Year: 2025

At the beginning of the year, we are dedicating ourselves to a topic suggested by our trainee Artur and exploring the question of whether chatbots could replace conventional search engines in the future.

Most of us use them daily: search engines. Whether Google, Bing, Yahoo, or one of the countless other search engines, they have become indispensable in our daily lives. Does your son want to know which was the fastest dinosaur? Do you need a recipe for the next family celebration? And what’s the weather like at the holiday resort? The well-known quote from Bill Gates, “Information at your fingertips,” has become a comfortable reality for all of us. We click through links and websites and find the information that is most useful to us in the shortest possible time.

But what about our private data or our work materials? When it comes to the details of your own mobile phone contract or the company’s internal guidelines, search engines are only of limited help.

Chatbots can take our information procurement to the next level. There are already ways to link search engines and language models. The answer to a question is then no longer just a list of links, but a fully formulated answer in natural language and with a reference to the source. But that’s not all. Various other systems can be connected to chatbots via API, thus enabling access to the information they contain. For companies, this means that employees can quickly and easily access all relevant information or files with the help of chatbots. No more long searches in various filing and information systems are necessary.

We are certain that this progress will also find its way into the private sector in the near future. Then the respective chatbot may not only be able to announce the weather at the holiday resort, but also knows the details of the booking and, if necessary, the conditions of your travel health insurance. Anyone who has ever tried to switch to the best possible mobile phone contract knows that the comparison alone can take up several hours of lifetime. How pleasant would it be if the chatbot on the smartphone not only finds the optimal provider, but also knows how long your notice period is and directly pre-formulates the corresponding termination?

But beware. Not all obstacles have been removed yet. All currently available language models tend to hallucinate. Especially when the information you are looking for is not available. This phenomenon is currently occupying researchers and developers worldwide. At Splitbot, we increase the reliability and verifiability of the answers provided by specifying the sources used with each answer.

Thanks to the rapid development of chatbots and language models, the end of hallucinations is within reach and one can be curious to see in which areas of life chatbots will soon be introduced.

An eventful year 2024 and the first working days of the new year are already behind us. And while others are still recovering from the New Year celebrations, the good news we received in December carries us with renewed energy through the still cold winter days.

One of the most groundbreaking events of the year was our transition to agile development using Scrum. With a motivating and instructive workshop on the topic, led by Anke Lütjohann, we kicked off our Scrum journey in February. As in any company, this transition initially took some time for every team member to settle into the new roles and processes. However, looking back, we can say: it was worth it. Through Scrum, we are able to make the development process more transparent and focus on the respective sprint goal. A complete success!

In February, the accompanying phase of Prof. Dr. Herzog’s Technology Ethics course concluded, from which insightful student results emerged. In small groups, the students explored questions regarding the ethical use of AI. For Splitbot, this involved the question of using our software in personnel selection processes.

The Barcamp of the Tourism Association in Kiel was another highlight of the first quarter. Under the excellent moderation of Eric Horster, we spent an exciting day in the Sparkassen-Arena. Numerous workshops and discussion rounds, designed by the participants themselves, illuminated the topic of “AI in the tourism industry” from all angles.

And we received another electrifying piece of news in March: Our application for the AI.Startup.Hub Hamburg Accelerator Program was accepted. This marked the beginning of a six-month journey that significantly advanced our personal development, as well as that of the company. An intense period on all levels.

The IT4B Digital Summit in June was a huge, impressive event in which we were also able to participate. Tadeusz captivated as a speaker, and at our booth, we were able to establish contacts with numerous interested parties.

In July, our annual summer party was on the agenda, which this time was exceptionally sporty. Both on water and on two wheels, we were able to prove that we can achieve a lot not only at our desks. Significant changes also occurred in July. For various reasons, it became necessary to realign Splitbot. Since then, our focus has been on the further development and distribution of our chatbot Kosmo. This realignment meant that we had to say goodbye to some cherished colleagues.

After the summer holidays, we were able to push forward the launch of the Kosmo app with renewed energy and full vigor and present it to a broad audience on September 18th at Nordish.digital in Flensburg.

The last major event of 2024 for us was the AI.Startup.Hub Graduation Day, which took place at the Astor Kino Lounge and offered us the unique opportunity to present the Kosmo App to more than 200 guests.

But that’s not all. For the year-end sprint, we gave it our all once more and were rewarded for our efforts with the approval of funding. Therefore, 2025 will start busy and exciting for us with a project to develop a chatbot for non-profit organizations.

We thank all team members, colleagues, customers, as well as everyone who accompanied us on our journey in 2024. Here’s to the next twelve months.