SAP TechEd 2025 in Berlin was not a product showcase. It was a blueprint for how enterprises will operate in 2026. The agenda consistently returned to one theme. Value from AI only materializes when clean data, governed automation, and human-centered design work as one system. The result is a practical direction of travel for HR, IT, and enterprise architecture leaders who need outcomes, not experiments. This companion article distills five shifts to watch and links to resources that help teams move from insight to execution. For a deeper dive into sessions and signals, get the Collectable Insights download here Why TechEd 2025 matters now TechEd framed Business AI as an operating model. The conversation moved beyond copilots toward interoperable agents, a harmonized data fabric, and a unified developer experience. For many organizations this is the missing link between strategy and the employee experiences they want to deliver in SuccessFactors and across the wider SAP landscape. Shift 1: From AI experiments to an operating model Pilots have taught useful lessons. They have not scaled impact. TechEd positioned AI as a systematic capability with governance, observability, and shared services. Joule changes from a helper into an orchestration layer that can host domain-specific skills and agents. The implication is straightforward. Treat AI like you would any critical platform service. Define ownership, controls, and service levels. Connect it to real processes. Measure business outcomes rather than prototype novelty. Shift 2: Data quality as the new foundation Every intelligent workflow is only as good as the data that feeds it. TechEd elevated the conversation from pipelines to products by emphasizing a clean, contextual, and consumable data layer that serves analytics and agents equally. That is not a data team task in isolation. HR, finance, and operations leaders need to co-own the definitions that matter for people programs, rewards, and performance so that models can reason with the right context. The companies that make progress in 2026 will operationalize data stewardship as part of transformation work, not as a side project. Shift 3: Agentic automation moves into the stack Automation is shifting from rule-based flows to reasoning-driven orchestration. In practice, this looks like workflows that react to events, understand policy, escalate edge cases, and learn from outcomes. The near-term win is not science fiction. Start where policy and judgment already exist. Approvals. Exceptions. Follow-ups that often get lost between systems. Use governed agents to shorten resolution time and make decisions more consistent without increasing operational burden. Shift 4: Developer experience becomes a growth lever TechEd put developers at the center of enterprise change. AI-assisted creation, unified governance, and modern tooling invite more people into the process while protecting the clean core. This is not only an efficiency story. It is a capacity story. By removing friction in how teams design extensions, wire data, and test experiences, organizations redirect scarce talent from maintenance to meaningful improvements in how employees work. Shift 5: Experience design becomes adaptive and human The next wave of enterprise UX is not a new skin. It is an adaptive layer that personalizes content and actions to context. In HR, that means a manager who sees timely recognition prompts, a communicator who targets the right audience with the right message, and an employee who gets guidance that fits their moment. The design bar rises in 2026. Experiences must be accessible by default, mobile-ready, and measurable in terms that leaders recognize: adoption, time saved, and sentiment. What leaders should do next Make 2026 the year your architecture reflects your ambition for people experience. Start with the foundation, move to orchestration, and finish at the interface where employees feel the change. First, align on the data you trust. Decide which people and culture signals matter and make them products that analytics and agents can consume. Treat definitions and lineage as assets. Second, introduce agentic automation where it unblocks teams. Pick one or two cross-functional workflows and design for human oversight from the start. Third, reduce friction for builders. Standardize patterns for extension and testing so that progress is faster and safer. Finally, measure what matters. Track adoption, decision latency, and experience sentiment so you know whether the work is paying off. This is where transformation becomes visible. Clean data shapes better guidance. Agents remove wait time. Builders ship improvements safely. Employees feel recognized and informed. Leadership sees momentum that can be sustained. That is the TechEd message carried into 2026. If you want a deeper reference while you map these shifts to your environment, read the full analysis and session summaries in Collectable Insights from SAP TechEd 2025 – Curated by Semos Cloud get it here Related posts Webinar Recap: How AI Innovations in SAP SuccessFactors Are Redefining Recognition and Retention read more A Global Week of People and Culture Intelligence: Paris, Dubai, and London read more SAP Success Connect 2025 Recap: Innovation Meets Human Connection read more
