Key takeaways

• AI products and capabilities — from SAP Business AI and Joule Work to SAP-RPT‑2.0 — dominated the conversation.
• Sessions and keynotes underscored how governance, clean data, SAP S/4HANA, proactive change management, and business-outcome-driven implementation are critical to effective use of AI.
• SAP leaders like Jonathan von Rüden and Yaad Oren presented new and upcoming features, while customers shared insights from their innovation and transformation journeys. 

Coming on the heels of announced innovations to SAP’s AI portfolio, the fourth annual ASUG Tech Connect helped attendees make sense of these updates, while giving them with hands-on opportunities to learn more about products across the entire SAP portfolio. Featuring practical knowledge and insights from both customers and SAP experts alike, the event equipped attendees with the knowledge necessary to maintain critical SAP investments. 

Above, Tech Connect provided SAP customers intimate forums to engage with SAP experts and ask specific questions about their organizations’ specific IT stack. Considering the rapid evolution of both the SAP ecosystem and the larger IT field, these knowledge-sharing sessions are vital for organizations hoping to overcome hurdles, drive innovation, and embrace the full power of SAP. 

In his opening remarks at ASUG Tech Connect 2026, ASUG CEO and Chief Community Champion, Geoff Scott, emphasized this notion, acknowledging the present-day challenges and unprecedented possibilities that SAP customers are confronting in this rapidly changing landscape. 

“With technology moving faster than ever, it’s more important than ever to have a community that has your back, and that’s what we’re here to do this week and throughout the year,” said Scott. 

More than 1,400 attendees convened in downtown Fort Worth to hear from SAP leaders and customers through a variety of formats, including sessions, hands-on labs, panels, community conversations, and networking events. Themes like AI, cloud transformation, upskilling, and community engagement community engagement were not only the focus of the opening keynote but also served as a throughline across the nearly 200 sessions that comprised the event.

“I would like each and every one of you to leave this week feeling confident and able to take this challenge head on,” emphasized Scott, encouraging attendees to ​“leave here with a consistent and strong next step” for how they will tackle AI and SAP S/4HANA initiatives. 

AI Adoption Takes Center Stage 

In 2025, AI was part of the story at ASUG Tech Connect. This year, it was the story — as evidenced by 76 of the 190 sessions focusing on the topic. During the day one keynote, President of SAP North America, David Robinson grounded the significance of the moment within the context of SAP’s own history. 

“We talked about the internet, we talked about cloud computing, and we were excited about NetWeaver. We were excited about SAP HANA. Those are nothing relative to what’s happening today,” explained Robinson. ​“Those were innovations that helped us expand our offerings, but they didn’t fundamentally change how we develop.”

Scott stressed that apprehension around and resistance to AI would ultimately be to the detriment of the business. ​“The rest of the enterprise is not going to be there for the ride. Or potentially worse, your line of business peers will bring you to that destination — and we would prefer to see you bring them than them bring you,” said Scott. 

Throughout the three keynotes, speakers balanced words of caution with an energized outlook on the ever-expanding use cases and platforms through which SAP customers are already leveraging AI to streamline processes and make progress toward the autonomous enterprise.  

Agilent, for instance, was recognized as an ASUG AI Innovation Award Winner for its development of an AI agent that monitors external government and news sources for tariff updates and then ties changes to specific products, all easily displayed in a single, centralized landing page. 

Attendees also gained more insights into the AI announcements made at SAP TechEd. For example, Jonathan von Rüden, SAP Chief AI Officer, joined the ASUG Executive Exchange Forum for a candid AI-centric conversation with Mark LeClair, ASUG CIO-in-Residence. Speaking before a group of CIOs, CTOs, and other executive leaders in the ASUG community, the two dove deeper into both von Rüden’s comments on the ASUG keynote stage and the Joule developments unveiled at SAP TechEd. 

von Rüden also discussed AI’s current value to IT leaders, common pitfalls (and how attendees can avoid them), and his advice for next steps executives can take back to their organizations. Above all, he clearly articulated the ways all enterprises can move beyond the first steps — or piloting phase — of AI and begin implementing the technology at scale. 

“It’s so easy now to go to SAP for Me, download Joule Work Desktop, and have a couple of users get started — connect them to your systems and have them go off. It’s so valuable to learn from that and just get going,” said von Rüden during his keynote. 

Cloud Transformation: The Foundation for AI 

Another key theme throughout the ASUG Tech Connect was the importance of cloud transformations to customers’ AI journeys. SAP has long linked cloud environments (as opposed to traditional on-premises ones) as prerequisites to embracing the full power of its AI solutions — alongside SAP S/4HANA adoption and data cleansing projects.

“We want to see you remove friction because if your underlying infrastructure layers, if your underlying cloud transformation layers are not working correctly, then the rest of this AI thing is not going to get the time it deserves from each and every one of you, Scott said on the keynote stage. ​“We really think that this is the gateway to ultimately how we get to AI.” 

Cloud migrations were covered through the conference, namely at a panel session featuring several customers discussing their organizations’ SAP S/4HANA Cloud journeys.  Victrola, a mid-sized manufacturer with a three-person IT team, considered leaving SAP before a digital discovery assessment led to a greenfield move from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, which went live in January. Lutron Electronics, replacing a heavily customized JD Edwards system, began running clean core analysis in SAP Cloud ALM. This surfaced more customization than the team expected. Securian Financial is preparing an upgrade to the 2025 release and making the case internally that it lays the groundwork for AI and Joule. Each team is still tightening its clean core position, building user adoption, or planning its next upgrade.

Leaning on the SAP Community and Growing Skills Together

At ASUG Tech Connect, Texas-based ASUG members gathered for a meet-and-greet session about the local ASUG Texas Chapters, including Central Texas, Dallas/​Ft. Worth, and Houston. Attendees met with the chapter volunteer closest to their home, learned how the chapter volunteers help to program compelling stories and hands-on labs at meetings — and had some friendly competition over which city has the best breakfast tacos.

In one of the last sessions of the conference, an eager panel discussion focused on skills and connections. Notable ASUG leaders and SAP professionals spoke, including ASUG CEO and Chief Community Champion Geoff Scott, ASUG Volunteer Amy Her, and Director of SAP Programs and Associate Professor at Northwood University Dr. Dana McCann.

They agreed that to advance any skill requires first being curious. ​“There is no learning that is going to make you curious,” Scott said. 

She recommended talking to AI and having it explain a concept like the learner is five years old, then following chains of curiosity like falling into a YouTube rabbit hole. The rest of the panel recommended being in the present moment, ready to connect with people and learn, and also to have quiet moments to contemplate motives and goals. Scott recalled how he worked with a career coach to determine his ethics and learn what kind of leader he wants to be. Figuring this out requires answering hard questions and having time to think, rather than doing what he normally defaults to turning on a football game for entertainment. 

McCann tried something new during the conference: Leaving her computer at the hotel. ​“It drove me nuts the first day, but I was able to step away and really be present in these sessions and in the activities — by not bringing all of my baggage with me for real.”

Takeaways for the ASUG Community 

The sentiment throughout the conference was clear: AI is now a critical tool for customers and focal point for SAP. And while ASUG research shows that our community is, largely, still in early stages of their AI journeys, many are making strides to prepare their environments and landscapes to leverage SAP AI solutions. 

“I want to get AI into people’s hands so they can uncover things that they didn’t know were possible before, and that they couldn’t have planned for,” von Rüden said.