Technologies based on artificial intelligence (AI) are considered to pave the way for new forms of teaching, learning and working. Whether in vocational qualification or at the workplace, AI-based assistance technologies can support people with existing or impending disabilities to participate in working life in a self-determined manner. Especially for people with severe disabilities, however, these possibilities have hardly been utilized or systematically investigated so far. This is where the collaborative project KI.ASSIST comes into play with a participatory research design.

At several locations throughout Germany, the project partners: Federal Association of Vocational Rehabilitation Centres (BV BFW), Federal Association of Vocational Rehabilitation Centres for young adults with disabilities (BAG BBW), Federal Association of Sheltered Workshops (BAG WfbM), together with the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), want to test until 2022 how AI-based assistance technologies can effectively support people with severe disabilities in the training and work place.

In doing so, the KI.ASSIST project will pursue the following goals:

• Research, analysis and evaluation of AI-based technologies that can be used in learning and work contexts to support people with severe disabilities in vocational rehabilitation
• Practical testing of AI-based assistance technologies in learning and experimentation spaces in different vocational rehabilitation institutions and with different target groups
• Creation of recommendations for action for the design of change processes in the field of vocational rehabilitation, which are initiated by the introduction of AI-based technologies
• Implementation of a dialog platform with different information, dialog and participation formats