From cautious to scaling: SAP customers span the AI readiness spectrum

SAP spent Sapphire 2026 selling the “Autonomous Enterprise,” a vision where AI agents execute business processes themselves . But the customer keynote on Wednesday told a more nuanced story. Lockheed Martin, ExxonMobil, Aeropuertos Argentina, and Levi Strauss each took the stage with a distinct AI strategy, shaped by their industries, risk tolerance, and strategic priorities. “Customers are at different levels of maturity and also in what they want to do,” said Jonathan von Rüeden, SAP’s chief AI officer, in an interview earlier this week. “Some say agents can do only what we tell them to do. Retailers are a bit more forward-looking.” The four companies on stage Wednesday made that span concrete: they ranged from a 115-year-old energy giant deliberately letting the “AI hype carry on” to a 170-year-old fashion brand with more than 1,000 agents already deployed. ExxonMobil: “Let the AI hype carry on.” ExxonMobil is currently in the middle of a massive transformation, ripping out decades of SAP customizations to get to a clean core. The 115-year-old oil and gas giant isn’t rushing into AI, however. “I’m happy to let that AI hype carry on,” said Bill Keillor , vice president of business transformation at ExxonMobil. “Let’s get our fundamentals absolutely right.” That means treating data as a strategic asset that has been trapped. “We really want to release that,” Keillor said. “If you can’t get the foundation right, you’ll pay the price forever.” His advice for CIOs taking on transformation at scale: be clear about strategic intent, put strong governance in place, and pick partners “who don’t just see this as a job but as a win-win.” Lockheed Martin: Readiness is the aim Maria Demaree , CIO of Lockheed Martin, reframed the conversation. “Transformation is not the goal,” she said. “Readiness is.” It’s a deliberate word choice. For the defense and aerospace company, readiness means systems that work when lives depend on them. “The stakes are high, and they are human,” she said. Lockheed Martin is in the midst of what Demaree described as its largest modernization investment in history: a push to address decades of fragmentation. “The challenge is not the effort but the complexity: disconnected systems and fragmented processes,” she said. To create value, AI has to be embedded in Lockheed’s operations, not bolted on, Demaree added. “Transformation doesn’t start with technology. You have to do the work of rethinking process.” Aeropuertos Argentina: 12 weeks from concept to production At the opposite end of the spectrum, Aeropuertos Argentina showed what’s possible when the foundation is already in place. The company manages 35 airports and handles 90% of Argentina’s commercial air traffic. Winter weather is a constant operational threat for its eight Patagonian airports. Weather prediction and management of ice and snow require precise coordination across meteorology, operations, maintenance, and supply chain teams. Historically, that coordination was manual, fragmented, and slow. After moving from ECC to S/4HANA, Aeropuertos Argentina had the foundation to move fast. Gustavo Sábato , the company’s CIO, described building an agent called S.N.O.W. (Smart Network for Operative Winter) in just 12 weeks. The agent integrates weather data, runway sensor readings, and maintenance processes to automate decisions and orchestrate work in real time. The results: 16% reduction in direct costs, 90% reduction in administrative time, and 45 tonnes of CO 2 eliminated. The solution won SAP’s 2025 LATAM Customer Innovation Contest and now runs year-round. The agent will deploy at two airports in the coming weeks, with six more planned for next winter. Levi Strauss: 1,000 agents and counting The most aggressive agentic AI adoption story came from Levi Strauss. The company got a head start, jumping on generative AI two and a half years ago, before most enterprise vendors had tools to offer. Today, the 170-year-old apparel company has deployed more than 1,000 AI agents and trained more than 4,000 employees on AI. It’s been co-innovating with SAP along the way, building on S/4HANA Fashion and Microsoft Azure as it consolidates nearly a dozen legacy ERPs onto a single global platform. That consolidation required hard conversations to change the way they’ve always done business, said Jason Gowans , chief digital and technology officer. But that’s what made the AI work possible. “Standardization and agility do not stand in opposition,” Gowans said. “Standardization allows us to move with agility.” One example: wholesale orders from smaller retailers, often submitted via PDF, email, or spreadsheet, once took two to five days to process. Using AI agents built on Microsoft Azure and SAP, that’s now down to 20 to 30 minutes. Gowans acknowledged the work behind achieving those results. “It’s hard,” he admitted. “But it’s not that hard. You don’t get to be 170 years old standing still.”