Comparison updated · Newest review
Side by side
Published data on both agencies. Where one side measurably differs, the dot marks it: the higher score, the lower published rate, the larger team, the more recent review. Which of those is an advantage depends on your brief.
| Attribute | appliedAI | elunic |
|---|---|---|
| Editorial score | Higher score: 64.3/100 | 61.8/100 |
| Hourly rate | Contact for rates | Contact for rates |
| Team size | Larger team: 10-49 | |
| Location | Munich, Germany | Munich, Germany |
| Founded | — | 2013 |
| Last reviewed | Aug 4, 2026 | More recent review: Sep 20, 2026 |
What we said about each
Our take on appliedAI
The Maschinenfabrik Reinhausen build is the one to read: a large language model on a skills-based architecture over a RAG knowledge base, in production, publishing roughly 45x faster Q&A, 1500x on automated extraction and 90% accuracy on base-analysis extraction. The published client list runs to Roche, Linde, Nokia, Vonovia and Giesecke+Devrient, and the G+D write-up tracks a named enterprise from "experimenting" to "practising" over two years rather than claiming a single win. Much of the…
Reviewed Aug 4, 2026
Read the full assessment →Our take on elunic
Four named AI installations are documented on live production lines: thyssenkrupp Automotive Body Solutions inspecting car-body doors inline, DB Cargo screening images of up to 400 freight wagons a day for slipped transport film as a camera retrofit over a cloud interface, voestalpine Automotive Components Schwäbisch Gmünd running 360-degree inspection cells on the press-shop outfeed conveyor, and Murrelektronik's "Murrlin" assistant answering technical questions over more than 95,000 product…
Reviewed Sep 20, 2026
Read the full assessment →Best for
Where each agency measurably leads on the published data — team capacity, declared specializations, editorial scoring, and rates where both publish them. Use these to match an agency to your project priorities.
Choose appliedAI if you need
- closer collaboration at a smaller team scale
- broader service offering — also covers Generative AI
- a higher overall editorial score
Choose elunic if you need
- larger team capacity for multi-stream or enterprise-scale programs
- an overall editorial score of 61.8/100
Strengths and watch-outs
Both upsides and risks, straight from our editorial assessments.
appliedAI
Strengths
- One of the few listed agencies publishing hard speedup and accuracy figures from a production system
- AI Act and governance work is a stated practice line, not a blog topic
- An agent program with a published three-month path to a production-ready agent
Watch-outs
- Several reference pages describe use cases rather than named client engagements—ask which are live deployments
- No published rates, headcount or founding year; budget for enterprise procurement
elunic
Strengths
- Client-side names are on the record: Manuel Gentner at thyssenkrupp, Achim Leister at DB Cargo and CDO Fabian Distel at Murrelektronik are quoted by name and title, so references are traceable
- AI.SEE goes into a line both ways—inline at thyssenkrupp and voestalpine, camera retrofit over a cloud interface at DB Cargo—so an existing conveyor does not have to be rebuilt to start
- eluna Multi Agent, the platform behind the Murrelektronik assistant, is published as open source and offered from SaaS to on-premises, which limits how much of a deployment is tied to one vendor
Watch-outs
- No case study publishes a before-and-after number—ask each reference what the reject rate, the inspection time or the payback period actually did after go-live
- Confirm which entity signs and which supports: the impressum assigns operations to elunic Systems GmbH, while the voestalpine study says voestalpine commissioned elunic AG
- The GROB FactoryChat and FactoryDashboard study still reads "currently in beta phase" and dates to 2021—ask what happened to it before counting it as delivered work
Service coverage
Where the two overlap, and where each covers ground the other does not.
Industry coverage
Both agencies cover the same industries — on this axis there is nothing to separate them, so decide on the evidence behind the work rather than its labels.
Frequently asked questions
- Which has more Manufacturing experience, appliedAI or elunic?
- Both agencies show documented Manufacturing work and have similar industry breadth. Compare directly on the agency profiles: appliedAI and elunic.
- Which scores higher overall, appliedAI or elunic?
- appliedAI scores 64.3/100, 2.5 points higher than elunic at 61.8/100. Both portfolio quality and business credibility feed into the score — see our methodology for the full breakdown.
- When should I consider both appliedAI and elunic?
- Consider running parallel discovery briefs with appliedAI and elunic if your project spans multiple workstreams, you want competitive proposals to compare scope and approach, or you're undecided between the specialization angles each brings (see the Best for cards above). Most engagements ultimately go with one — but the parallel-brief phase is a low-cost way to validate fit.
Read the full reviews
A side-by-side is a starting point. The full assessments carry the portfolio analysis, documented engagements, and the evidence behind every strength and watch-out above.