Celosphere 2026: What to Expect in Munich

Celosphere 2026 runs December 1–3, 2026, at the Messe München in Munich, Germany. It is the annual flagship conference for Celonis, and it centers on process intelligence, enterprise automation and the practical application of enterprise AI. For procurement and IT leaders, it is a primary venue for judging how process mining fits with existing SAP, ServiceNow and data lakehouse environments. The Celosphere 2026 event page lists the dates, venue and the audience the organisers expect.

The event is split into a pre-conference day on December 1 and the main conference on December 2–3. The 2026 theme, "Come for AI. Leave with RoAI," marks a shift from AI pilots to measurable return. The argument is that return depends on grounding models in real process data, not on model choice.

What the Celosphere 2026 agenda covers

The programme is organised into three delegate tracks, each aimed at a different function in a large enterprise:

• IT: industrialising enterprise AI, modernising the tech stack, and keeping efficiency and compliance under control.
• Supply chain: building operational resilience and managing disruption.
• Finance and shared services: value discovery across accounts payable, accounts receivable and procurement.

The agenda also covers order-to-cash and procure-to-pay optimisation, AI agents and orchestration, and data architecture and lakehouse integration. That spread matters for buyers. It means one trip can cover a finance programme, a supply chain programme and the data plumbing underneath both.

The agenda emphasises the Celonis Context Model, which aims to give AI agents a unified understanding of how an organisation runs. Sessions often feature large enterprise customers presenting disclosed financial outcomes from their implementations. That gives a rare look at realistic timelines and data requirements for a process-mining rollout.

The 2025 edition drew around 3,000 business leaders across more than 100 product, customer and partner sessions and roundtables. It featured more than 75 customer speakers, including Mercedes-Benz, BMW Group, Morgan Stanley and Knauf. Past years have also seen speakers from Siemens, Pepsi, Exxon Mobil, Danone, Merck, Reckitt, Lufthansa Group and Pfizer. Those names are a useful signal of the scale of programme the sessions describe.

A recurring theme at Celosphere 2026 is that process mining has become the front door to automation programmes, according to the Celosphere 2026 event listing. The same listing gathers the SAP, finance and operations teams doing the work, plus the consultancies that deliver it.

Who should go, and what each role gets

The audience is process excellence leads, finance operations teams and IT leadership, plus the consultancies that deliver the work. The full Celosphere 2026 listing confirms the organiser, format and region.

Use this short list to decide who travels:

1. 1Head of process excellence: own the customer case sessions and collect savings and timeline benchmarks.
2. 2Finance or shared services lead: focus on accounts payable, accounts receivable and procurement sessions.
3. 3Enterprise architect: attend the platform and Context Model breakouts, then check fit with your data stack.
4. 4Procurement director: use the event to shortlist implementation partners before you draft an RFP.
5. 5CIO or chief AI officer: take the keynotes and the trust and governance panels.

Sending two or three people with different briefs beats sending one generalist. Agree before the trip who owns which track, and who writes up what.

Hands-on learning and networking

The AI Lab is a one-day, hands-on workshop. Participants build functional AI prototypes with the latest products, get early access to new AI features and give feedback directly to product teams. They also work alongside Celonis experts on real business problems. AI Lab participants need a Celosphere ticket, so ask your account team for details before you book travel.

Networking runs through a peer-to-peer meeting app. Attendees can book one-on-one time with peers, partners or the Celonis team. Meetups, happy hours and side sessions fill the gaps between blocks.

The event is smaller than the hyperscaler shows. That matters more than it sounds: conversations run longer, and a partner's delivery lead is more likely to be at the booth than a marketing team.

How to plan your days at Celosphere 2026

Treat the event as an intelligence-gathering exercise, not a product tour. Work through these steps in the weeks before you fly.

1. 1Write down your current roadblocks: data residency, system integration, unclear process ownership. Map each one to the platform capabilities announced in the keynotes.
2. 2Pick sessions led by peers in your industry, so the savings and timelines you hear are comparable to yours.
3. 3Book meetings in the app with two or three implementation partners who have delivered in your function.
4. 4Check your data lakehouse position, such as Microsoft Fabric or Databricks, against the platform updates presented.
5. 5Agree a one-page note per session: what was claimed, what evidence was shown, what you still need to verify.

After the event, hold a debrief within two weeks. Decide whether a process-mining pilot is worth scoping, and who owns it. If you move to partner selection, the guide to writing an RFP for IT services gives you a structure that gets usable responses.

The pre-conference day on December 1 and the main event on December 2–3 are confirmed by the organiser, and the keynotes are streamed for those who cannot travel. The Celosphere 2026 agenda page sets out the session types: featured panels, breakout sessions, customer and partner lightning talks, and academy sessions.

What this means for buyers

Buyers should leave with three things: a shortlist of partners, a realistic view of what a rollout needs from SAP and data teams, and a benchmark for savings and timelines. The customer sessions are where the benchmarks come from. Ask presenters what broke, not just what worked.

A few practical checks:

• Ask each partner for a reference in your function, at your scale, in your region.
• Ask what their last programme needed from the client's SAP and data teams, and how many people that took.
• Ask how they measure success in the first 90 days.
• Ask what they would not promise.

If your programme needs delivery capacity beyond one partner, compare models before you commit. The guide to nearshore vs offshore software teams sets out how to weigh time zone overlap against cost.

When you are ready to test the market, you can post a project and compare proposals from vendors who have done this work.

What this means for vendors

For service providers, Celosphere gathers enterprise buyers who are actively scaling process-mining and AI work. The finance and operations leads are in the room, which is not always true at broader events.

To make the trip pay:

1. 1Lead with co-presented customer stories that show measured outcomes from your implementation work.
2. 2Attend the ecosystem sessions to learn the technical guardrails and process foundations clients now expect.
3. 3Book longer meetings in advance. The smaller scale allows deeper conversations than the hyperscaler conferences.
4. 4Prepare to explain how you industrialise AI: moving clients from reactive troubleshooting to agentic, process-aware automation.
5. 5Bring one page per reference customer: function, scale, timeline, measured result.

A Celonis partnership is sold here through co-presented customer stories, so the quality of your reference matters more than the size of your stand. The list of enterprise tech conferences worth the trip in 2026 and 2027 helps you decide how Celosphere fits your event budget.

Vendors looking for pipeline beyond the show can browse open RFPs and respond to projects already in motion.

Frequently asked questions

When is Celosphere 2026 and where is it held?

Celosphere 2026 runs December 1–3, 2026, at the Messe München in Munich, Germany. December 1 is the pre-conference day, and the main conference runs December 2–3.

How much does it cost to attend Celosphere 2026?

It is a paid event. Reported ticket prices range from about EUR 849 to EUR 1,249 for the multi-day conference. Check the official Celonis site for the current ticket ladder before you book.

What is the theme of Celosphere 2026?

The theme is "Come for AI. Leave with RoAI." It frames return on AI as a function of grounding models in real process data, rather than of model choice.

Is the AI Lab included in a Celosphere ticket?

The AI Lab is a one-day, hands-on workshop, and participants need a Celosphere ticket. Ask your Celonis account team for details and availability before you plan travel.

The bottom line

Celosphere 2026 is a working conference for teams that already run, or plan to run, process intelligence. Buyers get benchmarks and a partner shortlist. Vendors get access to finance and operations leads who are closer to signing than a general trade show crowd.

Plan the trip around customer sessions, not keynotes. Book meetings early. Debrief within two weeks, and decide whether to scope a pilot. If you are choosing a delivery partner, start with the vendor directory and compare firms by service, technology and country.