The person behind Hoch-AI: Nicolas Hoch

I am Nicolas Hoch, most people call me Nico. I am the founder of Hoch-AI and I help companies use artificial intelligence in a sensible, secure, and pragmatic way. Not as a showpiece, but as a tool that improves real processes.

I grew up in Fischerbach in the Black Forest and live in Nuremberg today. My career started very practically: after completing secondary school, I trained as an electronics technician for devices and systems at a mid-sized company in the Black Forest. In parallel, I completed my higher education entrance qualification at evening school.

After that I worked in technical inside sales, also in the SME sector, and studied industrial engineering on the side. During that time I discovered how much I love IT.

At the age of 17 I built my first application – back then for my parents' bakery, using Excel, VBA and Dropbox. So, with a bit of humor, almost cloud already. Later I rebuilt that solution with Angular and a .NET backend. It is still in productive use today.

During my bachelor thesis on customer analysis I came into intensive contact with artificial intelligence for the first time. The topic immediately grabbed me. That is why after my bachelor degree I went on to study business informatics, with a focus on AI and big data analytics.

Today I work as an AI engineer at Siemens. There I work on AI applications in an enterprise context, particularly generative AI, knowledge systems, and intelligent assistants.

In parallel I founded Hoch-AI.

The trigger for Hoch-AI was an observation I keep making: many mid-sized companies know that AI is becoming important. At the same time they are overwhelmed by the volume of tools, vendors, and jargon. Everyone promises productivity, automation, agents, copilots, or complete transformation.

But rarely is it clearly explained what actually fits the specific company. I wanted to build a bridge between technical depth and understandable, honest implementation.

I believe: companies in the mid-market do not need to do everything with AI right away. But they should start asking the right questions now.

Which tasks cost us the most time? Where does knowledge get lost? Which processes repeat constantly? Which AI tools can employees use safely? Where does a dedicated AI project make sense – and where might simply using existing tools better be enough?

Hoch-AI helps answer exactly these questions. My approach usually does not start with finished software but with orientation. First, management and leaders need to understand what AI can really do today and where its limits are. After that, employees need training, trust, and hands-on experience. Only then does it make sense to evaluate specific use cases and build first solutions.

I am not a classic buzzword consultant. I come from implementation and build things myself. My technical focus is on the Microsoft Stack: Azure, Azure OpenAI, Microsoft 365, Teams, SharePoint, Microsoft Graph API, and Bot Services. That is exactly where many companies already have their data, communication, and processes.

Depending on the use case, other approaches can also make sense – for example local applications with self-hosted language models. What matters is not the trendiest buzzword but the right solution for data privacy, process, budget, and value.

In projects I like to work with small, usable MVPs – first versions that create real value quickly and have to prove themselves in daily use. If a solution works, it gets developed further. If not, you have learned early without running in the wrong direction for months.

With Hoch-AI I support companies as a strategy consultant, coach, and developer for AI solutions. This can be an AI briefing for management, training for employees, a use case screening, or the development of a concrete AI application.

For example a knowledge bot in Microsoft Teams, an assistant for emails, or a system that makes internal documents searchable and usable.

My goal: AI should become understandable and help in everyday work. Not at some point in the future. Not only in a demo. But as early, concretely, and measurably as possible.

AI is not going to disappear. It will become part of daily work, just as email, cloud software, and smartphones have become.

Companies therefore do not need to follow every hype. But they should start gathering their own experience. Those who use AI sensibly will have advantages. Those who wait indefinitely will eventually fall behind.

Hoch-AI exists to make this entry easier: human, direct, technically grounded, and with a clear view of what truly creates value.