The “Rural Region Early Adopter Testpool” service is offered by the Bavarian AI Agency and aims to establish a pool of registered volunteer testers that enables companies to have their digital products tested by companies and the local population before they are launched on the market. Different target groups in rural regions are taken into account.  

The service aims to promote awareness and acceptance of digitalization and AI applications and is aimed at private individuals such as citizens (e.g. older people, students, families), organizations such as companies or municipal institutions and research facilities who wish to participate in the development of digital/AI products. The core objective of the service is to promote the inclusive and participatory development and implementation of digital technologies and AI applications in rural regions.   

As the initial situation shows that digital services are currently still less available in rural areas and are more cautiously accepted than in large conurbations, this deficit is being addressed as a priority. Through a low-threshold approach in which citizens, employees of companies, students and numerous other target groups are invited to test new products and companies thus receive direct feedback on the demand, acceptance and use of new products and services, the test pool is intended to promote the digitalization of rural areas.