Berlin AI Scene in 2024

Berlin's AI community is pragmatic. Less hype, more "does this actually work for customers?"

Trends I'm Seeing

• Vertical AI tools (legal, medical, logistics) over horizontal platforms
• European data sovereignty as product differentiator
• Open source model fine-tuning (Mistral, Llama) for cost + control
• Hybrid systems (LLM + traditional rules) for reliability

Cultural Differences from SF

• Less funding pressure -> longer iteration cycles
• Stronger focus on privacy and compliance (GDPR native)
• Multilingual from day one (DE/EN at minimum)
• More skepticism of vendor lock-in

Why Build Here

• Talent: Strong ML research community (TU Berlin, DFKI)
• Cost: Office and salary costs 40% lower than SF
• Timezone: Covers EU and partial US overlap
• Regulatory: GDPR compliance is a feature, not a bug

I'm building PromptOps in Berlin because the infrastructure needs are global, and the focus here is on substance over hype.