Dominik Boesl
Most boards now own an AI strategy on paper. Very few can describe the governance, the deployment route, or the human-machine boundary their organisation will actually operate against once the pilots end. The harder question is not whether to invest, but how to make defensible decisions about autonomy, accountability, and workforce design when the technology is moving faster than the policy around it.
Dominik Boesl is a robotics and AI authority who helps boards and operating leaders make defensible decisions about automation, governance, and the human-machine boundary, drawing on senior roles at KUKA and Festo and chair-level work with IEEE on technology ethics.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Dominik Boesl
- Operating credibility from two of the most consequential robotics manufacturers in Europe: KUKA, where he co-managed the market launch of the LBR iiwa, the first industrially certified collaborative robot, and Festo, where he ran a robotics division spanning five international R&D centres.
- A governance perspective rooted in formal institutional work, not commentary: VP roles in the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, Global Chair of the IEEE TechEthics Initiative, and founder of the Robotics & AI Governance Foundation.
- A named intellectual contribution. The “4 Robotic Revolutions” model, co-developed with Bernd Liepert and presented at IEEE IROS, gives audiences a working frame for where robotics sits today and what comes next.
- Policy-level reach into the UN system through the UN DESA expert group on AI and robotics for the Sustainable Development Goals, useful for boards weighing the regulatory direction of travel.
- Research that informs strategy rather than describing it: he leads the Robotics 2050+ Global Delphi Study, a long-range scenario programme supported by IEEE.
Biography highlights
- Professor of Digital Sciences, Automation & Leadership, HDBW Munich; Adjunct Professor, TUM Institute for LifeLong Learning
- Founder, Robotics & AI Governance Foundation; founder and CEO, Innomancer Thinktank
- Former VP and Head of Robotics, Festo AG; former Principal Corporate Innovation Manager and VP Consumer Driven Robotics, KUKA AG
- Past VP for Industrial Activities, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society; past Global Chair, IEEE TechEthics Initiative
- Member of the UN DESA expert group on AI and robotics for the Sustainable Development Goals
- Co-author of the “4 Robotic Revolutions” framework (IEEE IROS 2016) and lead of the Robotics 2050+ Delphi Study
Biography
The collaborative robotics market did not exist as a commercial category until a small group of teams, including the one Boesl worked in at KUKA, navigated the LBR iiwa through the safety standards that made human-machine co-working legally and operationally viable. That kind of work, sitting at the join between engineering, regulation, and commercial deployment, is what informs the way he now advises boards.
After KUKA he ran the robotics division at Festo, overseeing five international R&D centres and the development of the Festo BionicCobot, the first pneumatic collaborative robot. The combination of two senior operating roles at two of the most credible robotics businesses in Europe is unusual on its own. It becomes more so when paired with chair-level institutional work: VP for Industrial Activities at the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, and Global Chair of the IEEE TechEthics Initiative for five years.
His academic and policy work extends the same agenda. As Professor of Digital Sciences at HDBW Munich and an adjunct at the TUM Institute for LifeLong Learning, he leads the Robotics 2050+ Global Delphi Study, a long-range scenario programme on the future of robotics and AI. Through the Robotics & AI Governance Foundation and a seat on the UN DESA expert group, he contributes to how governments and standards bodies think about autonomous systems and the Sustainable Development Goals.
What this means for buyers is straightforward. When a board asks where the line should sit between human and machine decision-making, or how to make AI deployment defensible to a regulator, Boesl is one of the few voices in Europe who can answer from the engineering side, the standards side, and the policy side at once.
Key speaking topics
- Robotics and human-machine collaboration
- AI governance and technology ethics
- Industry 4.0 and operational deployment of automation
- Strategic foresight and long-range scenario planning
- Responsible innovation in regulated industries
- The future of work in robotic and AI-enabled organisations
Ideal for
- Boards and executive committees setting AI and automation strategy in industrial, manufacturing, and engineering-led organisations
- Chief technology, chief digital, and chief AI officers responsible for moving from pilots to deployment
- Heads of innovation, R&D leadership, and corporate strategy teams in industrial groups and Mittelstand manufacturers
- Policy, public affairs, and ESG leaders tracking the regulatory direction of AI and robotics
Audience outcomes
- A clearer map of where robotics and AI sit today against the “4 Robotic Revolutions” frame, and what the next phase actually demands of an operating business
- A working vocabulary for AI governance that a board can use with regulators, auditors, and internal risk functions
- Specific reference points from KUKA and Festo on what it takes to deploy collaborative robotics inside an industrial operation
- A perspective on long-range scenarios drawn from the Robotics 2050+ Delphi research, rather than commentary
- A sharper sense of where the human-machine boundary should sit for the organisation’s own workforce design
Talks
A working session on what AI actually changes for an operating business and where governance has to catch up.
Key takeaways:
- A practical read on AI capability and limitation against current commercial reality
- A frame for algorithmic accountability that boards and risk functions can apply
- A view on workforce implications grounded in industrial deployment experience
A keynote on human-machine collaboration, drawn from senior operating roles at KUKA and Festo.
Key takeaways:
- Where the collaborative robotics market is heading and what slowed it for a decade
- How safety and certification standards shape commercial timelines
- What the human-machine boundary should look like inside an industrial operation
A scenario-planning session built on the Robotics 2050+ Delphi research.
Key takeaways:
- A working scenario method for boards facing exponential technology change
- The signals that matter for robotics and AI over a ten to twenty year horizon
- How to convert long-range foresight into present-day capital allocation
A policy-grounded keynote on the regulatory and ethical architecture autonomous systems require.
Key takeaways:
- The governance gap between AI capability and current regulation
- What boards can do now, ahead of mandated frameworks
- A view from inside IEEE and UN DESA on where standards are heading