How AI Prototypes Become Real Products: FORUM demonstrates how agent-based coding accelerates development, consolidates knowledge, and enhances practical application.
From AI prototype to actual product in three months
One day for the prototype. Three months until it's deployed in our own product environment.
At the end of March, HSH demonstrated at the first FORUM AI Hackathon in Ingolstadt just how quickly an application can be developed using AI. Impressive, but still outside of its own software platform. A good demo, but not yet a real product.
By the end of June, the HSH had come a long way: the prototype had become an application within the existing product ecosystem.
Even more exciting: Along the way, a toolkit consisting of 27 specialized AI agents and 39 skills was developed. The agents handle tasks in architecture, development, testing, and review. The skills bundle knowledge that can also be applied to other projects. On the next project, no one will have to start from scratch.
From Experiment to Everyday Work
The two-day FORUM Software Conference in the Berlin area focused precisely on such advances. Managing directors and CTOs from FORUM’s software portfolio companies gathered, along with several guest companies with which FORUM is discussing potential successor solutions.
brain-SCC also demonstrated how quickly initial experiments can evolve into a new way of working. Within eight weeks, the use of coding agents had expanded to the entire development team. As a result, the company already has an application developed entirely with AI support in productive use.
The question, therefore, had long since ceased to be merely whether AI was changing software development. What was far more important was: How can individual experiments be turned into reliable processes that work in everyday life?
Progress, or just a good demo?
The AI Black Belt System developed by FORUM generated a particularly strong response. It is designed to answer a simple question: Where does a company actually stand in terms of agent-based coding?
After all, new licenses, initial pilot projects, and impressive demos can quickly give the impression of progress. That’s why the system takes a closer look: at measurable data, concrete results, and structured discussions.
Ultimately, it's not about the rating itself, but about which next steps will truly help a company move forward.
Those who share openly learn faster
After the first day, we all went to Berlin for a guided tour of the Reichstag dome, followed by dinner.
It’s often during breaks between presentations that the most valuable conversations take place. When a company openly shares what has and hasn’t worked, others can benefit directly from that experience and don’t have to make every mistake themselves.
That is exactly FORUM's approach: supporting participants in the implementation process—through conferences, hackathons, and audits.
In the end, what matters to us isn't the most spectacular demo. What matters is whether it actually leads to better products and faster development.
