The artificial intelligence (AI) boom is the latest trigger for companies to “get their data ready” for digital transformation (Davenport & Tiwari 2024). The challenge is that results which strengthen a company’s strategic differentiation depend on sensitive, proprietary data involving supply chain and channel partners who are often reluctant to share them. Data ecosystems address this by enabling trusted cross-organizational transactions while allowing providers to retain control of their rights. Catena-X (CX) is “the first globally trusted and collaborative data ecosystem for the automotive industry” (Catena-X 2025). Fittingly, the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG), the world’s largest automotive association, is launching CX-Hub North America to help members upgrade supply chains and systems for the next level of efficiency.
Lauch of AIAG’s Catena-X Hub North America
At the Automotive Logistics & Supply Chain Digital Strategies North America (ALSC-DSNA) Conference in Nashville, Tennessee (June 9-10, 2025), the AIAG formally announced the launch of the Catena-X Hub North America (CX-Hub-NA). ALSC-DSNA is recognized as North America’s leading annual forum for automotive supply chain and logistics leaders. With its focus on digital transformation, risk management, and sustainability, the conference provided a fitting venue to introduce Catena-X (CX) to the North American market (https://www.automotivelogistics.media).
AIAG, a not-for-profit trade association founded in 1982 by Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors, today represents more than 4,000 member companies, including OEMs, suppliers, service providers, and academic institutions (https://www.aiag.org). By signing a contract with CX, AIAG becomes the official North American hub for what is regarded as the first collaborative, open, and globally trusted data ecosystem for the automotive industry. Established in Europe in 2021 with support from leading OEMs, tier suppliers, IT providers, and public funding, CX provides a standardized framework and open-source reference implementation for secure, sovereign data exchange across the entire value chain (https://catena-x.net). The launch was celebrated with two highlights:
- An official on-stage announcement
- A panel discussion with CX experts and early adopters, presenting the business value of a successful Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) tracking use case
On-stage announcement and handshake
The official launch was highlighted by an on-stage announcement, where Kevin Piotrowski, CTO of AIAG, underscored the association’s digital strategy leadership and its commitment to global data and supply chain standards. He was joined by Jon Jacobson of IBM, newly appointed to the CX Board and following in the footsteps of IBM pioneer Jeff Schlageter. IBM had played a pivotal role in the early adoption of CX in the U.S., most notably by hosting the first live data-chain pilot for Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) value exchange at CES 2024 in Las Vegas, together with Ford, Flex, Deutsche Telekom, and IBM itself. This pilot marked the first time primary scope-3 data were exchanged across the automotive supply chain using dataspace technology, laying the groundwork for the CX applications now being scaled globally.
Panel of early adopters and experts
The launch celebration continued with a panel featuring early adopters and CX ecosystem experts. Dr. Bing Xu (AIAG), newly appointed Senior Director for CX-Hub-NA, opened by outlining the hub’s setup and AIAG’s strategic intent. He then handed over to Prof. Dr. Chris Schlueter Langdon (T-Systems International & Peter Drucker School of Management), Catena-X Association’s Ecosystem Development Manager for the U.S. and former chief software development lead of the CX core stack (“5 Stars”). Chris explained the unique value of Catena-X technology: enabling cross-company data transactions with full data sovereignty, ensuring that each provider retains control over its data rights (Guggenberger et al. 2025). Then Thomas Rösch, CEO of Cofinity-X, the first Catena-X operating company, followed by demonstrating how onboarding and productive use have been simplified through the Cofinity-X environment and app marketplace. Finally, the panel moved beyond the what, why, and how of Catena-X to present a real-world pilot that put the most important aspect center stage: the unmistakable business value. Dr. Pramita Mitra (Ford Motor Company) and Nicole Stevenson (Flex Automotive) presented the Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) tracking pilot, illustrating how Catena-X is moving from concept to deployment across multiple tiers of the supply chain. The pilot upgrades PCF tracking from secondary database estimates to real primary scope-3 data, dramatically improving the accuracy of reported PCF values. The pilot began at CES 2024 in Las Vegas, where Ford and Flex—supported by IBM and Deutsche Telekom’s T-Systems—launched the first live Catena-X data chain for exchanging primary scope-3 CO₂ data. It was subsequently migrated from a CX-certified CX Sandbox provided by T-Systems into the first operating environment of Cofinity-X, demonstrated live on stage at the IMDS-AIAG Conference in Detroit in October 2024. At the Hannover Fair 2025, the pilot was further expanded when Flex onboarded its tier-2 supplier Micron, underscoring Catena-X’s ability to support secure, multi-tier collaboration and scalable adoption across the global automotive supply chain. In addition to linking across multiple tiers, the pilot also demonstrated the multi-vendor character of the Catena-X ecosystem, with each participant using a different CX-certified application: Ford working with SAP, Flex with T-Systems, and Micron with Siemens. The launch of AIAG’s Catena-X Hub North America at ALSC 2025 marks an inflection point in the global expansion of data ecosystems. By demonstrating real business value through more accurate Product Carbon Footprint reporting, Catena-X is moving from vision to practice and equipping the industry to build more resilient and sustainable supply chains.
Deep dive: Insights, lessons learned, business impact
- ALSC2025 video on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/ALSC2025_CX-Hub-NA_Vid
- CEO-2-pager overview … what is a data ecosystem: Data 0 – README
- Case study – Sustainability powered by CX: Auto 6 – Sustainability with Catena-X
References
Davenport, T., and P. Tiwari. 2024. Is Your Company’s Data Ready for Generative AI? Harvard Busienss Review (March), link
Guggenberger, T. M., C. Schlueter Langdon, and B. Otto. 2025. Data Spaces as Meta-Organisations. European Journal of Information Systems, January: 1–21, link
