Customer Success Keynote Highlights: AI, Joule, and More in 9 Minutes | SAP Sapphire Madrid 2026

In the age of AI, business advantage comes from being connected, ready, and able to act when it matters most. Every customer journey begins with a moment that demands change. Real value is created when that moment becomes momentum. In this SAP Sapphire Madrid 2026 customer keynote highlight, SAP leaders and customers explore how SAP Business AI, Joule, SAP Business Data Cloud, RISE with SAP, clean core transformation, and WalkMe help organizations turn complexity into clarity and innovation into measurable outcomes. Hear from SAP leaders Thomas Pfiester and Manos Raptopoulos as they discuss SAP’s vision for the Autonomous Enterprise: a future where people set the direction, AI supports execution, and business processes run with speed, trust, and resilience. Customer leaders from Ericsson, EssilorLuxottica, Fonterra, and ZF Group share how they’re using connected data, governed AI agents, clean core principles, and change management to modernize operations, improve adoption, and create new capacity for growth. You’ll also see how SAP is helping customers shorten time to value with Joule Studio, industry AI, migration and modernization assistants, forward-deployed engineering, and AI adoption tools that help people build trust in new ways of working. Speakers and SAP leaders featured include: • Thomas Pfiester, Head of Customer Engagement & Adoption & Member of the Extended Board of SAP SE, SAP • Manos Raptopoulos, Global President Customer Success Europe, APAC, Middle East & Africa and Member of the Extended Board, SAP SE • Esra Kocaturk Norell, Vice President, Customer Experience, Enterprise IT at Ericsson. • Thomas Buck, Chief Information Officer, ZF Group • Toby Granwal, Chief Information Officer, Fonterra • Davide Schinetti, Chief Operating Officer, EssilorLuxottica Chapters: 00:00 - Turning disruption into opportunity 00:27 - Technology as a business differentiator 01:06 - How AI agents change business processes 01:27 - Governance, traceability, and human oversight 02:03 - Supporting transformation with SAP services 02:41 - Joule Studio and faster agent creation 03:09 - City of Madrid and SAP-powered AI 03:29 - Ericsson on AI-powered telecom innovation 03:44 - A problem-centric approach to AI 04:13 - Why AI needs business context 04:33 - EssilorLuxottica and connected retail experiences 04:41 - Joule-powered store operations demo 05:08 - Building the use case with SAP 05:34 - RISE with SAP and clean core transformation 06:14 - Fonterra on modernization and AI readiness 07:01 - Agentic workflows and change management 07:34 - WalkMe and AI adoption 08:01 - ZF Group on scaling innovation with SAP 08:31 - Custom AI agents and business value 08:50 - Five defining AI transformation moments Watch the full Customer Success Keynote. 👉 https://youtu.be/CocpyxAizwE Watch all SAP Sapphire replays on demand. 👉 https://www.sap.com/events/sapphire.html Follow us on social: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sap/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sap Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SAP/ Threads: https://www.threads.com/@sap About SAP: As a global leader in enterprise applications and business AI, SAP stands at the nexus of business and technology. For over 50 years, organizations have trusted SAP to bring out their best by uniting business-critical operations spanning finance, procurement, HR, supply chain, and customer experience. For more information, visit: https://www.sap.com/index.html #SAPSapphire #SAPBusinessAI #AutonomousEnterprise