There’s a familiar rhythm to SAP Sapphire.
The keynote lights dim. The big announcements arrive. The roadmap slides appear. And then, almost immediately, the real conversations begin: what does this actually mean for customers?
This year felt different.
Across Orlando and Madrid, the conversation wasn’t about future possibilities or long-term roadmaps. Customers wanted to know one thing:
How quickly can we start realizing value?
That shift in mindset was one of the biggest takeaways from Sapphire 2026 for Lemongrass experts Brian Dennett, BTP Practice Lead, and Chris Beard from the Solutions team, who spent the events meeting with customers, partners, and SAP leaders.
Their conclusion? SAP’s vision of the Autonomous Enterprise is no longer just a concept. It’s becoming increasingly real.
From AI Hype to Business Value
For the past few years, AI has dominated every technology conversation. Along the way, many organizations have experienced a degree of AI fatigue. The possibilities were exciting, but tangible business value often felt just out of reach.
At Sapphire 2026, SAP appeared determined to change that narrative.
The company’s messaging has evolved significantly. Rather than focusing solely on future possibilities, SAP showcased how AI agents, Joule, and intelligent orchestration could become embedded within day-to-day business operations.
As Brian noted during the discussion, the vision itself has been well received. The next challenge is execution.
Many of the capabilities demonstrated are expected to become available in the near term, creating a sense that customers are moving beyond experimentation and into implementation.
The conversation has shifted from “What is AI capable of?” to “How do we put it to work?”
A Different Customer Conversation
Perhaps the most striking observation from Sapphire wasn’t what happened on stage; It was what happened in the hallways.
Chris described a level of customer enthusiasm he hadn’t seen at previous Sapphire events – “Every customer I spoke to came with optimism, enthusiasm and, in many cases, immediate buying intent.”
Historically, conversations around transformation initiatives, cloud migrations, and ERP modernization have often centered on cost, disruption, and building the business case.
This year, many organizations seemed to be approaching the discussion differently.
Customers could see tangible opportunities to improve productivity, accelerate processes, and unlock value faster than before. Rather than waiting for a future state, they wanted to understand how to begin delivering outcomes today.
For SAP, that represents a meaningful shift.
The Foundation Matters More Than Ever
While AI dominated the headlines, one message remained remarkably consistent with what Lemongrass has been advising customers for some time. The foundation still matters.
Whether organizations are exploring AI agents, intelligent assistants, automation, or advanced analytics, success depends on having the right architecture underneath.
Throughout Sapphire, SAP reinforced the importance of the technologies that underpin its AI strategy, including Business Data Cloud, Integration Suite, and the emerging Agent Gateway approach.
As Brian explained during the podcast, these capabilities form the infrastructure layer that enables organizations to manage context, orchestrate agents, and connect business processes.
In many ways, Sapphire validated what forward-thinking customers have already started doing: investing in clean architectures, trusted data foundations, and scalable integration strategies.
Without those foundations, the promise of the Autonomous Enterprise becomes much harder to realize.
Openness Emerged as an Important Theme
Beyond the AI announcements, Brian and Chris both highlighted another notable shift: SAP’s increasingly open approach to innovation.
The discussion touched on SAP’s partnerships with organizations such as Microsoft, Salesforce, and Vercel, as well as its growing embrace of open standards and ecosystem-driven innovation.
Brian described it as a positive evolution, noting that SAP appears increasingly willing to align with broader technology trends and work alongside the wider ecosystem.
“It’s been nice and refreshing to see the way that SAP is starting to go on a trajectory of being more open with where the larger ecosystem is going.”
Chris echoed the sentiment, pointing to examples such as SAP’s collaboration with Salesforce and its willingness to integrate with technologies customers are already using across their business landscapes.
For customers, this matters because AI success will depend on connecting applications, data, and processes across increasingly diverse technology environments. The more open those ecosystems become, the easier it becomes to innovate at speed.
Modernization Just Got Easier
For many organizations, one announcement stood out above the rest.
SAP’s focus on migration assistants and AI-enabled transformation has the potential to remove some of the barriers that have historically slowed modernization efforts. The promise of accelerating migrations by as much as 35% generated significant interest among customers.
For organizations still evaluating their move to RISE with SAP or planning their path to SAP S/4HANA, this could be a meaningful development.
As Chris observed, SAP is now applying AI not only to business processes but also to the transformation process itself. That creates opportunities to reduce costs, accelerate delivery, and help organizations achieve value faster.
Brian also highlighted the significance of SAP bringing renewed attention to the challenges facing the large percentage of customers that have yet to modernize their SAP environments.
The message was clear: transformation remains a priority, but the tools available to support that transformation are becoming more powerful.
The Question Is No Longer “Why?”
As the discussion drew to a close, Brian and Chris were asked a simple question:
What should customers be doing next? Their answers were remarkably aligned.
Invest in the foundation.
Think seriously about data, integration, and orchestration; explore how AI can support both transformation and business operations. And perhaps most importantly, don’t wait.
Too many organizations, Chris suggested, are still waiting for the next announcement, the next release, or the next roadmap milestone before taking action. But Sapphire 2026 delivered a different message. The technology is here and the capabilities are arriving rapidly.
And the organizations that begin experimenting, learning, and transforming today will be the ones best positioned to benefit tomorrow.
As Chris concluded: “There is enormous value to be delivered right now. If you wait, your competitors are going to do it before you do. Stop waiting and start transforming because it’s never been a better time to start.”
That may ultimately be the defining lesson from Sapphire 2026.
The Autonomous Enterprise is no longer just a vision for the future. The building blocks are here today, and the organizations that move first will be best positioned to capture the value.
