The Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG), the world’s largest automotive association, which once helped upgrade supply chain data sharing from fax transmission to EDI, is doing it again. It is now helping its members and the industry adopt new technology for complex data such as digital twins, enabled by distributed and inherently resilient data infrastructure similar to the Internet.
From MoU to hub to first insider event
At the AIAG-IMDS 2024 conference, AIAG announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Catena-X (CX), the world’s first globally trusted and collaborative data ecosystem for the automotive industry (see AIAG-IMDS2024). CX is built on distributed, or “dataspace,” technology that enables cross-organizational data sharing with sovereignty protection (Guggenberger et al. 2025; CEO 2-pager). This ensures that data providers remain in control of their data rights, unlocking access to information that is currently unavailable but essential, for example, for accurate digital twins or for tracing faulty parts from a defective machine down to an individual vehicle, saving automakers billions of dollars in targeted recalls. At the ALSC 2025 conference in Nashville, TN, AIAG announced a signed contract with CX to launch the Catena-X Hub North America (CX-Hub-NA), marked by a handshake between AIAG’s CTO and an IBM executive serving as a CX Board Member for the U.S. market, followed by a panel of CX experts and a sustainability use case presented by Ford and Flex. On August 14, 2025, AIAG is ramping up its CX campaign with an invitation-only event at its Detroit headquarters, bringing together its Board companies along with selected members and vendors.
A CX-VIP-Immersion
The AIAG Catena-X North America Hub VIP Immersion Event agenda offered participants a focused half-day program combining strategic insights, practical applications, and collaborative discussions as shown in Figure 1. Following the opening networking breakfast, AIAG CTO Kevin Piotrowski set the stage with an introduction to Catena-X and its relevance for AIAG members. He then introduced AIAG CEO Matt Pohlman, who thanked the Board and emphasized AIAG’s role in helping members adapt to new technologies for better performance and regulatory compliance. While no single member could achieve this alone, a large organization can set common standards that reduce costs for all. Building on this theme, Dr. Bing Xu (AIAG Senior Director of the CX-Hub-NA) highlighted AIAG’s focus on leveraging the Catena-X data ecosystem to tackle supply chain challenges and enable next-level performance. Participants then joined breakout sessions on three high-impact use cases to see for themselves how new “dataspace” tech is creating business advantage: Product Carbon Footprint tracking, Quality Detection and Prevention, and Demand & Capacity Management. After a short networking break, Dr. Chris Schlueter Langdon (Deutsche Telekom’s T-Systems and CX Ecosystem Dev Manager for U.S.) and Michael Tworek (Sovity) outlined the roadmap for accelerating value creation with CX, followed by practical guidance on implementation steps from Dr. Xu and Dr. Langdon. The program concluded with a wrap-up from Kevin Piotrowski, underscoring next steps, and a closing networking lunch for participants to exchange views and explore collaboration opportunities.
Role of Deutsche Telekom’s T-Systems in Catena-X and CX-Hub-NA
Tim Höttges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom (DT), was among the pioneers who initiated the Catena-X Automotive Network, positioning DT’s subsidiary T-Systems International (TSI) to lead in both data sovereignty and operations (Schlueter Langdon 2021). DT is one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators, with 2024 revenues of about $125 billion and around 200,000 employees worldwide. Its T-Mobile U.S. brand has been a cornerstone of its American presence since 2001, while T-Systems is a leading IT services provider to the global automotive industry. Today, T-Systems continues to play an active role in Catena-X, particularly in driving adoption in the U.S. Prof. Dr. Chris Schlueter Langdon, a Deutsche Telekom executive with the company’s primary dataspace unit led by Sven Loeffler (see Figure 2), has been tasked by the CX Association to drive U.S. adoption. Together with a Vice President from Flex Automotive, he has served as CX Ecosystem Development Manager for the U.S., focusing on business use cases that clearly demonstrate CX’s value. This work began with the world’s first cross-organizational data chain based on CX dataspace technology, launched between Ford and Flex at CES 2024 (Schlueter Langdon 2024). Today, Chris is part of AIAG’s CX-Hub-NA Core Team, helping to steer adoption. Figure 2 shows AIAG leadership with DT’s TSI team at the CX-VIP Immersion event. One of TSI’s key advantages is its deep familiarity with the CX software stack, having been a core developer of the open-source reference implementation. Chris served as CX product manager and as part of a three-member team with BMW and SAP, Chris shared responsibility for delivering the entire software stack (“5 Stars”). In addition, TSI is one of the ten shareholders of Cofinity-X, the first operator of a Catena-X-based network. Leveraging its global footprint, TSI has also been able to mobilize local expertise, including team members. Figure 2 shows Stephen Lemelin from Detroit and David Brown from Myrtle Beach, SC., joining Chris and Sven with AIAG leadership.
Deep dive: Insights, lessons learned, business impact
- AIAG’s CX-VIP event on LinkedIn: Matt Pohlman’s video clip, AIAG’s event video clip
- CES 2025 – AIAG CEO Matt Pohlman visits TSI at IAV booth: IAV CEO LinkedIn post
- Case study – Sustainability powered by CX: Auto 6 – Sustainability with Catena-X
References
Guggenberger, T. M., C. Schlueter Langdon, and B. Otto. 2025. Data Spaces as Meta-Organisations. European Journal of Information Systems, January: 1–21, link
Schlueter Langdon, C. 2021. Catena-X With GAIA-X: Will Data Space Be the Word of 2021? IDSA Blog (2021-03-21), International Data Spaces Association, Berlin, link
