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Clemens Wasner

Co-founder and CEO, EnliteAI Energy (enliteAI); Chairperson, AI Austria

Applied AIReinforcement learning for power gridsEuropean AI policy

Consulting in Asia

Before founding his own companies, Clemens Wasner spent ten years in Japan and China, where he led the Asian expansion of an international consulting firm[1]. The European Forum Alpbach describes him as an entrepreneur and think-tank founder who promotes AI as a way to raise the competitiveness of Austria and Europe[1].

Founding enliteAI

Wasner is co-founder and CEO of enliteAI, which was founded in Vienna in 2017 together with Marcel Wasserer and Johannes Stumtner[3]. The company began with a market-intelligence product called Skope, then spent several years on applied AI projects for clients including Audi, A1, Red Bull and the City of Vienna[3]. In 2019 it drafted the City of Vienna's AI strategy, which the company describes as the first by any Austrian municipality[3].

enliteAI then built its own products[3]. Its reinforcement learning framework, Maze, was released as open source in 2021 and won first place in the L2RPN grid-control competition in 2022, the same year the company received the Austrian State Award for Innovation[3]. In 2023 it raised a seed round from Speedinvest, Breeze Invest and Floud Ventures[3]. Its GeoAI product for road infrastructure, Detekt, went from seed round to acquisition by the mobile-mapping company Cyclomedia between 2023 and 2025[3].

EnliteAI Energy and FLEX

The company now operates as EnliteAI Energy and focuses on a single product, FLEX, an AI-powered grid optimisation platform for transmission and distribution system operators[3]. FLEX uses grid data, a digital twin and reinforcement learning to recommend operating decisions, and is designed so that the grid operator makes every final decision[7]. Its stated aim is to help operators connect renewables faster, relieve congestion and defer grid reinforcement[7].

In 2026 FLEX was in a paid proof of concept at Netz Burgenland and under evaluation at Wiener Netze, and the company has published results with European operators including TenneT[3].

AI Austria

Wasner is founder, initiator and chairperson of AI Austria, an independent think tank and network for exchange on artificial intelligence in Austria[4][6]. The organisation builds communities, supports the visibility of the Austrian AI ecosystem, promotes AI education and talent, and contributes to public discussion and policy[6]. He also initiated and maintains the AI Landscape Austria, an independent map of Austrian AI startups, companies and institutions[2][6].

According to AI Austria, he has worked on ecosystem and policy initiatives at national and EU level, including EAIF, and is a former vice president of Adra[4]. On 24 September 2026 AI Austria co-organised the Applied Artificial Intelligence Conference (AAIC) in Vienna with Advantage Austria, the Enterprise Europe Network and the Austrian Research Promotion Agency FFG[5]. In the closing discussion Wasner said the next challenge after widespread individual AI use is embedding it into core business processes, with suitable governance, skills and measurable outcomes[5].

Podcast and public speaking

Wasner co-hosts Wasner + Steinschaden, Der KI Podcast, with Jakob Steinschaden, co-founder of the tech outlet Trending Topics[2]. The German-language podcast, previously known as AI Talk, appears several times a month and covers technological developments, practical use cases from companies in the DACH region, and the strategies of global AI companies[2]. Episodes are published on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts, with accompanying articles on Trending Topics[2]. He was a speaker at the European Forum Alpbach in 2025[1].

Known for

Sources

  1. European Forum Alpbach: Clemens Wasner speaker page, 2025 — checked 6 Nov 2026
  2. Trending Topics: Wasner + Steinschaden, Der KI Podcast — checked 6 Nov 2026
  3. EnliteAI Energy: About, Team, Story and Investors — checked 6 Nov 2026
  4. AI Austria: About us and board — checked 6 Nov 2026
  5. AI Austria: AAIC 2026: Bringing applied AI into everyday business, October 2026 — checked 6 Nov 2026
  6. AI Austria: home page — checked 6 Nov 2026
  7. EnliteAI Energy: FLEX, AI grid optimisation for TSOs and DSOs — checked 6 Nov 2026
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