ASUG Tech Connect 2026 was the best one yet. The combination of many customers, lots of interesting sessions, a convenient, central location in Fort Worth, Texas, and the usual attention to detail by the ASUG team made for a great event. The focus of the event, across keynotes, lectures, hands-on sessions, and the show floor was AI. I appreciated the focus on demonstrating the business value of AI, rather than purely focusing on the technology.
The best part of ASUG Tech Connect is the opportunity to connect with customers to understand their priorities for adopting the latest UX and AI innovations. It’s always interesting to see where they are, where they want to go, and the gaps between SAP’s keynote content and the reality in the installed base. This happens during sessions, at meals, and in the expert 1:1 meetings that ASUG schedules for anyone who is interested. I’ll share some of the top issues I encountered across all of these touch points.
How do I move from SAP GUI to SAP Fiori?
Hard to believe this conversation is still happening, but several customer meetings focused on this topic. One person from a technology company shared his new strategy.
“At this point, my leadership team doesn’t care about Fiori, but they do care about Joule. So, my plan is to set the timeline for delivering Joule, and embed Fiori apps into that plan.”
Another key enabler is a strong change management program to give people information about what to expect, guide people on how to use the new apps, and provide ongoing opportunities to ask questions. This process often takes 6-24 months, so please don’t expect a quick pivot. Some companies do flip a switch, but it often causes confusion and disruption.
Here's are two excellent courses on SAP Fiori:
https://learning.sap.com/courses/how-to-deliver-a-great-user-experience-with-sap-s-4hana
https://learning.sap.com/courses/learning-the-basics-of-sap-fiori
When will AI-assisted features be available for on-prem customers?
In my session, “Embedded AI in SAP Cloud ERP boosts productivity through a better UX”, I demoed some of the labor-saving features we have included in SAP S/4HANA Cloud that allow users to find, enter, and share data more quickly and easily. As with every presentation of AI capabilities, the question about on-prem arose. Everything I discussed is available today for public cloud, it’s available or on the roadmap for private cloud, and we have no plans to make it available for on-prem customers. Moving to the cloud gives you more agility to adopt the innovations that SAP provides.
You can view the slides from my talk here.
Peter Spielvogel talking about common issues we hear from customers about usability.
How to migrate from SAP Enterprise Portal to SAP Work Zone or whatever is next
I did not have much to contribute to this conversation, but fortunate to have my colleague Florian Büch available to take the lead on the topic. He pointed to three excellent resources, two from SAP and one from a partner.
Learn how to transition from SAP Enterprise Portal to SAP Build Work Zone
The path from SAP Enterprise Portal to SAP Work Zone
Establish a central entry point with SAP Build Work Zone
How to migrate Web Dynpro Java apps to ABAP?
There is no automated tool or migration path to do this. However, this seems like a task that could be well-suited to AI, assuming you have lots of grounding documentation including a specification of what your current app does, the underlying data structures and relationships, and the business logic. While AI can probably give you a reasonable first draft, I would recommend allocating lots of time for testing at all levels – unit, integration, system, and functional testing. AI can do some of the testing, but you will need human involvement to ensure high confidence in your results.
Which SAP Fiori apps can I extend or adapt?
You can see all the available SAP Fiori apps in the SAP Fiori Apps Reference Library. By applying the appropriate filters, you can see the apps that are available to your S/4HANA version. Each app tells you if or how you can extend it. Find this information in the configuration tab.
There is extensive documentation on how to extend SAP Fiori apps in the help portal.
What’s the best way to build SAP Fiori apps today?
The modern way to build SAP Fiori apps using MCP servers. The documentation discusses developing an app with the MCP Server for SAP Fiori and skills using AI. If you prefer to learn by doing, there is an exercise on the learning.sap.com platform: “Using MCP Servers for AI-Assisted SAP Fiori and SAPUI5 Development”
Should I use RAP or CAP for my SAP Fiori apps?
The SAP Learning platform has a primer that explains the relative merits of ABAP RESTful Application Programming Model (RAP) and Cloud Application Programming Model (CAP) and some tips on when to use which.
What is the best way to embrace clean core?
The first thing is to understand what clean core is and is not. We have a clean core guide that explains this. As you would expect, we have a lesson on clean core in the SAP Learning platform.
Can I use AI-based development tools to create apps for my on-prem system?
Yes. You can use Joule Studio or other AI-assisted development tools to create apps for your cloud-based or on-prem system. If you want to try the latest tooling for building SAP Fiori apps, you can try the hands-on exercises from TechEd, although you will need to do this in your own environment.
- From SAP Fiori elements to agent to Joule Work: The full stack, hands-on: https://github.com/SAP-samples/teched2026-JW163
- OData to outcomes — Build AI-enabled SAP Fiori apps using SAP Fiori elements https://github.com/SAP-samples/teched2026-JW262
Can I build SAP Fiori apps and then transport them to a secure air-gapped environment?
This is relevant for many high-security companies, including most in the aerospace and defense industries. Yes, using ABAP and Fiori MCP servers it is possible to create and maintain Fiori applications and later transport them in an air-gapped environment. We recommend you start with the recent tutorial that covers state-of-the-art full stack development of SAP Fiori elements application using RAP.
https://github.com/SAP-samples/fiori-abap-fullstack-ai-tutorial
More Awards
ASUG presented many awards at the event, so, in that spirit, here are my personal awards, based on my interest in helping customers obtain better usability in their SAP Cloud ERP system and generating value from new AI capabilities. The categories are content, surprises, and energy.
Content commanders
Best customer session. ExxonMobil’s Michael Adrian and Lilissa Chao shared the most detailed, organized, and meticulously planned migration to SAP S/4HANA that I have ever seen. They talked about changes to their business model, architectural updates (clean core!), and some recommendations for others to follow.
Best customer tip for SAP Fiori adoption. This came from a 1:1 expert talk I had with a high-tech customer. After a decade of not moving to Fiori, he realized that he was not going to gain management support for a push in 2027. But, he knew of the many productivity improvements that the employees would see from moving from SAP GUI to Fiori. So, his plan was to focus on AI and moving to Joule. There is lots of interest in that from senior leadership. Since Fiori is a prerequisite for Joule (Joule uses the same OData services to retrieve the data from the back end to render the screens), he is finally implementing Fiori as a way to enable AI in his organization. Clever!
Best surprise prediction on AI. Some of the most interesting conversations happen spontaneously. I had an especially thought-provoking chat with well-known technology industry analyst Josh Greenbaum on the future of AI in enterprise software. With most companies moving quickly to adopt AI as much as they can to drive productivity improvements many companies are looking at the underlying data quality and change management to ensure a rollout that works. Josh’s insight was that governance and security could end up being the big factor that causes everyone to hit the pause button. Imagine a scenario when 100s or 1000s or millions of agents are hitting back-end systems. How would anyone manage all that? What if one rogue agent from a bad actor slipped in and performed an unauthorized action? Companies would definitely take a step back to assess how to figure out how to prevent future problems. If that happens, you heard it first from Josh.
Spontaneous surprises
Best customer surprise. After working with Betsy Grant online for 10+ years, we finally met in person.
Best newcomer to ASUG Tech Connect. Coming off her keynote debut at TechEd Berlin, Emilia Kunst shared her Joule knowledge in some hands-on labs and the expert 1:1 sessions.
Emilia at TechEd in Berlin. She brought the magic to ASUG Tech Connect.
Best assist. The ASUG 1:1 Q&A sessions are very popular with customers as they give people a chance to speak with SAP experts. Thanks to Florian Busch for jumping in on short notice to join me in a customer expert 1:1 session to cover Enterprise Portal to Work Zone migration topics. You can see the answers to the questions from the session above.
Bringing the energy
Best energy solo. I had the opportunity to serve on a panel discussion with the amazing transformation leader Kimberly Sharp. At the ASUG Volunteer Meeting, she won the ASUG spirit award and it’s obvious why. She graciously shared her deep knowledge on a career panel discussion as well as with many individuals in the ASUG hub.
ASUG panel on advancing your career with AI. Left to right: Liz Tuckwell, Olga Zhurav, Peter Spielvogel, Kimberly Sharp
Best energy trio. If there was a buzz happening on the show floor, in the hallway, at the celebration night, or after hours, Kara Beck, Amy Her, and Kristin Scheffler (“K-Shef”) were always involved. They always bring so much energy, passion, and knowledge to all things ASUG. It was great to pick up some of your positive vibes at the event.
In addition to my awards above, it was great to reconnect with so many long-time customers and colleagues. Amazing to catch up with Brian, Dario, Hussein, Carlos, Bryce, Tony, Sid, Chavonne, Geoff, Yaad, Kris, Carolyn, Anne Marie, Kristen, Rich, Olga, Thomas, Rich, Josh, Anurag, Andre, Jennifer, Ray, Lane, and many others. Sorry if I left anyone off the list. There was lots going on, so some memories are fuzzy.
If you want to dig deeper into the UX topics above, please join us in Walldorf on December 8, 2026 at SAP Connect Day for UX.
https://events.sap.com/eur-connect-day-for-ux-walldorf/en_us/home.html
On behalf of the SAP UX Engineering team, Peter Spielvogel.
