Celonis, the global leader in Process Intelligence, and Uniper, a European energy company with global reach, have demonstrated that AI agents need the right operational context to work more accurately, faster and more cost efficiently. Uniper uses an agent powered by the Celonis Context Model and built on Microsoft Copilot Studio to improve the critical HR process of recruiting and hiring.
"Enterprise AI can only live up to its full potential when it understands how an enterprise actually runs and how to make it run better," said Lars Reinkemeyer, Chief Evangelist at Celonis. "The striking results Uniper achieved demonstrate how companies can generate tangible, compounding value by transforming business-critical operations with Enterprise AI grounded in context from Celonis."
"With Celonis as our context layer, we’re building AI solutions that aren’t just tools we experiment with, but assistants we trust," said Robert Daamen, Head of Process Intelligence CoE at Uniper. "The Celonis Context Model gives our HR teams complete transparency into the hiring and recruiting process and removes unnecessary hurdles that delays new talent from joining our team.”
The context that matters: One AI agent, two vastly different outcomes
Working with Celonis and an independent consultancy, Uniper built and tested an AI agent using Microsoft Copilot Studio that was designed to improve the process of recruiting and hiring top-tier talent.
The agent uses a natural language interface to give hiring managers important insights into the hiring process, such as open requisitions and applications that have been shortlisted. It identifies and highlights urgent and overdue tasks for recruiters and managers. And, it orchestrates actions for HR staff, such as drafting and sending emails to colleagues and candidates.
To evaluate the agent, the team ran the same prompts twice—once with the agent using only raw data from Uniper’s own HR System and once using operational context from the Celonis Context Model (CCM). The results were striking.
The agent was asked: ”What are the bottlenecks in the recruiting/hiring process?” With just the Uniper data, the agent provided a list of generic answers, such as “data fragmentation,” “hiring manager overload,” and “missing task visibility." But when the agent was grounded in operational context from the CCM, it gave detailed answers; specific to not just Uniper’s HR team, but to the individual team member as well. For example, “There are 27 candidates across various job requisitions who have been on the shortlist for more than 14 days.”
Based on these powerful results, the team put the agent into full production and have already realized significant operational improvements, including:
- Drastic Cycle Time Reductions: Average time-to-sign for candidates reduced by 27 days, while the average screening phase improves by 13 days.
- Enhanced AI Accuracy and Reliability: Recruiters and managers receive precise information rather than generic answers.
- Stronger Process Governance: The HR team improved transparency, helping them better understand the process and to be proactive.
- Optimized Token Efficiency: Grounding the AI agent in business context eliminates wasted tokens by replacing probabilistic guesses with pre-structured business logic.
In addition to improving HR processes, Uniper, Celonis, and Microsoft are working together to transform other critical business processes, such as plant maintenance, hydro power operation, ITSM, energy sales and trading, financial services, and internal audit. For example, Uniper's Sales and Trading business executes hundreds of trades per hour. With Celonis Data Core, the company’s Process Intelligence CoE can stream this data into Celonis in real time, enabling Uniper to make the right decisions and take action at the right time. Key to leading this expansion are the collaboration and sponsorship of Uniper executives, including the CIO, CFO, and CPTO (Chief People and Transformation Officer), who owns HR and technology transformation.
To learn more, you can read about how Celonis Collaborates with Uniper and Microsoft to Drive Digital Transformation in the Energy Sector and watch the Uniper + Microsoft + Celonis video.