A method is provided for generating a control program of a programmable logic controller in an automation system based on an AI pipeline that includes at least one AI model with optional pre-processing of input data and/or post-processing of output data. The following steps are carried out: providing a latency model for predicting a computation time for executing the AI pipeline based on hardware and software configurations, and a compatibility model for mapping AI pipeline functions to software configurations; detecting hardware and software configurations of the programmable logic controller; generating a set of AI pipeline candidates based on the compatibility model; selecting an AI pipeline by evaluating performance of the AI pipeline candidates after training, taking into account a predicted computation time based on the latency model; and generating a source code of the control program with the selected AI pipeline, for execution on the programmable logic controller.