Excellent collaboration with OST—University of Applied Sciences of Eastern Switzerland
Our joint practical project with OST—the University of Applied Sciences of Eastern Switzerland— has won the WTT Young Leader Award 2026 in the Management Concept category. By further developing our AI Readiness Check, the five-member student team was able to impress the expert jury and prevail against strong competition.
A Special Evening at the Tonhalle St. Gallen
On October 28, 2026, approximately 600 guests from the worlds of business, academia, and politics celebrated the 20th anniversary of the WTT Young Leader Award at the Tonhalle St. Gallen. The focus was on outstanding practical projects by business students from OST—the University of Applied Sciences of Eastern Switzerland.
Over 60 projects were submitted in the two categories of market research and management concepts. Our joint project initially made it into the top three finalists. Then, at the awards ceremony, came the big surprise: First place in the management concepts category went to the Online Consulting team!
For us, this is a tremendous success and a special testament to the close collaboration between the university and the company.
Five students, an outstanding result
Behind this success are five dedicated students: Lucas Fässler (project leader), Fabian Wydler, Azem Abdi, Berat Koxha, and Benjamin Stricker.
Together, they have fundamentally revised our existing AI Readiness Check and further developed it into a scientifically sound, adaptive maturity model. The goal was not only to assess a company’s current status regarding the use of artificial intelligence, but also to derive concrete and practical recommendations for action.
The result impressed not only us as the industry partner, but also the expert jury of the WTT Young Leader Award.
Special thanks go to the entire student team for their tremendous dedication, initiative, and the high quality of their work.
AI Readiness Check 2.0: Turning Research into Tangible Value
With the AI Readiness Check 2.0, the joint industry-academia project has yielded far more than just a theoretical analysis.
The prototype developed enables companies to conduct a nuanced assessment of their AI maturity level. An adaptive decision tree takes different starting points into account and guides users through seven key evaluation dimensions. Based on the results, strengths, areas for improvement, and prioritized recommendations become apparent.
This provides SMEs, in particular, with solid guidance on where they stand in terms of AI adoption and what the next logical steps should be.
For us, the project is therefore doubly valuable: Not only has it been honored with a prestigious award, but it also serves as the foundation for the next generation of our AI Readiness Check.
The public launch of the AI Readiness Check 2.0 is scheduled for November 2026.
A collaboration that extends beyond the project
This joint practical project clearly demonstrates the potential of collaboration between universities and companies. Scientific methods, fresh perspectives, and concrete challenges from the business world have led to a result that is directly incorporated into our product development.
It’s especially gratifying that this collaboration has also led to a personal success story: We had the opportunity to get to know one of the five students, Berat Koxha, better during the project. He has since joined our Online Consulting team as a new #proudOnliner.
This is a wonderful example of how a joint practical project can lead to long-term connections.
Thank you for this outstanding achievement!
A heartfelt thank you goes to Lucas Fässler, Fabian Wydler, Azem Abdi, Berat Koxha, and Benjamin Stricker for their outstanding work and this well-deserved success.
We would also like to thank Dr. Sebastian Scheler for OST’s support, as well as Ralf Angermann and Fabienne Bouffé, who oversaw the project on our end.
Our thanks also go to the expert jury of the WTT Young Leader Award for the honor, as well as to everyone involved who made this event and the collaboration between industry and academia possible.
We are proud of this shared success and look forward to taking the next step with the AI Readiness Check 2.0.
