Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) are the central data hub for information from manufacturing. In addition, artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being successfully applied in production, especially through the developments of Industry 4.0. The combination of both fields is structured in this study by systematically describing possible use cases and evaluating the environment of MES providers in German-speaking countries. Specifically for forecasting tasks, an implementation concept is presented as a practicable simplification of common procedures for data analysis in manufacturing companies and explained using two pseudonymized examples. In this way, findings from the joint project PrognoseMES are abstracted into general recommendations for action and bundled as a step towards the further development of MES.