Celonis Celosphere 2025 | Rudy Kuhn, Transformation Evangelist, Celonis

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Rudy Kuhn

Lead Evangelist

Celonis

Inside the rise of process intelligence: Turning enterprise data into real outcomes

The race to make enterprise data truly useful is heating up — and process intelligence is quickly becoming the secret weapon. By fusing analytics, automation and artificial intelligence, it’s turning once-static workflows into self-improving systems that actually deliver measurable outcomes rather than just dashboards.Celonis’ Rudy Khun talks about how process intelligence is transforming enterprise operations with theCUBE.In today’s AI-driven economy, that evolution marks a shift from observing to acting. Businesses aren’t just analyzing how things work — they’re teaching machines to anticipate, decide and optimize in real time

play_circle_outline Keynote Highlights: Nobel Prize winner Maria Corina spoke about freedom and AI's role.

play_circle_outline Customer Experiences: Mercedes-Benz, Uniper, and Vinmar shared their process intelligence journeys.

play_circle_outline Vinmar's Transformation: Successfully automated their 3 billion order-to-cash process using AI.

play_circle_outline Autonomous Processes: Vision for AI-enabled operations and simplifying enterprise tasks.

play_circle_outline Maximizing Future Enterprise AI: Insights, Actions, and the Road to Realizing AI Value in Business

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Rudy Kuhn, Transformation Evangelist, Celonis

Rudy Kuhn

Lead Evangelist Celonis

In this Celosphere 2025 interview, Rudy Kuhn of Celonis joins theCUBE’s Rob Strechay and Savannah Peterson to unpack why there’s “no AI without PI.” Fresh off the keynote, Kuhn reflects on freedom as a guiding theme – freeing processes and data so enterprise AI can actually work – and breaks down three categories of AI: gen AI for content, decisive AI for decisions and agentic/actionable AI to execute. He spotlights real customer momentum from the stage: Mercedes-Benz, Uniper and Vinmar, with Vinmar transforming a $3B order-to-cash process toward autonomous o... Read more

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What was discussed regarding the impact of freedom and resources on enterprise AI and the Nobel Prize? add

What examples can be provided of customers who have successfully adopted process intelligence and AI, and how have these customers progressed in their implementation journeys? add

What transformation did Vinmar achieve in their order-to-cash process using AI? add

What advancements are being made in the field of AI and automation, particularly in the context of autonomous processes and operations? add

What is the big focus for process intelligence in 2026? add

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Rudy Kuhn, Transformation Evangelist, Celonis

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Savannah Peterson

>> Good morning, Celonaughts, and welcome back to Munich, Germany. We're here at Celosphere. My name's Savannah Petersen. Delighted to be bringing you all the exciting news when it comes to process intelligence and ROAI here from Germany and Bavaria, joined with Rob Strechay today. Rob, it is so good to be back at this show with you.

Rob Strechay

>> I love this show. I think the energy is just incredible. We're fresh out of the keynote. It's been a crazy morning.

Savannah Peterson

>> That's a fact.

Rob Strechay

>> I got to say it's like one of the best keynotes I've seen in a while. Just the combination of customers discussing, like you were saying, the ROI of AI and really bringing it all together with the culture of Celonis and having María Corina, who won the Nobel Peace Prize, live with her daughter, who happens to work for Celonis, on stage. That was incredible. So, I'm blown away right at the moment.

Savannah Peterson

>> What a way to start the show. Speaking of, I'm blown away by one of our favorite guests we've had on the show. Rudy, welcome back.

Rudy Kuhn

>> It's so great to be back. Really, feels like a family reunion, not just with you guys, with all of our customers, with all of our partners. It's really so good to see everybody again in 3D.

Rob Strechay

>> Yes.

Savannah Peterson

>> It absolutely is. And Rob, since you mentioned it, Rudy, could you give us a little recap of what just happened on the keynote stage and how powerful that was?

Rudy Kuhn

>> Wow, how should I summarize this? We just came out of the room, so we need to process, of course, what we have just seen. And for me personally, it was very emotional moment to see... Okay-

Savannah Peterson

>> Let it out. We welcome tears. No, this is important. This is what matters about what we do.

Rudy Kuhn

>> Yeah, it absolutely does. I learned about the Nobel Prize when her daughter shared the video, when she got the call from the Nobel Committee. Really, goosebumps. Exactly, goosebumps.

Savannah Peterson

>> My hair's standing straight up on my arms, right?

Rudy Kuhn

>> Yeah. But it's about freedom. And we talked about free the process, we talked about how to free the data that every country, every company, everybody should have the possibility to develop, to be free, to use all the resources, everything. That's what it's all about. And talking about using the resources we need to use the resources also to train AI, to make AI really work in an enterprise context. So, yeah, it was like the keynote backwards. So, we started with enterprise AI, use AI to fuel all the information you need to make it work. Then, we talked about how customers are using it, how they are orchestrating, automating end-to-end processes. And we ended up with freedom for Venezuela, which was really, really touching.

Rob Strechay

>> Yeah, I mean I think one of the things that I thought was really good was the customers. You had Mercedes-Benz, you had Uniper and you had Vinmar on. And those three were all in different places in their journey with process intelligence and with AI in particular. And I mean Vinmar was definitely the furthest down the path-

Rudy Kuhn

>> They are....

Rob Strechay

>> of enabling AI with process intelligence. Talk to how you've seen it, because that's just a microcosm of the customers.

Rudy Kuhn

>> It is, and Vinmar is a fantastic case. I was personally involved in this project from the beginning and they have really accomplished something extraordinary. So, they have really transformed their 3 billion order-to-cash process with AI. So, what they are really working-

Savannah Peterson

>> Talk about scale.

Rudy Kuhn

>> Yeah, talk about scale. What they really do, they work on autonomous operations, autonomous processes. So, they started by using process mining, process intelligence to understand the process. To get all the data, all the context data that is required to train AI. Then, they use AI not to generate text and nice pictures, but really, use AI to make decisions. And they use these decisions with the orchestration engine actually to execute on it. So, it's really get the insights, make the decision and perform action, and that's how value is created.

Savannah Peterson

>> It absolutely is. And speaking of it's a buzzword, it's on every sign around here, ROAI. Can you break that down for us a little bit? Because it's certainly the topic du jour in the technology industry.

Rudy Kuhn

>> It is. It is. In my personal reception, I think there are different levels or different categories of AI, basically three. The first one is what we are all using gen AI, texts, pictures, music, whatever. It's fun. It makes us personally more efficient, but it doesn't really move the needle for the enterprise in terms of value. The second is to use AI to process all the data and to help us to make better decisions or make decisions on its own. Let's face it, it's like automation many. We perform automation when we have repetitive, mundane and rule-based tasks, but we also have decisions that are rule-based and repetitive and data-based. So, why don't let AI make this decision? And then, we need to take this decision and really perform something. So, we have gen AI to generate content. We have decisive AI to make decisions or support decisions by humans, from humans. And we have genetic... Not gentic, but agentic AI. Sorry.

Savannah Peterson

>> It's okay. There's a lot of buzzwords in this game right now.

Rudy Kuhn

>> And actually, the AI actually to do something and this is what really moves the needle in terms of value. And we are entering this stage now finally.

Savannah Peterson

>> So, is that going to lead us to an autonomous enterprise at some stage?

Rudy Kuhn

>> Oh, my god. Yeah, autonomous, that word. Don't mention this word. No, serious. I think autonomous enterprise, it's a very big vision. It's a a little like colonizing the Mars, how long will it take-

Savannah Peterson

>> Yeah, yeah. That's what we were talking.

Rudy Kuhn

>> Is it possible? Does it even make sense? I don't know, and honestly, I don't care.

Rob Strechay

>> But I think what was-

Rudy Kuhn

>> No, but wait a second, because on the way, we make great inventions. We create stuff that was not thinkable or not possibly before. Like the rockets landing on the platform again. So, while we are working on these big-vision autonomous enterprise, maybe think smaller. Think about autonomous processes, that's what Vinmar is working on or think about autonomous operations. Just little tasks supported, performed, executed by AI, freeing the time of people to really care about exceptions, talking to people and doing things AI cannot do. Sorry, I interrupted you.

Savannah Peterson

>> No, it's great.

Rob Strechay

>> No, no. I was going to lead right into that because I thought that that was exactly it is. As they say, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time kind of thing. You don't try to eat the whole thing at once.

Rudy Kuhn

>> Exactly.

Rob Strechay

>> It is a saying. But when you look at it, I think what was also striking was again, there was a little bit of the tech in there. Uniper went... The CIO was great, he was very funny and very humble about, "Okay, now we're going to talk about tech a little bit and about how they're bringing different processes together." And why they have to do it and why it has an impact not only on their company, but on the environment and how they operate and how they are more sustainable when they can use hydro versus petro. One of the other things that was really clear was that there's a lot going on in the partner ecosystem. There was the discussion of Databricks, there was Bloomfilter, there was Microsoft. Help us understand and put that into context with how things have changed in the past year with that partner ecosystem?

Savannah Peterson

>> Yeah.

Rudy Kuhn

>> Well, it takes a village to raise a kid, basically. And we see actually that our technology is very complimentary to other technology, like the Copilots. We don't have our own AI, but we are complimentary. Think about an employee, you hire someone for your company and before you can really trust this person to make decisions and basically really contribute to your processes, you need to educate this person and that's exactly what we do with our proposition. That's what we do with the data. And we help AI understand what it's all about. And we use all this partners to do this job because they have these AI technology, like Microsoft. In the orchestration, we use all kind of technology that is involved in executing the process. If you think about an average company, you will find something like at least 250 mission-critical applications and you need to orchestrate all of them. We talk a lot about SAP and all the other big ERP systems, but looking to an ordinary company, there is so much more to get the job done. And we need partners who understand this technology, we need partners who provide this technology, we need partners who understand the processes and we provide them with the right tools to make enterprise AI basically work.

Savannah Peterson

>> Which is extremely powerful. You have some of the coolest partners in the world. I'm curious, just having this conversation, is there a dream partner that you wish you were working with right now?

Rudy Kuhn

>> Dream partner? Oh, my god.

Savannah Peterson

>> Yeah. Maybe they're listening right now. You never know what happens from a CUBE segment. Or what does the ideal partner look like for you, just in general? We can start there.

Rudy Kuhn

>> I think, yeah, that's probably not the dream partner because they cannot be just one because there are so many opportunities, there are so many industries, technologies, everything, so there's not just one dream partner. We probably need different partners for different regions, industries, systems, applications, processes. And we need really partners who are very passionate about efficiency, passionate about processes, who understand that processes are the foundation of everything we do basically, and who share our passion in creating a better world.

Rob Strechay

>> Yeah, I think one of the things in building off of that and freeing the process was also freeing the data from data silos. I think that was a big message earlier on. And it's one of the things that I focus on in my analyst side of my business hat that I have to wear. It seems like that people are getting the idea that you shouldn't have to try to put everything all in one place. Doing that is just near impossible.

Rudy Kuhn

>> It's impossible.

Rob Strechay

>> And are you seeing that your customers are starting to pick up on that as well and understand you've got to bring it together?

Rudy Kuhn

>> Yes, of course. If you look into business processes, I mean it's impossible to have all the data in one silo, it just doesn't work. And more important, you are never alone in your process. You have partners, not only internally, but also externally. Think about Mercedes-Benz, think about BMW, their processes are heavily connected with customers, with suppliers, with other companies. So, you need to move the data to have access to the data from all the different places. You need to make this data work, otherwise, your process won't work. So, if you lock up your data, you can lock up your process, shut down your business and go home.

Savannah Peterson

>> You might as well just throw in the towel at this point. Rudy, we had a really fun chat last year and I asked you about what processes in your own personal life that you've made more efficient. We talked about your socks.

Rudy Kuhn

>> We talked about socks. Yes, I remember.

Savannah Peterson

>> We talked about your socks, which was great though because I think it's very illuminating. And one of the things that we were talking about before we were live this morning is really how much Celonis has matured this year. And there was a lot going on last year, but there's a clear step change in evolution in the maturity of the projects you have going on with partners, the ROI that you're realizing. So, I'm curious, what other processes in your personal life have you automated or made more efficient since the last time we spoke?

Rudy Kuhn

>> Oh, my gosh. I'm an automation guy.

Savannah Peterson

>> This is why I'm asking you.

Rudy Kuhn

>> Yeah, I know. I love automation. So, my personal passion project, it's very personal, it's the expansion of our house. And I have incorporated over 500 smart home devices in my house.

Savannah Peterson

>> 500?

Rudy Kuhn

>> Yes, over 500.

Rob Strechay

>> 500?

Rudy Kuhn

>> Everything is connected. Everything is orchestrated.

Savannah Peterson

>> That's amazing. We have to go to Rudy's house next time.

Rob Strechay

>> Wow.

Rudy Kuhn

>> Everything is orchestrated. Each light, each socket, each switch, there are air-quality sensors in the house controlling the ventilation, making sure the CO2 concentration is low, so you get the best sleep you can get.

Savannah Peterson

>> I love this.

Rudy Kuhn

>> It's challenging because not everything works the way it should. And my wife is sometimes yelling because she's standing in the shower and the light switches off, so I still have some work to do. But yeah, I think this, living is a process as well. Being in the house is a process as well and you can make your home very, very efficient. The solar panels on the roof are controlled by a central system connected to the wall boxes for my electric vehicles, charging the vehicles, only if there's energy left over and really organizing, orchestrating, automating the house.

Savannah Peterson

>> Oh, my gosh-

Rudy Kuhn

>> Sorry. That's really very, very personal.

Savannah Peterson

>> No, I'm so glad I asked first of all, 500 IoT devices. I'm not sure I know anyone with that many.

Rob Strechay

>> I was going to say, I think I'm close to 100, but I can't even imagine 500.

Rudy Kuhn

>> You're speechless. You're a little-

Rob Strechay

>> That is impressive.

Rudy Kuhn

>> Yeah, we can have a separate discussion.

Rob Strechay

>> Yeah, we can. But I think what's interesting is, I mean we're getting right to the end of 2025 now, we're looking out to 2026. What do you see as the big thing that we'll be talking about next year from a process intelligence perspective that you think customers are going to come along?

Rudy Kuhn

>> It's really about making enterprise AI work. I mean, that's the slogan, that's what we are talking about, but it's really the big thing. And if we say to make it work, what does it mean? We talked about the gen AI, decisive AI, actionable AI. And if you also look at our portfolio. So, for me, the question is there a universal formula how to create value? And I believe there is. Value is not equal to insights. Insights is only like the picture of a broken arm, exactly where pain comes from. But if you're sent home with the picture only and, "Best wishes for the future," you still have a problem.

Savannah Peterson

>> Ouch. Yeah,

Rudy Kuhn

>> Exactly. Ouch. So, you need something, you need treatment, something needs to happen, so action needs to happen. And I know it's already bit theoretical, but it's not an addition because if you have 10 insights plus zero actions in an addition, this will be 10 value. It's not the case. So, it's more like multiplication. You need to multiply your insights with actions and actually you need to add another factor. You need to add decisions. So, it's insights, times, decisions times actions equal value. And if you look at our portfolio insights, that's what we generate with process intelligence. Decisions is what we enable with... We enable humans to make decisions, AI with humans or AI alone. And action is what we perform with automation and orchestration. So, we have all the tools there basically to create value for the customers. And you just heard it in the keynote, $8.1 billion US from 120-

Rob Strechay

>> 120, yeah....

Rudy Kuhn

>> change-makers only.

Rob Strechay

>> Yeah, about. Yeah.

Rudy Kuhn

>> So, this is real money. And just a personal note, value is more than just money.

Savannah Peterson

>> I was just going to say that. I'm glad you brought it up.

Rudy Kuhn

>> It's customer satisfaction. It's also sustainability. If you are able to reduce your CO2 footprint just because your logistics works, that's also value. So, that's more than just money, but other stuff is sometimes hard to measure.

Rob Strechay

>> Yeah, and I would say that the Vinmar example, when he talked about it with the family business and how they brought the people part of AI along and how they're not replacing people, but they're enhancing people. That, to me, was so powerful in how he wrapped that around and he talked about it changed his heart, and I think that was really good.

Rudy Kuhn

>> It is actually a pattern we see with many customers that... Let me tell you about one of our customers in Spain. So, they had a lot of credit blocks. So, customers are ordering products, not all invoices are paid. And the question is, "Should we deliver or should we block this order? If we deliver, we take a risk. If we block the order, well customer will be unhappy and sales will be unhappy. So, you should really make a good decision." And we trained the AI to make this decision or basically to propose the decision to the people in the finance department. And if you realize that 99% of the time they are following the recommendation, especially if it's about yes, delete a trade block, deliver the goods, you will be fine. The customer will pay based on the past, then it's good. But if AI decides, "Okay, we are not going to deliver, we blocked this order," okay, then humans need to take over. They need to talk to the customer, they need to talk to sales, they need to resolve the situation and really make sure that customer understand why we're not moving and maybe pay the invoice so they get the product. So, if AI delivers the expected outcome, then just follow up automatically. And if there's an exception, then let humans take over and manage it.

Savannah Peterson

>> Humans are the exception, that's going to be one of the themes of this week, as well as freedom. Final closing question for you, Rudy, because time has just flown by. What would your advice be to someone who is maybe just learning about Celonis today through some of this programming or just saw this keynote? I'm going to make it real broad for you. This could be a partner, this could be a potential recruit for working on your team. What's your words of wisdom?

Rudy Kuhn

>> My words of wisdom?

Savannah Peterson

>> Yes.

Rudy Kuhn

>> I'm in this business now for 16 years, so even longer than Celonis exists. And one thing I realized... I was business consultant in my previous life, and when you ask people, "Tell me how does the process look like? What's really going on?" You never get the truth, simply because people don't know or they don't want you to know what the situation is.

Savannah Peterson

>> 100%.

Rudy Kuhn

>> So, for me personally, really process mining changed the way I'm asking questions. So, I'm not asking, "Tell me how does the process look like?" I know what the process is based on the data. So, it's not complete, but it's completely true. And then, I ask, "Why is it like that?" So, from how to why, that's the biggest difference. And once you understand what the situation is, it's fact-based, you can ask the right questions and people cannot hide anymore. And sometimes they don't know what the process really is. So, it's not like they don't want you to know. Sometimes they simply don't know. And if you really want to start, we have this fantastic academy content on the internet. A customer just recently told me that no other company in this space is offering such a vast amount of content. You can really learn from starting and really become an expert just by our online academy, so go there and learn.

Savannah Peterson

>> Get started. I love it, Rudy.

Rudy Kuhn

>> Thanks a lot.

Savannah Peterson

>> We learn a lot from you every year. I really appreciate you taking the time today.

Rudy Kuhn

>> Thank you so much for inviting me.

Savannah Peterson

>> I can't think of a better way to start the show. Rob, we're going to have a great week.

Rob Strechay

>> It is. I'm excited.

Savannah Peterson

>> It is exciting. And I hope all of you are as excited as we are here in Munich, Germany at Cellosphere. My name's Savannah Peterson. You're watching theCUBE, the leading source for enterprise tech news.