Celonis Celosphere 2025 | Dilip Khandelwal, Celonis

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Dilip Khandelwal

Chief Customer Officer & Chairman India Advisory Board

Celonis

play_circle_outline Exploring AI Opportunities: Dilip's Journey with Celonis and the Importance of Deep Business Process Understanding

play_circle_outline Discussion on India's cultural innovation, talent availability, and market relevance for Celonis.

play_circle_outline Celonis offers contextual information to help organizations redefine business operations effectively.

play_circle_outline Recruitment aspirations include creating an attractive work environment and aspirational brand identity.

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Dilip Khandelwal, Celonis

Dilip Khandelwal

Chief Customer Officer & Chairman India Advisory Board Celonis

In this Celosphere 2025 interview, Dilip Khandelwal, chief customer officer at Celonis, joins theCUBE’s Rob Strechay and Savannah Peterson in Munich to explore why “no AI without process intelligence” is becoming a board-level mandate. Khandelwal explains why AI needs a horizontal platform with business context to truly scale in the enterprise while sharing how Celonis is building that foundation. He also details the company’s growing investment in India – both as a talent hub and a strategic market – highlighting plans across engineering, value engineering, ... Read more

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What attracts you to Celonis? add

What is the significance of India's large population and talent pool for companies like Celonis? add

What is the significance of using Celonis for reinventing business processes? add

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Dilip Khandelwal, Celonis

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Savannah Peterson

>> Good morning, Process Intelligence fans, and welcome back to Munich, Germany. We're here on day two of Celosphere. My name's Savannah Peterson. I'm bringing you all the excitement with Rob Strechay. Early start for us today and already a thrilling one.

Rob Strechay

>> I think this has been great. We're all well-caffeinated. I think everybody's following the process in the lines for the caffeine, and that's excellent.

Savannah Peterson

>> I'm always impressed by the German efficiency at this show.

Rob Strechay

>> Yes, I agree.

Savannah Peterson

>> Without question. Very excited to bring a new guest to the show with us for this segment. Dilip, thank you so much for taking the time today.

Dilip Khandelwal

>> Thank you for having me.

Savannah Peterson

>> So I was doing my homework on you, stalking your career a little bit, and you've helped a lot of companies do very large-scale transformation. I'm very curious to set the stage, what attracted you to Celonis and what brought you here in the first place?

Dilip Khandelwal

>> I think you're right. I think in my journey, I've gone through a couple of very, very large transformation, but the question on what attracts me to Celonis was I think this unbelievable opportunity that AI brings with Celonis in the picture. I actually feel that if AI needs to be really penetrated into large enterprise, then it needs to have a larger play or horizontal play of a platform, which can not just provide the contextual informations, but actually give you meaning to how your business runs. And I feel Celonis is that partner and a play for making this happen of penetrating very, very large AI transformations in any of this large industry which is happening. And I feel that in next three to five years, Celonis will be that platform to make it happen if AI needs to penetrate into enterprise.

Savannah Peterson

>> I love that sentence that Celonis is giving business meaning, business process meaning. It's very powerful. There's a very big human element in everything that we've been talking about, which is refreshing because often when we talk about AI, we talk about it replacing repetitive tasks and doing that stuff, but the humans in the loop are really mission-critical. You're our first guest from India today actually on the show. And we got to hear Carsten say two days ago when we were in our press briefing that India is really critical, if not the future of Celonis's scale-out. Tell us a little bit around the culture of innovation and your role there. I know the team's growing. What's going on in India?

Dilip Khandelwal

>> I think, again, very, very interesting, but I think India is, at the moment, at an epicenter of a lot of things. But if you want to summarize on what is happening, I think first you need to understand that I think India is, of course, very large population of 1.4 billion people. And just the pure size and the scale of the talent which is available for Celonis to tap in, and not just a number, but even the factor of a lot of students coming from the universities and that experience. I always feel that in the next generation companies with a lot of transformations, I think, we are all brought in into industry, but there is a different way when you come out of the university, how you work with some of this tech. And I think that is a tap that Celonis needs to have where if you want to build a next generation's software, which is shaping some of the large industries, then you need to have that kind of a talent which is required. And then I think India can play the larger role in that context. Of course, India is a large country. It has its own market. It has a very large footprint of very, very large corporations which are running, operating globally, and they have a large foot in India. So I think Celonis is a fit there because I think all of these companies have a large workforce there. They need to adapt their processes and their missions in order to make it more efficient and grow. So I think it's very interesting in that angle of tapping those talent as well as a market. Now, what is happening in India for Celonis? Again, I think we are on a journey. I think we've been very good with the beginning, but we have a massive, massive plan to make it happen. And it includes all the areas of Celonis, whether it is engineering, whether it is value engineers, the service and the support and all those things. So I think it's a very exciting time for Celonis in India.

Rob Strechay

>> And I think you're also the chief customer officer, which is a big role for a very customer-centric company.

Savannah Peterson

>> Especially one growing this fast.

Rob Strechay

>> Right. I think, again, when Carsten was talking about the massive growth in number of customers over the past year, and we were also talking with Alex about that and the Process Intelligence graph and how that's bringing a lot more to the table for customers, which was announced last year. How do you see really as organizations are transitioning here that they're trying to get their process in order? Because I loved from the main stage when it was talking about it's not just about generative AI; it's all the AIs, plus analytics and other pieces and bringing in CRM and other assets to bear. How do you see them getting started and how do they come to you and say, "Hey, you guys have done this before. Help us get this in order so that we don't fail at our AI"?

Dilip Khandelwal

>> I think there are two parts to it. I think always when a customer starts, he always starts with a specific challenge of the problem he has. It can be in a very specific area or a topic or a process that he wants to solve, but you realize that over a period of time, the customer starts to then move into more domain. So you move from an individual process and then solving a topic like inventory management and all those things. So you go more in the domain side, and then when the customer starts to get mature, you start to go into a larger industry specific. So you go into a supply chain topic and all those things. So I think that's how the journey of a customer evolves. What is more important is that when you have the customer going through the journey, you need to know and work with them in that journey, whether it is how you create value for them, how do you support them, how do you service them, how do you make sure they're successful? Because in the end, we need to create value to the customers and you need to have this end-to-end journey in a flawless way to make them successful. And same thing is valid in an AI world even more, because now they're going to not just define the processes which are existing, but they're going to reinvent the process which was done in a completely different way and that requires even better handholding and better discussions and alignment with the customer to make it happen. And I feel that's the role Celonis needs to play and even the chief customer officer and the organization needs to play where, okay, you got customers, my job is to make sure that they are getting what they want, we deliver value to them, they are happy and successful and we become a partner to them in the journey of transformation.

Savannah Peterson

>> It's all about teamwork.

Dilip Khandelwal

>> Yes.

Savannah Peterson

>> I love to hear that. You've got such great enthusiasm. I can feel your energy here sitting on the stage. I hope everyone listening can as well. I would love to know, Celonis obviously growing at insane scale. You have four extra customers in the last six months, extraordinarily impressive. Given that you have this opportunity on our platform right now, what would you tell prospective customers who are maybe just learning about Celonis or are evaluating you as a platform choice?

Dilip Khandelwal

>> I think the answer is very, very, very simple. It's time to reinvent the stuff, let's say, somehow not do minor changes. If it is a time to reinvent your processes, Celonis is the place for you to be, because it gives you that meaning, not just data. There are a lot of people who can have data information, but there is very few players who can give this contextual informations and a business context and a meaning to your data in order for you to define a completely new way of running your business, being competitive, and really differentiating you compared to your competitors.

Savannah Peterson

>> Beautifully said. That was great. Go ahead, Rob.

Rob Strechay

>> Yeah. I think, again, when you start to look at that, I think one of the things that we were talking with Alex about was the ROI or ROAI or the ROI of AI. And when you look at it, you're talking to so many different customers, not just in India, but across the world, and you're looking at this and going, "Hey, this is how we can guide you down the path from a process perspective to ROI." How do those conversations start and help them see the light at the end of the tunnel? Because a lot of people are saying, and I think Alex was talking about the IDC stat around 11%, only 11% are seeing ROI out of it or a measurable value. How do you get them to see the other almost 89% of the value?

Dilip Khandelwal

>> I think one of the beauty of Celonis is it's one of the very few companies which is even willing to talk about this realized value where you put a number to it. I think in my life when you work with a lot of other enterprises, they're very careful with this term. But I think because it has its own element of you're committing on something, so we want customer to realize this value and they can show this value because it's the most tangible thing you can actually do. Because otherwise it's easy also for them internally to sell it because they think, "Okay, I'm getting the value. Can I expand this further?" And all those things which happens. So I think this whole story of making customer feel that, okay, if you use this software and if you do this stuff, this is how you get better. It can be better with regards to the efficiency, it can be with regards to sometime the speed at which you want to do. It can be with regards to the compliance. We have a lot of use cases in the banking world-

Savannah Peterson

>> That's a great point....

Dilip Khandelwal

>> where you say, okay, some of the things which are required to be done faster. It's not just the monetary value you want to put in, but it just needs to be faster because the regulations want you to be faster. Some cases it can be efficiency and some case it can be just go-to market can be done faster. That's why I always feel that a company like Celonis, it's not just for creating value at the bottom line. It can also be used for creating value for reporting and to get the trust with different stakeholders, but at the same time, also creating value at the top line and completely redefining the stuff. So I think for me, it depend on the customer where the journey is and you can define and shape it.

Savannah Peterson

>> I think you just brought up a really good point because it's about the holistic ability to affect every aspect of a business. Everything we do in our daily life is some sort of process. And if you're leveraging that platform, there's so much that you can do with that. Knowing that you're expanding a fair bit in India, I'm going to shift the question I just asked you a second ago, a slightly different tone. What would you say to someone who has been watching our series or is vetting Celonis as a potential employer? How would you recruit that next gen?

Dilip Khandelwal

>> I have a story also on this.

Savannah Peterson

>> Please share.

Dilip Khandelwal

>> I always feel that I want Celonis to be a place where people are excited to work. And I also want a story where if you don't work at Celonis, you feel jealous.

Savannah Peterson

>> Ooh, yeah, a little FOMO.

Rob Strechay

>> .

Savannah Peterson

>> Yeah.

Dilip Khandelwal

>> And I think that's the thinking and the brain behind it. I think you just need to be a place which is attractive for people to build a career, also have a beautiful environment where people can interact, talk, learn, and in holistic ways and environment. And this is the aspirations we go, even in India with Celonis where we just want that brand where you just feel if you're there, you are part of it. If you're not, then you aspire to be a part of it. And I think that's what drives me. And I just want to create that kind of a culture where you are an aspirational brand to be a part. And I think India will have that stuff where... I can tell you, I think the way we are doing and what we try to do, I think we'll create a larger impact and I think we will create that brand in India.

Rob Strechay

>> So when you look at not just India, but around the world, there's a lot of partners you're working with. There are a lot of them here, a lot of them are sponsoring Celosphere. When you look at that and you're working with them and you're working with customers, how do you help people understand that it's not just a one-and-done thing to create sustainable value? How are you helping them understand what it takes to get to that sustainable value?

Dilip Khandelwal

>> I think it's very important questions. I think, again, from the past histories and learning, you have this. I think you always feel that large-scale transformations only happens together when you work with a good sets of partners because not everything you can do, you need to partner and make it successful. And that's one of the things which I like about Celonis is you looked at also what we announced yesterday with large partnerships. And so I think it's very important that, depending on the customer needs and requirement, you partner with right sets of people and deliver value together. And I think this value creation doesn't happen alone. And that's why this whole partner and the ecosystem play for us is very critical, whether it is in terms of selling, in terms of servicing, in terms of support, it just goes across everywhere. So I think it's a holistic approach. And I even go to an extent that we are only successful or we will be only successful if we take along partners with us in a larger context to drive a meaning to what we want to achieve with our AI journey and making customer... As I said to you, we want to be a platform where anybody who wants to penetrate in enterprise, then Celonis is a place, and we will do it together with the partners.

Savannah Peterson

>> It's all about that teamwork. Comes back to that collaboration. I love it, Dilip. All right. I've got one last question for you because you've been an absolutely fantastic guest. When we have you back on the show next year at Celosphere 2026, what do you hope to be able to say then that you can't yet say today?

Dilip Khandelwal

>> I think I would say that we are already in that path of what I talked, this aspirational place, that people feel, "Oh, I want to enter Celosphere," where there is no choice. The gates are closed. You cannot enter. This is where the place is where everything is happening.

Savannah Peterson

>> Yeah. Or you're not relevant.

Dilip Khandelwal

>> Or you're not relevant. Right?

Savannah Peterson

>> Yeah, yeah.

Dilip Khandelwal

>> Those kind of things, I think. And same thing with an employer, but I think even if you can do it at Celosphere.

Savannah Peterson

>> I love it, Dilip.

Rob Strechay

>> That's great.

Savannah Peterson

>> Your enthusiasm is contagious and you've just been absolutely fantastic. Congratulations to you and the team and everything that's going on right now.

Dilip Khandelwal

>> Thank you very much.

Savannah Peterson

>> Yeah. And thank you, Rob. Always a pleasure.

Rob Strechay

>> Thank you.

Savannah Peterson

>> And thank all of you for tuning in to our really inspiring two days of coverage here in Munich, Germany at Celosphere. My name's Savannah Peterson. You're watching theCUBE, the leading source for enterprise tech news.