SAP Spain held SAP Connect Day in Madrid, a meeting that brought together more than 1,600 attendees and was sponsored by 41 partners to analyze how artificial intelligence, data and business applications are transforming the way companies operate and become autonomous companies based on data.
Carlos Lacerda, Senior VP and general director for Southern Europe at SAP, opened the event with a speech focused on progress towards the autonomous company. During his presentation, he pointed out that many companies are still unable to obtain a return on their investments in AI due to data fragmentation, disconnected processes and lack of data governance.
Faced with this scenario, Lacerda has defended that “the real value of AI is not in the models, but in its ability to automate decisions with context, integrating data and business processes. Clients need an AI that understands their business reliably and safely, and that is only possible with integrated applications, harmonized data and solid data governance. SAP is the true superpower of artificial intelligence: it is what allows AI to deploy its full potential in the business thanks to the intelligent use of data.”
Rika Christanto, partner at LifeX Ventures, and founder of Ontruck and Idoven, has carried out an analysis on how AI is changing the investment landscape, the results it is providing and who are the big winners in the use of data. After explaining how it is contributing to improving certain areas of business management and which sectors are benefiting most from the use of data, he highlighted that in all waves of technological innovation throughout history a global champion has emerged in Europe – among them SAP – and concluded “we will see who is next.”
Laura Goodrick, director of financial operations for the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 team, explained how her work connects finance, operations and technology in a maximum performance environment, where the precision of processes, data and systems directly impacts results on the track. He highlighted the growing role of AI in finance, especially in areas such as anomaly detection and data-driven scenario analysis, as well as the importance of building a solid data foundation to harness its full potential. In this context, he stressed that solutions such as SAP S/4HANA are key to improving the team’s efficiency, analytics and decision making in the coming years through the advanced use of data.
The event also featured the participation of Saúl Craviotto, Olympic medalist, and Luis García Abad, general director of the Formula 1 Madrid 2026 Grand Prix, who addressed performance in highly demanding environments and the impact of large events in the city, increasingly supported by data.
Smart meeting: seven events in one
After the inaugural session, SAP Connect Day has been divided into seven parallel meetings focused on different functional and business areas within organizations: Data & IT Business AI / Business Data Cloud, Business Technology Platform, Finance, Spend Management, Customer Experience and Supply Chain, all of them driven by data.
Solutions like SAP S/4HANA are key to improving team efficiency, analytics and decision making
The event had an innovative central stage in a heptagonal format and a “silent conference” system, which allowed attendees to follow, using headphones, the sessions that interested them most, including those focused on data, without interference with the rest of the meetings. All this in a single space.
The value of the data with context
Jorge Pérez, Head of BTP, BDC & Artificial Intelligence at SAP for Southern Europe, has developed the company’s strategy in AI and data and has highlighted that clients are focused on extracting all the value from their SAP systems, understanding that this “treasure” of data and knowledge is key to promoting generative AI. Furthermore, he stressed that AI cannot work solely with data, but also needs business context—present in applications—to generate reliable results. For this reason, SAP promotes a model based on the integration of AI, data and applications as an inseparable whole, key to moving towards the autonomous data-based company.
Efficient supply chain management involves addressing regulatory, geopolitical or tariff disruptions that may arise in the shortest time possible thanks to the use of data. The use of agentic AI is key in optimizing this process. One of the main problems that companies face on a daily basis when integrating AI into the supply chain is the existence of data silos that do not allow us to see the functioning of the company in its entirety. SAP software solves this by integrating data – both from SAP and external – into a single repository and offering real-time, data-driven information for all phases of the supply chain.
Throughout the day, SAP experts, clients and industry leaders shared success stories, trends and experiences of data-driven business transformation, in addition to participating in interactive sessions and networking spaces focused on the value of data.
