Presented by Ceylonese
After a year of boardroom declarations about the “AI transformation,” this was the week where enterprise leaders came together to discuss what actually works. Speaking from the stage Cellosphere in MunichAlexander Rinke, co-founder and co-CEO of Salonis, set the tone early in his keynote:
“Only 11% of companies today are seeing measurable benefits from AI projects,” he said. “It’s not an adoption issue. It’s a context issue.”
It’s a sentiment that has driven anyone trying to deploy AI within a large enterprise. You can’t automate what you don’t understand – and most organizations still lack a unified picture of how work really works in their companies.
Selonis’ answer, over three days at the company’s annual event, was less about new tech acronyms and more about connective tissue: how to make AI fit into the messy, living processes that drive business. The company coined this as the pursuit of true “return on AI (ROAI)” — the measurable impact that only comes when intelligence is grounded in the context of action.
A living model of how the enterprise works
At the heart of the keynote was what Rinke called “the living digital twin of your work.” Salonis has been building toward this moment for years — but this was the first time the company explained just how far the concept has evolved.
“We start by liberating the process,” Rinke said. “Freeing it from the constraints of our current legacy system.” Data corethe data infrastructure of Selonis, extracts the raw data from the source system. It is capable of querying billions of records in near real-time with sub-minute updates.
Built on this foundation, Follow the Intelligence Graph The Salonis sits in the center of the platform. It’s a system-agnostic, graph-based model that integrates data across systems, apps, and even devices, including task mining data that captures clicks, spreadsheets, and browser activity. It links this data to business context – business rules, KPIs, benchmarks and exceptions. Every transaction, rule, and process interaction becomes part of a constantly updated transcript that reflects how the organization actually operates.
At the top of the graph, the company’s new build experience allows organizations to analyze, design and run AI-driven, composable processes—integrating AI where it delivers business impact, not just technical demos:
Analyze where the process stalls or repeats
Design the future state, configure outcomes, defenders, and AI touchpoints
Work with humans, systems, and AI agents working in sync – now orchestrated by commonly available Orchestration engine which can trigger and monitor each step in a flow
It’s a deliberate shift from discovery-driven AI pilots to results-driven AI operations—and a blueprint for orchestrating agentic AI, where human teams, systems, and autonomous agents work together through shared process contexts rather than silos.
Real-world evidence: Mercedes-Benz, Winmar, and Uniper
The Selosphere stage presented real-world evidence of the SeloniPlatform in action, through first-hand stories from users who have already built on it.
Mercedes-Benz How process intelligence became their “connective tissue” during the semiconductor crisis. “We had data everywhere—plants, suppliers, logistics,” recalled Dr. Jörg Brazer, member of the board of management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG. “What we didn’t have was a way to look at it together. Selonis helped make those dots work faster.”
The partnership has since expanded into ten of the company’s most critical processes, from supply chain to quality to sales. But what impressed audiences wasn’t just the scale — it was the cultural shift.
“If you show data in context, and let teams see the process, you also change the culture,” Brazer said. “It’s not just a process change—it’s a people change.”
at WinmerCEO Vishal Baud described Selonis as “the cornerstone of our automation and AI strategy”. Its global plastics distribution business has already automated its entire order-to-engrave process for a $3B unit, achieving a 40 percent productivity lift. But Boyd wasn’t just there to celebrate the finished work — he was looking forward.
“Now we’re dealing with non-algorithmic stuff,” he said. “Matching buy and sell orders seems easy until you have thousands of transactions. We are building an AI agent that can intelligently allocate this. This is the next frontier.”
and in the energy sector, UniperWith partner Microsoft, it demonstrated how process-aware AI applications are already reshaping operations. Using AI stacks from Selonis and Microsoft, Uniper can predict when hydropower plants will need maintenance — and cluster those jobs to reduce downtime and emissions.
“Every technician, every part, every system plays a role in the livelihood process,” said Hunsberg, CIO of Uniper. “Humans can’t see it all. But process intelligence can — and it can drive systems toward optimal outcomes.”
Agnes Heftberger, CVP and CEO, Microsoft Germany and Austria, who joined Berg on stage, summed it up:
“The hard part isn’t building AI features — it’s scaling them responsibly,” he explained. “You need to marry intelligence with the beating heart of the company: its processes.”
In Global Community, Selonis reported Realized business value over $8 billionAnd more than 120 Certified Value Champions – proof that process intelligence is having a measurable impact beyond pilots. Rinke called it “early proof points of a real return on AI.”
From closed systems to composable intelligence
Cellosphere 2025 marked a shift from architecture to interoperability—from defining enterprise AI to making it work across boundaries.
Rinke’s vision of the future is unpopularly open: “good things grow from open ecosystems,” he said. This philosophy is taking shape through deep platform integration. Microsoft Fabricfor , for , for , . Data Bricksand Bloom filter -Zero copy, with two-way lakehouse access that allows users to query process data with minimal latency. The company also announced MCP Server support for embedding process intelligence graphs directly into agent AI platforms such as Amazon Bedrock and Microsoft Copilot Studio.
These updates solidify “composable enterprise AI” – organizations can now assemble and govern AI solutions across ecosystems rather than being locked into any one vendor.
Rather than competing over who has the “best agent,” the message was that enterprise AI will thrive when agents work together through shared contexts and models that mirror how businesses actually operate.
“Every vendor is putting out their agent,” Rinke said. “But everyone is limited to that vendor’s world. If they can’t work together, they can’t work for you. This is where intelligence comes into play.”
Khyal clapped his hands. For companies deploying multiple cloud platforms, ERPs, and data tools, composability isn’t just pretty. This is survival.
Beyond Operations: Data, Democracy and Direction
The closing moments of the keynote took an unexpected turn – from enterprise architecture to human courage. Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado joins live via satellite to discuss how her movement used data, encrypted apps, and civic engagement to expose electoral fraud and mobilize millions.
It was a powerful contrast: the same principles—transparency, accountability, context—operate in both business and democracy.
“Technology can be a weapon or a liberator,” Machado said. “It depends on who the context is.”
His words landed with weight in a room full of people talking about data, systems and governance — a reminder that context isn’t just technical, it’s human.
Why is this year important?
Cellosphere 2025 marks a shift in how enterprises approach AI. The change was evident in both tone and technology, with a more powerful data core, improved process intelligence graphs, and a new build experience. But the deeper passage was philosophical: AI only scales when it’s grounded in how people and systems actually work together.
Carsten Thoma, president of Selonis, was candid in admitting that early process mining projects often “stormed with discovery” before realizing organizational value—a lesson that now defines the company’s practical approach to scalable, enterprise AI.
Rinke said it best near the end of his keynote:
“We’re not just automating initiatives,” he said. “We’re building businesses that can adapt quickly, innovate independently, and continuously improve.”
Did you miss it? Catch all the highlights from Cellosphere 2025 here.
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