Calling all change-makers: Enterprises need you for AI success

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Key to the success of Enterprise AI are the smart, ambitious people who have been deploying it across their companies in ways that drive meaningful business outcomes. People who thrive on innovation and transformation, and work hard to improve everything they touch.

We call these born change-makers “Intrapreneurs”: Entrepreneurs within their companies. For them, Enterprise AI represents a once in a lifetime opportunity. They’re not only transforming their businesses, they’re transforming their own professional prospects and accelerating their careers.

If you want to join them, now is the time to step up and learn how these intrapreneurs are driving Enterprise AI within their business. Celonis can help – whether you’re ready to join our Value Achiever Program or attend Celosphere 2026.

What’s more, you’ll find plenty of inspirational role models on the Celonis Champions Teams 2025 and 2026. Let me introduce you to just a few of them.

Dr. Patrick Lechner, BMW

  • Job: Head of Process Intelligence (Process Mining & AI), Robotic Process Automation & LowCode/No-Code
  • Proudest intrapreneurial Achievement: Almost every BMW and Mini vehicle is touched by Celonis during production
  • Special topic: “Chat with your processes” (Strategic data backbone for AI)

Patrick’s journey as a change-maker started back in 2017. BMW had just installed a new, state-of-the-art paint shop in Munich – and uncovered some process issues.

Patrick was an IT professional. He didn’t have hands-on experience in the paint shop. But he had something else in his locker: process mining. Patrick helped his colleagues to understand their processes like never before, stabilizing throughput and clearing backlogs.

Then Patrick realized he could accelerate process optimization by empowering process users. He began to recruit an enthusiastic legion of Citizen Developers. With the people on the ground onboard, he went to the leadership – and didn’t look back.

Patrick developed a hub-and-spoke model CoE. He helped BMW see its full customer journey. And more recently, he’s become an expert in making PI the strategic backbone for AI. Among many other projects, he’s busy enhancing AI agents with specific process knowledge.

“Whether it’s PI or AI, simply telling someone to use a new technology doesn’t work. You need to show them how and why it works, and why it’s so beneficial. If they understand that, many won’t just adopt the technology, they’ll actively advocate for it.” – Dr. Patrick Lechner

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Durga Yeluri, Pfizer

  • Job: Director, Performance & Profitability Optimization CoE
  • Proudest intrapreneurial achievement: Realized $350M+ in value in five years
  • Special topic: Strategic value framework

Today, Durga heads Pfizer’s Performance & Profitability Optimization CoE. Her team provides an enterprise service, helping business and digital leaders across the company to make the most of process mining and automation.

Twenty years ago, her prospects looked very different. Joining the finance industry workforce just before the financial crisis, her first experience of working life was one of back-to-back layoffs. But, like so many great change-makers, Durga applied her tenacity and versatility, and forged her own path. She didn’t simply weather the storm in her industry, she emerged to lead execution on a high-profile M&A involving Henkel, Akzo Nobel, and National Starch.

Her success opened doors. She joined Pfizer in 2010 and started purposefully moving around, broadening her expertise. Over the years, she gained senior level experience in Government Pricing, Medicaid, Rebates, Investor Relations, Business Development, Cash Management Transformation and more.

Thanks to her work, Pfizer has used PI to realize hundreds of millions in value – a feat which secured her team the Game Changer award for Value Excellence at Celosphere 2024.

“Strategic alignment is everything. When a change-maker aligns their efforts with their organization’s goals, that’s when the magic starts to happen.” – Durga Yeluri

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Brian Dodson, Smurfit Westrock

  • Job: Senior Manager Global IT Process Intelligence
  • Proudest intrapreneurial achievement: 500 plants supported by a single CoE
  • Special topic: Scaling AI use cases

Brian was working in one of Smurfit Westrock’s regional finance departments when he first used Celonis. The leading packaging provider wanted to tackle maverick spend, and the plan was to automatically alert a central user in each country when their purchasers failed to follow procedure.

But Brian saw there was a better way – and, like all good change-makers, he pursued it. He made sure buyers themselves received the alerts, along with information about why their PO was problematic, and what to do next.

This let Smurfit Westrock drive savings and boost supplier relationships. And it let Brian start building his legend. Before long, he had created a Celonis CoE, established more than 40 live use cases, and caught the attention of the C-suite along the way.

The company’s leadership asked Brian’s CoE to help with strategic stock reduction – an initiative which sent his Celonis user base soaring, and led to the adoption of Object-Centric Process Mining and the Celonis Process Intelligence Graph. Today, Brian is busy helping the business use AI to harmonize multiple data streams, accelerate insights and action, and make the kind of predictions that improve efficiency and resilience.

“Celonis can be the accelerator for a wide range of business initiatives. And AI within Celonis? It’s an accelerator for the accelerator. My advice for implementing AI is to start small and build patience with your stakeholders. And when you hear about other teams launching AI solutions, go and tell them how PI can help.” – Brian Dodson

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I could share many stories like these – stories of change-makers who’ve taken advantage of Celonis to transform their careers, and are now at the forefront of industrializing Enterprise AI.

(If you want a quick introduction to nine more, you can discover the full Celonis Champions Team.)

The five roles Enterprise AI change-makers must play

Successful change-makers have always worn multiple hats, and made smart decisions about who to trust with them as their teams have grown. For the change-makers now driving Enterprise AI initiatives, it’s incredibly important to master these mindsets and skill sets:

  1. The Technologist understands, develops, and applies the tech – helping to build a living digital twin of business operations and give Enterprise AI the context it needs to succeed.
  2. The Innovator challenges existing norms and introduces fresh ideas and ways of working, showing how AI can provide new solutions to longstanding problems.
  3. The Evangelist spearheads change management – showcasing AI’s transformative potential, generating support and adoption, and inspiring others through effective storytelling and sheer enthusiasm.
  4. The Catalyst understands how to engage executive sponsors. They connect Enterprise AI to strategic business objectives to spark and accelerate action.
  5. The Intrapreneur manages their Enterprise AI initiatives like they’re running their own company – with the determination to grow their team, their reach, and the value they’re realizing.

Enterprise AI’s change-makers can start with natural talents in any of these roles, developing their ability to excel in the others over time. But there’s one exception to this rule. Every successful change-maker is, to some extent, a natural Intrapreneur. They have that professional ambition. That ability to spot opportunities, and that drive to act on them.

And if your business is already using Celonis, the time to act is now.

The chance to transform your business, and your career

Technology has long since granted change-makers the chance to build their own careers. Just look at the stories of our Champions, or my colleague Steve Carpenter, whose own “aha!” moment with PI ultimately led him to join the Celonis team.

Now, PI leaders are ideally placed to step forward and drive targeted, celebrated, Enterprise AI initiatives. Why? Because everyone has finally realized that without PI, AI can’t deliver value at scale.

If you follow the latest AI news, you’ll have heard similar remarks from AI leaders: ‘Enterprise AI needs context to succeed.’ And if you’re a Celonis customer, you’re already gathering that context. You’ve got a huge wealth of data, waiting to be leveraged.

Now, you just need to seize your advantage. And we’re here to help.

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https://www.celonis.com/insights/ebooks/meet-the-context-model

How we’ll help you blaze your trail

At Celonis, we support change-makers in every way we can, from guiding the development of targeted Enterprise AI battle plans, to nurturing a highly engaged community of peers.

Learn how to realize value at scale. We teach transformation leaders the tools and methodology they need to drive adoption and ROI. Every participant in our Value Achiever Program also comes away with their own transformation master plan – a one-page roadmap to delivering strategic value within the next 12 months.

Connect with AI transformation experts. (And become one yourself.) Our Celonis Champions Team is drawn from the Champions Squad, which our community of change-makers selects each year. Chosen Champions build their professional profiles, while everyone else benefits from their expertise.

Join an inspired, global community. Whenever the Celonis Value Community gets together, the sparks of inspiration fly. Forging connections with like-minded peers isn’t just a great way to supercharge your AI transformation initiative, it’s easily one of the most fun.

So, will you answer the call?

As Chief Evangelist at Celonis, I’d love to see Evangelists and Intrapreneurs rise up in every company using our platform. And there’s never been a better time.

The simple fact is, enterprises need you for AI success.

If you’re fired up by the thought of explaining to your manager how you’ve made Enterprise AI work, realizing millions in value for your company over the last 12 months – here’s how to apply for the Celonis Value Achiever Program.

This is your moment. Seize it.