“The Autonomous Enterprise: Between gold rush and reality” was the title of the keynote panel on Day 2 of the DSAG Annual Congress 2026 in Cologne. During their panel discussion, DSAG executive board members Thomas Henzler (Sales, Production & Logistics), Hermann-Josef Haag (Human Resources & Public Sector), Michael Bloch (Licensing, Contracts & Support), and Stephan Hüttmann (Financials) compared SAP’s vision of the Autonomous Enterprise with the real-world challenges companies are currently facing. The key takeaway: SAP’s AI vision is exciting and compelling, but there is still a long way to go before it can be realized.
There was also consensus on the following: For companies to remain competitive, there is no alternative to the use of artificial intelligence (AI). AI can serve as an effective lever for scaling and productivity – provided two conditions are met: First, companies must identify suitable AI scenarios that can be implemented cost-effectively. And second, they must make their systems, processes, and employees AI-ready.
Organizations need a foundation so that AI can be used productively and purposefully. This foundation requires a significant amount of groundwork: a harmonized data foundation, high data quality, clearly defined governance, a consistently implemented clean core strategy, and employee empowerment. Companies should focus on these areas to achieve AI readiness.
A key task for SAP is to deliver the announced Autonomous Enterprise capabilities as quickly as possible and make them available to all SAP customer companies. This is because many features are currently – if at all – in the pilot phase or can only be used productively in specific scenarios. In addition, the DSAG executive board members called on SAP to reduce the complexity of the system landscape and deliver reliable integrations.
Companies need greater certainty and reliability regarding licensing and contract models. Investment protection is of central importance so that decisions made today remain viable tomorrow and the day after tomorrow and do not suddenly have adverse effects on companies. Likewise, interoperability between SAP applications and third-party applications must be ensured for comprehensive AI deployment and must also be economically viable.
Most companies are still a long way from becoming an Autonomous Enterprise. To move closer to this vision step by step, they need to do their homework. This opens up various areas of action for CIOs: improving data quality, reducing process exceptions, and modernizing the enterprise architecture. In this way, a foundation is created that makes companies ready for AI and ensures that AI use cases can be implemented cost-effectively, purposefully, and with added value.