dr Friedemann Kammler, Head of ‘Intelligent Markets’ at DFKI:
“When AI systems independently conclude transactions with humans or other AI systems, requirements in the economy change fundamentally. Understanding and shaping this development is of the utmost importance. Lower Saxony, with its strong industrial and SME base, provides an ideal environment for this: here, traditional value-creation structures meet new market logics. Through our research, we are laying the foundations on which companies can successfully build their transformation.”
The research is carried out in close collaboration with industry and research partners and is tested in real-world application areas across various sectors, for example in industrial ecosystems and their repair and circular markets, in the coordination of fleets and logistics processes, and in the transformation of the financial sector.
Dr Friedemann Kammler holds a PhD in Business Informatics. He studied at the University of Osnabrück and Yeditepe University in Istanbul. Research stays took him to QUT Brisbane in Australia and the University of Goroka in Papua New Guinea.
From 2020 to 2023, Kammler served as Deputy Head of Research at the DFKI. There, he helped establish the DFKI’s Lower Saxony site before moving into the financial sector as Head of Product at UNEOS AG, a fintech subsidiary of Volksbank Freiburg. In 2026, he returned to the DFKI and is now taking over as head of the research department.
The ‘Intelligent Markets’ research department, together with the ‘Cooperative and Autonomous Systems’ department in Osnabrück and the two Oldenburg-based research departments ‘Marine Perception’ and ‘Interactive Machine Learning’, forms DFKI Lower Saxony.