Celosphere 2025: Where enterprise AI moved from experiment to execution

Presented by CelonisAfter a year of boardroom declarations about “AI transformation,” this was the week where enterprise leaders came together to talk about what actually works. Speaking from the stage at Celosphere in Munich, Celonis co-founder and co-CEO Alexander Rinke set the tone early in his keynote:“Only 11 % of companies are seeing measurable benefits from AI projects today,” he said. “That’s not an adoption problem. That’s a context problem.”It’s a sentiment familiar to anyone who’s tried to deploy AI inside a large enterprise. You can’t automate what you don’t understand — and most organizations still lack a unified picture of how work in their companies really gets done.Celonis’ answer, showcased across three days at the company’s annual event, was less about new tech acronyms and more about connective tissue: how to make AI fit within the messy, living processes that drive business. The company framed it as achieving a real “Return on AI (ROAI)” — measurable impact that comes only when intelligence is grounded in process context.A living model of how the enterprise worksAt the heart of the keynote was what Rinke called a “living digital twin of your operations.” Celonis has been building toward this moment for years — but this was the first time the company made clear how far that concept has evolved.“We start by freeing the process,” said Rinke. “Freeing it from the restrictions of your current legacy systems.” Data Core, Celonis’ data infrastructure, extracts raw data from source systems. It’s capable of querying billions of records in near real time with sub-minute refresh — extending visibility beyond traditional systems of record.Built on this foundation, the Process Intelligence Graph sits at the center of the Celonis Platform. It’s a system-agnostic, graph-based model that unifies data across systems, apps, and even devices, including task-mining data that captures clicks, spreadsheets, and browser activity. It combines this data with business context—business rules, KPIs, benchmarks, and exceptions. Every transaction, rule, and process interaction becomes part of a continuously updated replica that reflects how the organization actually operates.On top of the Graph, the company’s new Build Experience allows organizations to analyze, design, and operate AI-driven, composable processes — integrating AI where it delivers business impact, not just technical demos:Analyze where processes stall or repeatDesign the future state, setting outcomes, guardrails, and AI touchpointsOperate with humans, systems, and AI agents working in sync — now orchestrated through a generally available Orchestration Engine that can trigger and monitor every step in one flowIt’s a deliberate shift from discovery-driven AI pilots to outcome-driven AI operations — and a blueprint for orchestrating agentic AI, where human teams, systems, and autonomous agents work together through shared process context rather than in silos.Real-world proof: Mercedes-Benz, Vinmar, and UniperThe Celosphere stage offered real proof of theCelonisPlatform in action, through live stories from customers already building on it.Mercedes-Benz shared how process intelligence became their “connective tissue” during the semiconductor crisis. “We had data everywhere — plants, suppliers, logistics,” recalled Dr. Jörg Burzer, Member of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG. “What we didn’t have was a way to see it together. Celonis helped us connect those dots fast enough to act.”The partnership has since expanded across eight of the company’s ten most critical processes, from supply chain to quality to after-sales. But what impressed the audience wasn’t just the scale — it was the cultural shift.“If you show data in context, and let teams visualize processes, you also change the culture,” Burzer said. “It’s not just process transformation — it’s people transformation.”At Vinmar, CEO Vishal Baid described Celonis as “the foundation of our automation and AI strategy.” His global plastics distribution business has already automated its entire order-to-cash process for a $3 B unit, achieving a 40 % productivity lift. But Baid wasn’t there to just celebrate finished work — he was looking ahead. “Now we’re tackling the non-algorithmic stuff,” he said. “Matching purchase and sales orders sounds simple until you have thousands of edge cases. We’re building an AI agent that can do that allocation intelligently. That’s the next frontier.”And in the energy sector, Uniper, with partner Microsoft, demonstrated how process-aware AI copilots are already reshaping operations. Using Celonis and Microsoft’s AI stack, Uniper can predict when hydropower plants will need maintenance — and cluster those jobs to reduce downtime and emissions.“Each technician, each part, each system plays a role in a living process,” said Hans Berg, Uniper’s CIO. “The human can’t see all of it. But process intelligence can — and it can nudge the system toward the best outcome.”Agnes Heftberger, CVP & CEO, Microsoft Germany & Austria, who joined Berg on stage, summed it up crisply:“The hard part isn’t building AI features — it’s scaling them responsibly,” she explained. “You need to marry intelligence with the beating heart of the company: its processes.”Across the global community, Celonis reports more than $8 billion in realized business valueand over 120 certified value champions — proof that process intelligence is driving measurable impact far beyond pilots. Rinke called it “the early proof points of a true return on AI.” From closed systems to composable intelligenceCelosphere 2025 marked a shift from architecture to interoperability — from defining enterprise AI to making it work across boundaries.Rinke’s vision for the future is unapologetically open: “Good things grow from open ecosystems,” he said. That philosophy is taking shape through deeper platform integrations — including Microsoft Fabric, Databricks, and Bloomfilter — with zero-copy, bidirectional lakehouse access that lets customers query process data in place with minimal latency. The company also announced MCP Server support for embedding the Process Intelligence Graph directly into agentic AI platforms like Amazon Bedrock and Microsoft Copilot Studio.These updates make “composable enterprise AI” tangible — organizations can now assemble and govern AI solutions across ecosystems rather than being locked into any single vendor.Rather than competing on who has the “best agent,” the message was that enterprise AI will thrive when agents work together through shared context and models that mirror how businesses actually run.“Every vendor is bringing out their own agent,” Rinke said. “But each one is limited to that vendor’s world. If they can’t work together, they can’t work for you. That’s what process intelligence fixes.”The idea drew sustained applause. For companies juggling multiple cloud platforms, ERPs, and data tools, composability isn’t just elegant; it’s survival.Beyond operations: data, democracy, and directionThe closing moments of the keynote took an unexpected turn — from enterprise architecture to human courage. Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado joined live via satellite to share how her movement used data, encrypted apps, and civic coordination to expose election fraud and mobilize millions.It was a powerful contrast: the same principles — transparency, accountability, context — at work in both business and democracy.“Technology can be a weapon or a liberator,” Machado said. “It depends on who holds the context.”Her words landed with weight in a room full of people used to talking about data, systems, and governance — a reminder that context isn’t just technical, it’s human.Why this year matteredCelosphere 2025 marked a shift in how enterprises approach AI — from experimentation to results grounded in process intelligence. The shift was evident in both tone and technology, with a more powerful Data Core, enhanced Process Intelligence Graph, and new Build Experience. But the deeper takeaway was philosophical: AI only scales when it’s grounded in how people and systems actually work together.Celonis president Carsten Thoma was candid in acknowledging that early process-mining projects often “stormed in with discovery” before understanding organizational value — a lesson that now defines the company’s measured, pragmatic approach to enterprise AI.Rinke put it best near the end of his keynote:“We’re not just automating steps,” he said. “We’re building enterprises that can adapt instantly, innovate freely, and improve continuously.”Missed it? Catch up with all the highlights from Celosphere 2025 here. Sponsored articles are content produced by a company that is either paying for the post or has a business relationship with VentureBeat, and they’re always clearly marked. For more information, contact sales@venturebeat.com.