Mark your calendars – SAP Sapphire 2026 is here, and it's set to redefine what's possible. This year, the conversation isn’t just about digital transformation. The focus is on mastering your platform journey to drive continuous innovation, achieve measurable business outcomes, and on how organizations should leverage artificial intelligence. It’s going to be a fantastic opportunity to learn, share together, and of course, I’m especially looking forward to celebrating with everyone at the afterparty. I just found out there’s hazelnut chocolate fruit waffles at Magic Kingdom, so I’m extra excited!

From AI-powered development and intelligent automation to seamless integration and strategic platform management, SAP’s platform stands as the essential foundation. Its unique differentiation lies in deeply embedding AI across your operations while preserving the invaluable data and business application context, thereby turning challenges into tangible opportunities. Sapphire 2026 will be the pivotal event to launch SAP’s strategic vision, highlighting how AI innovations are integral to the enterprises of tomorrow.

In an era when disconnected landscapes continue to hinder progress, SAP’s customers have consistently shown that the platform's true power lies in end-to-end connectivity. Whether it's your CHRO leveraging SAP SuccessFactors employee data with procurement data for newly onboarding employees, or your CFO optimizing financials with SAP S/4HANA together with external third-party benchmark data, or your CPO driving procurement excellence by keeping warehouse data up to date from supply chain partners, the challenge remains: how do you connect these vital functions, including between the AI agents, to move beyond implementation to true business transformation?

This year, you’ll see how SAP’s platform serves as the critical foundation for SAP’s business applications, making this connectivity a reality. It's designed to streamline operations, foster innovation, and enable real-time analysis of insights across your entire business landscape.

This Sapphire, we're particularly excited to unveil new use cases that exemplify the platform’s power to address today's most pressing business challenges.

1. Integrate HR data and processes with government and third‑party systems

• The Challenge: Navigating complex and evolving HR regulations, increasing demands for efficiency in HR service delivery, and managing diverse workforces effectively.
• How the platform helps: By integrating HR data in SAP SuccessFactors (or elsewhere) and processes with government and third-party systems through SAP Integration Suite, organizations can ensure compliance with global and local regulations, automate processes, and streamline interactions with third-parties. This connected process frees the HR department from administrative burdens, creating streamlined employee experiences and compliant data.
• Recommended sessions at Sapphire:

• Proving the business value of standardizing on SAP Integration Suite | BTP2350: Hear how teams quantify business value after standardizing on SAP Integration Suite: before-and-after metrics, faster time to integrate, fewer incidents, lower operating effort, and readiness for a mixed SAP and third-party software landscape. 
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• PPG Industries: Building an AI-ready, clean core integration foundation | BTP2638: See how APIs, events, and cloud integration reduce complexity, improve visibility, and establish an AI-ready foundation for future innovation across SAP and third-party systems. 
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• Building a foundation for AI with an integrated core HR system | HCM1742: Learn how a connected approach to core HR, payroll, workforce management, and HR service delivery can help you streamline your people and business processes while enabling AI readiness. 
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• The Challenge: Organizations struggle with complex processes and fragmented access to customer data, facing increasing competition and rising customer expectations. Data silos often lead to slow and reactive decision-making, impacting customer satisfaction and growth.
• How the platform helps: SAP Customer Identity and Access Management (SAP CIAM) protects sensitive customer data and meets global compliance requirements. By consolidating and integrating customer data across various systems with SAP’s platform, it enables the creation of secure, personalized digital experiences that overcome data silos. This supports dynamic and tailored customer interactions, enhancing customer acquisition and retention.

• Recommended sessions at Sapphire:

• Standardize, secure, and scale with core platform capabilities | BTP1315: Learn how application lifecycle management, security, and interoperability unlock SAP’s Platform to drive agility and growth. 
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• Invisible security: SAP Customer Identity and Access Management | BTP1316: Discover how SAP Customer Identity and Access Management accelerates your business by harnessing AI-assisted risk analysis to stop threats in real time, protecting customers behind the scenes without disrupting experiences. 
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• The Challenge: Developers struggle to balance rapid delivery with maintaining code standards, while traditional coding, debugging, and testing consume a significant portion of their time. Complex legacy code also slows productivity.
• How the platform helps: Leveraging AI capabilities directly within ABAP Cloud Development, using tools like SAP Joule for Developers, can dramatically increase developer productivity. AI assists with code generation, ensures code quality, and helps your development teams understand complex systems, freeing them to focus on innovation.
• Recommended sessions at Sapphire:

• Agentic ABAP with SAP Joule for Developers: Build faster, migrate smarter | JOU1428: Find out how AI agents with ABAP simplify migration, speed up coding, and increase productivity, even in older versions of SAP S/4HANA. 
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• ABAP Cloud: Entering the new era of ABAP development | BTP2107: The ABAP Cloud development model, agentic development experience in VS Code, the SAP Joule for Developers add-on, and agentic custom code migration join forces for the next era of growth in ABAP development tools. 
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• Introduction to ABAP Cloud supported by generative AI | BTP1429: Learn what ABAP Cloud is, get insights into the latest technology advancements, and see how generative AI boosts your adoption of ABAP Cloud. 
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• The Challenge: Organizations still using SAP Process Integration/Process Orchestration (SAP PI/PO) are facing the impending need to modernize the integration methods. With a complex integration landscape comprising multiple integration solutions, not only does it add complexity, but it also creates greater technical debt.
• How the platform helps: Migrating from SAP PI/PO to SAP Integration Suite provides a modern, cloud-native platform that reduces Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) across the integration landscape. This transition can cut the time to set up new interfaces and unlock significant annual cost savings. It's a strategic move that not only streamlines operations but also provides the scalable, agile integration backbone essential for future AI-driven cloud transformation.
• Recommended sessions at Sapphire:
  • Modernize your strategy: Migrating from PI/PO to SAP Integration Suite | BTP1360: Learn how the suite enables smooth, scalable, and intelligent integrations across cloud and hybrid landscapes. 
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  • Under Armour: Enabling real-time commerce with SAP Integration Suite | BTP2138: Under Armour is consolidating MuleSoft, Boomi, and SAP Process Integration and SAP Process Orchestration into SAP Integration Suite, advanced event mesh on SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP).
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  • Modernize from SAP Process Integration and SAP Process Orchestration | BTP2100: Learn about migration approaches, coexistence options, and governance—plus the benefits customers see after moving, such as faster change cycles and better reliability and monitoring.
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To truly maximize your investment in SAP’s Platform, it’s crucial to understand where your organization currently stands and how to strategically advance. Sapphire 2026 will highlight the tools and methodologies designed to guide this journey, available on SAP Discovery Center: 

• SAP Discovery Center: As your central hub for knowledge and hands-on learning, the Discovery Center continues to evolve. Discover, evaluate, and adopt SAP’s Platform and AI to create tailored business solutions and accelerate your platform adoption.
• Maturity Assessment: Introduced at last year’s SAP TechEd, this comprehensive technical evaluation transforms uncertainty into actionable insights. In just 10-15 minutes, you can get a precise understanding of your organization's platform maturity across five levels, from “Getting Started” to “Center of Excellence.” It provides a clear roadmap, justifies further investments, and uncovers hidden efficiencies and innovation opportunities.
  

We have since expanded the portfolio with new Line of Business AI assessments for domain-specific insights, and an AI Maturity Calculator is in development with IDC that not only assesses your platform AI readiness but also benchmarks you against your industry peers.

• Recommended sessions at Sapphire:
  • Your platform journey: Maturity assessment and Adoption Best Practices | BTP1549: Explore the new maturity assessment that benchmarks your current state and uncovers optimization opportunities, paired with the proven platform adoption framework for SAP BTP that guides implementation.  
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  • BTP101: Comprehensive Overview of SAP’s Platform — Foundations, Development, Integration, and Governance | ASUG105: This intensive 6-hour workshop provides a complete foundational overview of SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) and its core capabilities. Participants will explore the BTP ecosystem, from architecture and development frameworks to enterprise integration and data management solutions.
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This Sapphire, don't just attend – Seize this opportunity to proactively empower your organization by understanding the strategic future of AI. In addition to use-case specific recommendations, I’ve identified essential sessions to deepen your strategic understanding.

Secure your spot: add these pivotal sessions to your agenda to fully grasp SAP’s AI and platform vision for enterprise innovation.

• Scaling AI in cloud ERP with SAP's platform | BTP1343: Learn how the AI platform helps your AI in cloud ERP move from experiments to real, repeatable results. 
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• Using autonomous finance to jump-start an intelligent enterprise | BTP1345: Hear how SAP Integration Suite, SAP Build solutions, and the SAP Business Data Cloud solution offer the framework to orchestrate cross-enterprise processes, helping them steer the corporate growth plan. 
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• SAP's AI platform: What's new, what's next, and why it matters | BTP1448: Get a tour of the latest innovations, hands‑on tools for developers and business users, and an early preview of upcoming capabilities shaping the future of AI on the platform. 
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• Design the future of enterprise AI agents with Joule Studio | BTP1449: Discover how Joule Studio enables teams to shape the next era of intelligent enterprises. With an intuitive no‑code experience, create secure, context‑aware AI agents that plan, reason, and act across SAP solutions and beyond.
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• From idea to impact: Orchestrating across the AI agent lifecycle | BTP1450: Get a tour of the latest innovations, hands‑on tools for developers and business users, and an early preview of upcoming capabilities shaping the future of AI on the platform. 
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• The enterprise path to agentic AI | BTP1454: Discover how Joule Studio creates AI solutions from extensions to agentic apps. SAP’s strategy delivers an enterprise-grade intent-to-execution platform that is purpose-built for SAP customers. 
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• Unlock platform value with AI at Cardinal Health and Johnson Controls | BTP1959: Hear how Cardinal Health Inc. and Johnson Controls International plc unlock platform value with AI-enabled application development, integration, automation, and AI services.
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Sapphire 2026 is your opportunity to discover how SAP’s unified platform can propel your organization forward to AI adoption, helping you become a truly connected enterprise with governance, ready for whatever the future holds. If you’re at Sapphire, please come see me at booth 152 – BTP1958 and let’s chat!