When your most experienced people leave, the knowledge stays.
hAiner is the AI companion for industrial SMEs. It secures the tacit knowledge of your most experienced people in the workshop and in sales, before they retire or move on. GDPR-compliant, hosted in Germany.
Noch ein System, das keiner nutzt? Nein. Ein Gedächtnis, das antwortet.
Ihr Unternehmen ist voll mit Software, die keiner nutzt. hAiner ist keins davon. Sie pflegen nichts. Sie durchsuchen nichts. Sie fragen, hAiner antwortet.
Aktenschrank, Wiki, SharePoint
Wissen wird abgelegt.
DOCProzessbeschreibung_Linie3_final_v4.docx
DOCEinarbeitung_2019.pdf
DOCMaschinenhandbuch_alt.pdf
DOCUebergabe_Notizen.docx
Ablegen. Suchen. Selten finden. Niemand pflegt es. Mit jedem Abgang wird die Lücke größer.
Wissen, das antwortet.
Herr Müllers Wagen kommt Freitag zur Inspektion. Was ist verbaut, was muss ich bestellen?
Letzte vier Berichte: Sportfahrwerk und Tuning-Abgasanlage verbaut. Bremsscheiben hinten sind Sonderbestellung, drei Tage Lieferzeit, nicht auf Lager. Plan etwas mehr Zeit ein.
Quelle: Servicehistorie, letzte 4 Inspektionen
Fragen statt blättern. Antwort mit Quelle, in Sekunden. Die ganze Servicehistorie auf den Punkt, nicht über zwölf Ordner verteilt.
hAiner ist kein Tool, das Ihr Team erst lernen muss. Es ist wie der Kollege, der seit dreißig Jahren dabei ist und immer Zeit hat.
Wissen bleibt. Auch wenn der Mensch geht.
Your company doesn't lose knowledge because there are no documents.
It loses knowledge because the crucial details were never in documents. They live in heads, emails, shift handovers, tickets, and years of experience with machines, suppliers, customers and exceptional situations. Over the next ten years, more key people will retire from German industrial SMEs than ever before, in the workshop and in sales. Classic documentation workshops and knowledge bases have rarely solved this problem because they require people to write down what they do.
And sometimes your company loses knowledge simply because employees hesitate to ask the same question a third time and spend hours trying things themselves instead of making a quick call. Because documents sit somewhere in SharePoint or Drive and nobody finds them in the end. Because knowledge is only ever written down in one person's logic. Because production, engineering and sales don't communicate systematically. hAiner takes a different approach.
Talk. Be understood. Get a usable work product.
A conversation doesn't become a transcript, it becomes a usable result: a playbook, a checklist, a decision matrix, an escalation logic, a machine profile or an onboarding guide. Live, during the conversation.
A storage receipt disappears into a cabinet – months later the customer calls. With hAiner, one question is enough: the answer comes in seconds, with the original receipt as proof. The AI companion for knowledge transfer in the Mittelstand.
At a glance
Photograph the document once – it files itself (vehicle, customer, job).
Later, ask in your own words instead of searching.
Answer in seconds – with the original receipt as proof.
The data stays in-house.
Transcript
Show transcript
End of season, tyre change. Mr Becker’s winter wheels go onto the rack. The storage receipt goes into the cabinet. Safe there – just not at hand. So the receipt is photographed once – nothing more. And files itself: to the vehicle, the customer, the job. No folder, no retyping. Six months later. The first frost. Mr Becker calls: are my winter tyres actually still good? One question is enough. Tread depth, storage location – half a year on, nobody remembers that off the top of their head. hAiner does. With the original receipt from back then as proof. On the very first ring. hAiner. Stop searching – just ask. The AI companion for knowledge transfer in the Mittelstand. Try it now – at hainer.io.
What is this about?
Your best salesperson retires – the knowledge stays. hAiner answers customer & product questions in seconds, with sources. AI knowledge transfer for the Mittelstand.
At a glance
Secure knowledge at retirement and in succession.
The entire customer file – history, documents, product details – maintained and connected in one place.
Answers from customer history and product data – in seconds, with sources.
The knowledge stays in-house.
Transcript
Show transcript
Twenty-eight years in field sales. Reinhard is retiring. Julia takes over his most important customer – her very first meeting. But every customer, every product in detail – no one knows it all alone. In hAiner, it’s all there: the entire customer file – history, documents, product details. Well maintained and connected, in one place. And when it counts, Julia simply asks: “Does our new series fit Tegeler’s system – what should I watch out for?” hAiner answers from customer history and product data – in seconds, with sources. Julia knows the customer. And the product – from the very first sentence. hAiner. For every customer, every product – always with you, stays in-house.
Where hAiner makes a difference.
Four situations where tacit knowledge becomes critical, in the workshop and in sales, and where hAiner makes a measurable difference.
When the master craftsman retires
Forty years of experience retire in four months. hAiner makes sure the knowledge stays.
Mr. Krüger, 41 years at the plant, retires in four months. His successor is already on board, but Krüger knows things that are in no manual: which machine plays up in which weather, why supplier X always gets special terms on order Y, how to get line 7 running again at night. Documenting all of that in four months has never worked. With hAiner, Krüger simply talks. In conversations of 20 to 30 minutes, at his own pace, spread over weeks. hAiner asks follow-up questions, spots gaps and contradictions, and turns what is said into structured work products: machine profiles, supplier notes, standard procedures for the 15 most common faults.
What you get: A usable handover package, not a 200-page PDF, but a searchable knowledge base that Krüger’s successor can query in the flow of work.
When the night shift has to decide
So night shifts don’t have to choose between "wake the plant manager" and "cross your fingers".
2:40 a.m. Line 3 has been running with elevated vibration readings for two hours. The late-shift supervisor doesn’t recognise the pattern. Standard protocol would be: call the plant manager. But he has already been woken three times this week. The result: either nothing is done, or the line is shut down needlessly, €18,000 in lost production. With hAiner, the supervisor asks directly: "Line 3 is vibrating, readings X at load Y, what do I do?" hAiner knows the accumulated experience of earlier shifts, knows that Mr. Becker hit this exact constellation three times in 2022, and gives a concrete recommendation with rationale, including when the plant manager really should be called after all.
What you get: A growing collection of escalation decisions with context and outcome. After three months, hAiner knows which anomalies are truly critical and which are normal operation.
When the same question comes up for the fifth time
Recurring questions become permanent answers. Spoken experience becomes operational standard.
In the QA department, the same questions have come from production for years. Ms. Henkel still answers them personally, because that is faster than writing them down. But Ms. Henkel goes on maternity leave in September. And her stand-in doesn’t know the answers. With hAiner, the questions Ms. Henkel answers are captured in real working context. From each answer, hAiner generates a standard procedure and presents it to her for approval. Ms. Henkel confirms with one click or corrects it in a single sentence.
What you get: A growing library of standard procedures and decision logic that emerged directly from everyday work.
When the field sales rep retires after 28 years
Customer relationships, negotiation logic and industry knowledge that no CRM entry holds.
Mr. Bergmann, 28 years in field sales at a mid-sized special-machinery firm. He knows his key accounts’ buyers personally, knows which contracts leave room on price and which don’t, who renews when, which customer complained about what three years ago and how it was resolved back then. Salesforce holds the order data, but not what Bergmann carries in his head. With hAiner, Bergmann talks in a structured way about his twenty most important customers, 30 to 45 minutes per account. hAiner asks about relationship history, special terms, critical buyer idiosyncrasies, won and lost deals.
What you get: Structured handover profiles per key account, relationship history, negotiation logic, industry context and critical "careful here" notes. The successor doesn’t walk blindly into the first customer visit, and the CRM entry finally gets context.
Aus dem Pilotbetrieb
Stimme aus dem laufenden Pilotbetrieb.
TM
Mit hAiner habe ich aus 30 Jahren Vertrieb ein bleibendes Vertriebsgedächtnis erschaffen, das ich direkt beim Kunden fragen kann. Und meine Erfahrung bleibt nicht bei mir: Über hAiner können auch andere darauf zugreifen und davon lernen. Der Kern bleibt das Netzwerken mit Menschen.
Wissensverlust-Check
Wie groß ist Ihr Wissensrisiko wirklich?
Fünf Fragen, zwei Minuten, ehrliche Auswertung. Keine Anmeldung, keine E-Mail-Pflicht, kein Verkaufsdruck.
Dieser Check schätzt das Risiko ein, das in den nächsten zwei bis drei Jahren durch Wissensverlust in Ihrem Betrieb entstehen kann. Die Fragen betreffen Ihr Tagesgeschäft, nicht abstrakte Konzepte.
Fünf Fragen, etwa zwei Minuten
Keine personenbezogenen Daten werden gespeichert
Sofortige Auswertung mit konkreter Risikoeinschätzung
From the shop floor to the field
Wherever experience makes the difference.
Warum nicht einfach das Wiki befüllen, einen Berater holen oder ChatGPT fragen?
Die ehrliche Antwort: weil alle drei genau eines nicht leisten, Erfahrungswissen dauerhaft im Unternehmen halten, lernfähig machen und in Arbeitsprodukte verwandeln. hAiner ist kein Ersatz für all das, aber er löst die Lücke, an der die anderen Werkzeuge regelmäßig scheitern.
hAiner
Externe Beratung
Wiki / Confluence
ChatGPT / Copilot
Bleibt nach dem Projekt im Betrieb
Ja, dauerhaft
·Nein, nur projekthaft
·Ja, aber statisch
·Ja, aber kennt Ihr Unternehmen nicht
Lernt aus Entscheidungen weiter
Ja, mit jedem Fall
·Nein
·Nein
·Nein
Hosting in Deutschland, DSGVO-konform
Ja, optional On-Premise
-
·Anbieter-abhängig
·Meist nicht
Erzeugt Arbeitsprodukte
Ja, automatisch aus Gesprächen
·Ja, aber einmalig
·Nein, nur Ablage
·Nein, nur Antworten
Daten nicht für externes Training genutzt
Garantiert
-
-
·Häufig Default-Einstellung
Versteht die Logik Ihres Betriebs
Ja, lernt sie aus dem Arbeitsalltag
·Ansatzweise, projektbezogen
·Nur was eingepflegt wurde
·Nur was im Prompt steht
Bleibt nach dem Projekt im Betrieb
hAiner
Ja, dauerhaft
·
Externe Beratung
Nein, nur projekthaft
·
Wiki / Confluence
Ja, aber statisch
·
ChatGPT / Copilot
Ja, aber kennt Ihr Unternehmen nicht
Lernt aus Entscheidungen weiter
hAiner
Ja, mit jedem Fall
·
Externe Beratung
Nein
·
Wiki / Confluence
Nein
·
ChatGPT / Copilot
Nein
Hosting in Deutschland, DSGVO-konform
hAiner
Ja, optional On-Premise
Externe Beratung
-
·
Wiki / Confluence
Anbieter-abhängig
·
ChatGPT / Copilot
Meist nicht
Erzeugt Arbeitsprodukte
hAiner
Ja, automatisch aus Gesprächen
·
Externe Beratung
Ja, aber einmalig
·
Wiki / Confluence
Nein, nur Ablage
·
ChatGPT / Copilot
Nein, nur Antworten
Daten nicht für externes Training genutzt
hAiner
Garantiert
Externe Beratung
-
Wiki / Confluence
-
·
ChatGPT / Copilot
Häufig Default-Einstellung
Versteht die Logik Ihres Betriebs
hAiner
Ja, lernt sie aus dem Arbeitsalltag
·
Externe Beratung
Ansatzweise, projektbezogen
·
Wiki / Confluence
Nur was eingepflegt wurde
·
ChatGPT / Copilot
Nur was im Prompt steht
Eine Wiki-Seite vergisst nicht, aber sie denkt auch nicht mit. Ein Berater denkt mit, aber geht nach drei Monaten. ChatGPT antwortet immer, aber kennt Ihren Betrieb nicht. hAiner schließt diese Lücke: er bleibt, lernt, erzeugt nutzbare Ergebnisse und versteht das, was wirklich in Ihrem Unternehmen passiert.
Eine ehrliche Beobachtung unserer Mitgründerin Maike
„Was macht ein Berater? Er geht in die Firma rein und horcht die Mitarbeitenden aus. Am Ende erstellt er eine schöne PowerPoint-Präsentation von den Dingen, die die Mitarbeitenden eigentlich schon wissen. Das Wissen wird nicht in der Firma zusammengeführt, es wandert auf eine Folie und wieder weg. Und oft holt sich das C-Level Berater gerade deshalb, weil das Vertrauen in die eigenen Mitarbeitenden fehlt. hAiner geht den anderen Weg: das Wissen bleibt im Unternehmen, wird strukturiert, wird zugänglich gemacht."
, Maike, aus zwei Konzern-Stationen
Your knowledge stays where it belongs.
hAiner is built for industrial companies, with the requirements that actually apply in SMEs and regulated industries.
Hosting and data residency.
hAiner runs in German data centers, operated under GDPR and the IT Security Act. On request we install hAiner as an on-premise solution in your own infrastructure, fully isolated from external services. Your data never leaves your perimeter.
No external model training.
Whatever your team discusses with hAiner stays with you. We do not use your data to train language models, neither at our end, nor at the large LLM providers hAiner integrates with technically. That isn't a setting, it's architecture.
Roles, permissions and traceability.
hAiner respects your existing permissions: who in the company is allowed to see what, sees the same in hAiner. Every answer, recommendation and knowledge update is traceably documented, with timestamp, source, and the person who approved it. Audit-ready from day one.
ISO 27001 and BSI C5 certifications are in preparation. We're happy to walk you through our security architecture in person.
How a pilot with hAiner works.
Four steps. Eight to ten weeks. A clear agreement from the start.
130 minutes
Introductory call
We talk about the concrete situation: which knowledge is about to disappear? Who is the key person? What's your timeline? If it clearly doesn't fit, both sides save the next step.
21–2 weeks
Pilot setup
We set hAiner up for your concrete use case, clarify the data protection architecture with your IT, and define success criteria together. By the end you have a working hAiner and a written pilot agreement.
36–8 weeks
Pilot phase
Your key person works with hAiner in conversations of 20 to 30 minutes, at their own pace. We accompany the process weekly. At the end you have concrete work products: handover packages, standard procedures, escalation logic.
4Decision
Review
We review the agreed success criteria together and decide honestly: did it work? If yes, we talk about permanent rollout. If not, you keep everything that has been created up to that point.
The pilot is paid. The exact amount depends on the use case and the depth of integration. We name the number in the first call, not in an Excel afterwards.
hAiner was born out of our own pain, from 200-person SMEs to corporate boardrooms. From the workshop floor to research labs.
Maike Penz
CEO & Co-Founder
Natural scientist (Master of Science, RWTH Aachen) with over ten years of industry experience. She led research and development at recycling specialist Pyral AG and was responsible for the circular economy at building-materials makers URSA and BMI. As CEO, she drives the vision of keeping knowledge inside the company.
Dr. Franz Beier
Co-Founder & Technical Lead
Physicist (PhD) and data scientist from Leipzig. Over ten years at the intersection of research, software and AI, from the Fraunhofer Institute to industrial projects in optics, automotive, finance and energy. At hAiner he leads the technology.
Tom Mühlnickel
Head of Sales
A hands-on practitioner with technical roots: from metalworker through various technical roles to site manager for assembly and plant construction across Europe. He knows machines, processes and construction sites first-hand. At hAiner he leads sales.
Frequently asked questions.
What is hAiner?
hAiner is an AI companion for industrial companies that turns experiential knowledge from conversations with employees into usable work products: playbooks, checklists, decision matrices and escalation logic. hAiner is built specifically for knowledge transfer before retirement, staff changes or onboarding.
What sets hAiner apart from Wingmaite or other AI knowledge-management tools?
Other tools are excellent for knowledge workers in office settings, or for external buyers who need to get to know an unfamiliar company, private-equity investors or ETA searchers, for example. hAiner is developed specifically for the technical Mittelstand: for managing directors who want to keep running their own plant and secure the experiential knowledge of their senior staff before retirement. Our language, our use cases and our security architecture are geared to manufacturing operations, not to SaaS teams or PE portfolios.
What sets hAiner apart from a classic wiki or knowledge base?
Classic wikis and knowledge bases require people to actively write down what they know. In practice that rarely happens, key people have no time, no inclination, or no writing style. hAiner gathers knowledge through conversations and automatically turns it into structured work products. It also keeps learning with every case and stays current, whereas a wiki quickly goes stale without active maintenance.
What sets hAiner apart from ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot?
ChatGPT and Copilot know the internet, but not your company. hAiner works exclusively with your validated company knowledge, built from conversations with your employees. hAiner is also hosted in Germany, is GDPR-compliant, and does not use your data to train language models.
Is hAiner GDPR-compliant?
Yes. hAiner is built to GDPR and the German IT Security Act, runs in German data centres, and can optionally be installed as an on-premise solution in your own infrastructure. Your data does not leave your domain.
Is our data used to train language models?
No. Your data is not used for training, neither by us nor by the large LLM providers hAiner works with technically. That is not a setting; it is architecture.
Can hAiner run on-premise?
Yes, on request. We discuss the architecture in a personal conversation, since on-premise implementations are each adapted to the customer’s infrastructure.
Which companies is hAiner suited for?
hAiner is built primarily for the technical Mittelstand: mechanical engineering, special-machinery building, manufacturing, energy utilities, plant construction. Typical buyers are management, plant and production leadership, sales leadership and HR leadership. hAiner secures experiential knowledge both on the shop floor (plant foremen, shift leaders, QA) and in sales (field sales, key-account management, technical sales). Our focus is companies from around 50 employees upward; there is no upper limit.
Is hAiner also suitable for larger industrial companies?
Yes. Our focus is the technical Mittelstand, that is where the pain is greatest and where we are needed most often. But the product itself doesn’t know that boundary: hAiner works anywhere technical experiential knowledge sits in individual heads and risks being lost when people leave, from the 50-person operation to the project-driven industrial company with multiple sites.
We have other priorities right now, does this even fit at the moment?
Probably precisely because of that. Anyone firefighting day-to-day can’t afford another outage, and that is exactly where knowledge loss hits hardest: when the senior expert quits while you are already short-staffed, or the experienced site manager retires in the middle of the next major project. We know a classic pilot project doesn’t fit your priorities right now. That is why we offer a mini entry point: a single, one-hour knowledge interview with a key person, analysed by hAiner. You get a concrete, tangible handover document, no commitment, no IT setup, no project budget. If the value is clear, we talk about more.→ Want to check how high your risk is first? Knowledge-loss check in 5 questions
How does hAiner help with knowledge transfer before retirement?
hAiner holds conversations with departing key people in which they talk about their work. With shop-floor staff: about equipment, suppliers, exceptional situations and decision logic. With sales staff: about key accounts, negotiation histories, special terms and industry context. From these conversations come structured handover packages, searchable and queryable in the flow of work.
How does a pilot project work?
A pilot usually takes eight to ten weeks, in four steps: initial call (30 minutes), pilot setup (1–2 weeks), pilot phase (6–8 weeks), evaluation and decision. Success criteria are agreed in writing up front.
What does a hAiner pilot cost?
Pilot costs depend on the use case and the depth of integration. We name the figure concretely in the initial call, based on use case, number of users and integration scope.
How quickly do we see results?
First usable work products (playbooks, standard procedures) typically appear within the first two weeks of the pilot phase. A robust knowledge base builds up over eight weeks.
Für alle, die gerade nicht können
Ein Interview. Eine Stunde. Kein Risiko.
Sie haben jemanden, der bald geht, eine Werksmeisterin in Rente, einen Vertriebler vor dem Wechsel, einen Bauleiter mit zwanzig Jahren Anlagenerfahrung. Wir führen mit ihm oder ihr ein einstündiges Gespräch, hAiner verarbeitet es zu einem strukturierten Übergabe-Dokument, und Sie sehen am echten Beispiel, was möglich ist. Kostenfrei. Ohne IT-Anbindung. Ohne weiteren Aufwand für Sie.
