From 25 to 27 March 2025, the 71st Spring Congress of the Society for Ergonomics took place in Aachen – with a highly topical theme: ‘Work 5.0: Human-centred innovation for the future of work’. The HUMAINE team was represented this year with four exciting presentations.

Katharina Morsch presented her work on future standardization requirements for human-centred AI-based socio-technical systems. In her analysis of existing standards, she and Prof. Dr. Uta Wilkens showed where adjustments are needed to better integrate human-centred principles. The discussion was lively, particularly with regard to how ergonomics can provide impetus for the standardization landscape. This is a topic that the two authors will continue to address in the DIN Standards Committee NA 023 BR-03 SO.

Niklas Obermann presented research findings from a joint paper with Dr Valentin Langholf and Prof. Dr Uta Wilkens on how companies can meet the requirements of the EU AI Act (Article 4: AI competence). Using two case studies from the HUMAINE competence center, he provided practical insights into measures that promote the competent use of generative AI in companies.

Following a solo presentation by Dr Anja Gerlmaier on the topic of ‘Preventing psychological stress in transformation processes: Development and testing of the Health Oriented Transformation Program (HOT)’, the HUMAINE tool “FriendlyTechCheck” was the focus of another presentation by Dr Anja Gerlmaier and Dr Paul-Fiete Kramer. Application experiences from various company cases and initial evaluation results on how the tool can contribute to the human-centred introduction and use of AI in companies were presented and discussed.

Our conclusion: The discussions, ideas and networking opportunities at GfA 2025 have once again demonstrated how important interdisciplinary exchange is for the future of work. We look forward to building on the insights we have gained!

The conference contributions can be viewed in the current conference proceedings at the following link: