From AI Potential to Business Impact: MME TIME Students Tackle Real-World Challenges with TÜV SÜD
How can artificial intelligence create real value in B2B sales? And how can companies leverage new technologies while maintaining the human expertise, responsibility, and customer relationships that are essential to their business?
These questions were at the heart of a practical project conducted during the summer semester of 2026 as part of the course “Leveraging Service Technologies & Innovation” in the M. Sc. Management & Engineering in Technology, Innovation, Marketing & Entrepreneurship (MME TIME) at RWTH Business School.
In close cooperation with TÜV SÜD, students were given the opportunity to work on real-world challenges from the company’s sales environment and explore how AI could be applied to create tangible business value.
From Business Challenges to AI Opportunities
Rather than working on theoretical case studies, the students addressed challenges based on actual processes and needs within TÜV SÜD’s sales organization. Working in five project teams, they explored different areas in which AI could support sales activities and improve decision-making.
The projects covered a broad range of applications, including:
- a framework for evaluating and prioritizing AI use cases in sales
- an AI-powered knowledge hub for the sales back office
- intelligent lead management and improved lead routing
- AI-based solutions for key account management
- an Account Health Intelligence Platform to identify risks and growth opportunities at an early stage
Each team approached its challenge from both a technological and a business perspective. The students analyzed existing processes, identified pain points, assessed potential AI applications, and developed concrete recommendations for implementation.
Their work resulted in AI opportunity maps, business cases, KPI systems, prototypes, and implementation roadmaps that transformed initially open-ended challenges into differentiated and actionable solutions.
Looking Beyond the Technology
One of the central lessons of the projects was that successful AI implementation is about much more than selecting the right technology.
For an AI solution to create lasting value, several factors need to come together: a reliable data foundation, clear responsibilities, appropriate governance structures, technical feasibility, regulatory requirements, and, importantly, the acceptance and involvement of the people who will ultimately use the solution.
This became particularly evident when considering the role of AI in sales. While AI can help process information, identify patterns, and support decision-making, it does not replace the expertise and relationships built by sales professionals.
Instead, the students explored how AI can complement human capabilities. AI can support employees in making better-informed decisions, reduce the time spent on routine tasks, and create more space for strategic and customer-oriented activities.
Where Academic Knowledge Meets Business Practice
The project gave students the opportunity to apply concepts from their studies to a complex business environment and to consider the opportunities and challenges of AI from multiple perspectives.
At the same time, the collaboration provided TÜV SÜD with fresh perspectives and innovative approaches to current challenges in its sales environment. The exchange between students, academic experts, and company representatives created a setting in which ideas could be challenged, refined, and translated into realistic solutions.
The final presentations demonstrated what can emerge when academic analysis, business expertise, and the creativity of students come together. What started with open-ended questions about the potential of AI resulted in concrete recommendations for how emerging technologies can be used responsibly and effectively in a real-world business context.
The collaboration with TÜV SÜD offered MME TIME students a valuable opportunity to experience firsthand what it means to translate technological potential into business impact and to critically assess not only what AI can do, but also what it takes to implement it successfully.
