SAP Sapphire 2026: What to Watch, What Changed, and How to Make the Most of Orlando and Madrid

A practical field guide for SAP practitioners and decision-makers attending SAP Sapphire 2026 in Orlando or Madrid, covering what's new, the sessions and themes worth your time, and how to walk away with more than a tote bag.

SAP Sapphire 2026 — across both Orlando and Madrid — is one of the few event series where SAP’s strategy becomes practical. This guide is designed for SAP practitioners and decision-makers who want to understand what’s actually changing in 2026, which sessions are worth their time, and how to turn three days on-site into real progress, not just a packed schedule.

What SAP Sapphire Actually Is and Who It's For

SAP Sapphire is not a product launch event. It's also not primarily a training conference. It sits in a specific and useful middle ground: a place where SAP's strategic direction becomes tangible, where you can pressure-test vendor messaging against real customer stories, and where three days of concentrated conversations can compress months of vendor evaluation and peer benchmarking into a single trip.

In 2026, the event spans three locations. Orlando runs May 11–13 at the Orange County Convention Center (OCCC), bringing together North American customers and including the ASUG Annual Conference and pre-conference seminars. Madrid runs May 19–21 at IFEMA Madrid, serving as the flagship European event. A global virtual track runs May 12–13 and offers on-demand access afterward.

While both events share the same core SAP messaging, especially around AI, Joule, and business transformation, the experience differs slightly. Orlando typically features a broader program with ASUG content and additional networking events, while Madrid is more focused on European enterprise decision-makers and partner engagement.

The Madrid audience skews toward European enterprise buyers: CIOs, heads of IT, ERP project leads, finance transformation directors, and supply chain executives.

Orlando attracts a wider North American audience, including strong participation from SAP user groups (ASUG), architects, and technical specialists.

If your organization is evaluating RISE with SAP, running an S/4HANA migration, or trying to understand how SAP’s AI strategy translates into real implementation, either location is worth attending — the choice often comes down to geography and access to your regional SAP ecosystem.

What’s New in 2026: The Meaningful Changes

SAP changes the event format every year. Some changes are cosmetic. A few in 2026 are worth understanding before you plan your schedule.

Breakout sessions now start on Day 1

In previous years, Day 1 was mostly keynotes and high-level content. In 2026, both Orlando and Madrid will include breakout sessions, demos, and show floor access from Day 1.

Practically, this means you should arrive ready to engage immediately, especially in Orlando, where ASUG seminars and partner sessions start early in the week.

Stronger focus on AI, Joule, and real outcomes

Across both locations, SAP is doubling down on a clear message: AI is no longer conceptual — it must deliver measurable business outcomes.

This is reflected in:

• The global keynote: “Turning AI into ROI”
• Expanded Joule demonstrations
• More customer-led sessions focused on real implementations

More emphasis on real customer stories

Both Orlando and Madrid highlight customer use cases more prominently in 2026. The goal is to move away from high-level messaging and toward implementation reality — what worked, what didn’t, and what it actually took.

Larger theaters, fewer show floor sessions

SAP has reduced the number of short show floor sessions in favor of fewer, larger theater sessions with more substance. The small theater format will carry more of the sponsored and partner content. This is better for attendees, as it means higher signal-to-noise in the sessions that remain.

More deep-dive and roadmap sessions

The 2026 program puts explicit emphasis on in-depth technical content and product roadmap sessions directly addressing the most common piece of feedback from 2025: those sessions were too high-level and sales-oriented. If you're making active decisions about S/4HANA adoption timelines, migration approaches, or AI implementation sequencing, the roadmap sessions are where you'll find the most actionable information.

Virtual track with live Q&A across four channels

All virtual breakout sessions in 2026 will include live or online Q&A. The virtual event streams across four live channels simultaneously. For teams that can't send everyone to Madrid, this is a real option for parallel coverage, particularly useful for solution evaluators or technical leads who want roadmap content but don't have a seat at the in-person event.

The Five Themes That Will Define Sapphire 2026

Every year, Sapphire has a few organizing themes that appear across keynotes, breakouts, and partner sessions. In 2026, these are the signals worth paying attention to.

1. Joule as the unified AI experience

SAP has been positioning Joule — its AI copilot — as the primary user interface across the entire SAP portfolio since late 2023. At Sapphire 2026, expect Joule to be front and center in nearly every product demo. The interesting questions are no longer "what is Joule" but: which processes have it reached meaningful adoption in, how does extensibility via Joule Studio work in practice, and what does a real Joule implementation project look like from a consultant's perspective?

If you're evaluating AI for your SAP environment, the most useful sessions won't be the keynote demos. They will be customer stories and partner deep dives where someone has actually deployed Joule at scale and is willing to talk honestly about what worked.

2. SAP Business Data Cloud — the emerging data layer

SAP announced Business Data Cloud (BDC) in February 2025. It consolidates SAP Datasphere, SAP Analytics Cloud, and business content into a single governed data layer for AI, planning, and analytics. At Sapphire 2026, BDC will receive significant airtime as the infrastructure foundation for any serious AI initiative on SAP.

The practical framing matters here: BDC is not another analytics product. It's the layer that connects your operational SAP data to your AI models and planning tools. Across both events, BDC will be presented not as a reporting tool, but as the data layer that enables AI to operate on consistent, governed enterprise data.

LeverX's perspective on SAP BDC

We've worked with the Business Data Cloud since its early access period. The adoption pattern we see: enterprises use BDC to consolidate fragmented data from S/4HANA, SuccessFactors, and external systems — and then use that governed layer to run SAP Analytics Cloud and feed AI models. The ROI case is clearest for companies with complex multi-system landscapes where data alignment has historically slowed planning cycles.

3. SAP Business Suite + AI: the integrated pitch

SAP is pushing a clear message: the SAP Business Suite — now covering Cloud ERP, supply chain, HR, spend management, customer experience, and SAP BTP — is more valuable with AI embedded throughout than any best-of-breed AI tool added on top. The argument is integration: SAP AI models can access transactional context that external models can't.

At Sapphire, SAP will use customer stories to substantiate this claim. Pay attention to the specific metrics customers share — such as processing time reduction, forecast accuracy improvement, and exception rate in AP automation — rather than the headline narrative. Those numbers are where the real signal is.

4. RISE with SAP and GROW with SAP: the cloud migration on-ramps

Both RISE with SAP (for complex enterprise transformation) and GROW with SAP (for faster, standardized SAP Cloud ERP adoption) will be heavily featured. The 2025 edition of GROW added an AI-powered chat feature for implementation guidance — expect updates on adoption and what the roadmap looks like.

If your organization is evaluating either program, Madrid is an excellent venue to hear from companies that have completed the journey, including the parts that didn't go smoothly. Customer panels at both Orlando and Madrid will provide the most realistic view of implementation challenges and outcomes.

5. Agentic AI — from concept to cautious reality

Agentic AI — autonomous AI agents that take actions within business systems rather than just providing recommendations — will appear across the 2026 program. SAP has been building agentic capabilities into BTP and Joule. The honest position: this technology is early, the governance questions are real, and the enterprise use cases that have crossed into production are relatively narrow so far. In Madrid, distinguish between demo-stage agentic AI and production-grade deployments. The latter are the conversations worth having.

Session Types and How To Pick the Right Ones

While SAP Sapphire doesn’t formally label sessions by format, most sessions across both Orlando and Madrid fall into a few consistent patterns. Understanding these helps you prioritize your time more effectively.

For enterprise practitioners, Customer Success Stories are almost always the highest-value session type. The short format forces speakers to be specific, and a well-run customer session will give you more practical insight than multiple vendor-led presentations.

Use strategy talks to quickly filter vendors — if a 20-minute session doesn’t reflect your problem space, it’s unlikely a longer engagement will either.

In Orlando, you’ll also see additional formats through ASUG seminars and pre-conference sessions, which tend to be longer and more technical. These are particularly valuable if you're looking for deeper architectural or implementation guidance.

How to prepare your agenda before you arrive

The SAP agenda builder goes live on March 30 for all three events (Virtual, Orlando, and Madrid). This is when you can see the full session catalog and start building your schedule. The gap between the agenda going live and the event is your most valuable planning window.

A few things that consistently help people get more out of Sapphire:

1. Define your two or three decisions before you arrive. The most effective Sapphire attendees come with specific questions: Should we go RISE or GROW?” “Is our ECC landscape too complex for a Brownfield approach?” “What does a realistic Business Data Cloud implementation timeline look like?” Use sessions and conversations to answer those questions specifically. Attending with a vague goal of “learning about SAP AI” produces a vague outcome.
2. Book vendor and partner meetings early. The highest-value conversations at Sapphire happen in structured 30-minute meetings at partner booths, not in hallways. Meeting slots at well-attended booths fill up in the first week after the agenda builder opens. If you want to speak with specific partner teams — system integrators, ISVs, SAP directly — book before you land.
3. Prioritize Day 1 and the morning of Day 2. Energy and session availability both drop toward the end of the event. Customer success sessions and technical deep-dives fill up. Schedule your highest-priority sessions early in the week, not as a fallback if nothing else is booked.
4. Use the virtual track for parallel coverage. If you have colleagues who aren't attending in person, coordinate to split coverage. The virtual track has different sessions, and the on-demand window extends your ability to review content after the event.
5. Identify the SAP roadmap sessions for the products you're actively using or evaluating. These sessions — typically led by SAP product managers — give you the clearest signal on what's coming in the next 12-18 months. They're also the sessions where you can ask the questions that customer forums and marketing materials can't answer directly.

Beyond the sessions: what else matters

Sapphire's session content is well-documented, and you can catch most of it on demand afterward. What you can't replicate remotely is the density of peer conversations, the access to senior SAP product people, and the ability to ask candid follow-up questions to a customer speaker five minutes after their session ends.

The show floor

In 2026, the show floor will have fewer sessions but will remain a useful environment for rapid partner evaluation. The best use of floor time: identify five to seven vendors you want a first read on, spend 15 minutes at each booth, and use that input to determine who deserves a longer scheduled conversation. Booth staff are generally more candid in relaxed floor conversations than in formal sales meetings.

Evening receptions

SAP typically hosts receptions for the first two event days. Several large partners also host their own events. These tend to be genuinely useful — the conversations at receptions are often more direct than those during the formal program. If you receive a private dinner or reception invitation from a partner, these are worth considering, particularly for relationships you're actively developing.

Conversations with SAP product teams

Sapphire events are among the few ones where SAP's product managers, architects, and engineering leads are accessible in person. If you're running a complex SAP implementation or evaluating a product with unresolved technical questions, this is the time to get answers that are typically buried in support tickets or filtered through account teams.

Sapphire Events at a Glance

• Orlando: May 11–13, Orange County Convention Center (OCCC)
• Madrid: May 19–21, IFEMA Madrid
• 3 days of content
• 15+ SAP solution tracks
• Global virtual event: May 12–13

Meet LeverX at SAP Sapphire 2026

If you're planning your time at Sapphire, it’s worth deciding in advance which partners you want to engage with.

LeverX will be attending both SAP Sapphire 2026 events:

• Orlando — North Hall, Booth 444 (May 11–13, Orange County Convention Center)
• Madrid — Hall 10, Booth 10.314 (May 19–21, IFEMA Madrid)

Our team of 20+ consultants, architects, and business development experts will be on-site across all three days at both locations. We will cover the full range of topics central to the 2026 program: RISE with SAP, GROW with SAP, S/4HANA migration and Clean Core strategy, Business AI and Joule implementation, SAP Business Data Cloud, BTP extensibility, and industry-specific SAP solutions across manufacturing, life sciences, chemicals, supply chain, and finance.

The AI‑Native Treasurer: J.P. Morgan’s Success Story With SAP Joule at Sapphire 2026

One of the insightful sessions we’re bringing to Sapphire focuses on how AI is already being applied in real enterprise scenarios.

This session explores how J.P. Morgan leveraged SAP Joule and SAP BTP to build an AI-driven treasury experience. By integrating banking APIs directly into SAP Joule, the organization enabled corporate users to manage financial operations through intelligent agents using natural language.

What you’ll learn:

• How AI agents can orchestrate treasury processes autonomously
• How SAP Joule Studio and SAP BTP enable enterprise AI scenarios
• Integration patterns for connecting banking APIs with SAP systems
• Governance, compliance, and security considerations for AI in financial services
• Key lessons from a real enterprise implementation

What to expect in a meeting with LeverX at Sapphire

We don't run standard product demos. Every conversation is oriented around your SAP landscape, your current challenges, and what you're trying to decide. If you come with a specific question — about your migration approach, your Clean Core readiness, or what a realistic AI implementation looks like in your environment — that's what we'll work through.

If your organization is:

• Evaluating RISE with SAP or GROW with SAP, and trying to understand which path fits your landscape
• Running an active ECC to S/4HANA migration and encountering scope, timeline, or Clean Core complexity
• Trying to understand what SAP Business AI and Joule mean practically for your implementation
• Looking for a system integrator with deep European enterprise delivery experience and a direct SAP partnership
• Attending Sapphire Madrid and want to spend 30 minutes with a team that's worked on over 1,500 SAP projects

— then a conversation with LeverX is worth booking. We’ll confirm your slot asap.

Book a 30-minute meeting with our experts in Orlando or Madrid. If you’re attending, we’ll arrange an in-person meeting on-site. If not, we can schedule an online session.