Celonis wins Microsoft's 2026 Global ISV Partner of the Year Award

In a November 14, 2026 announcement, Celonis said it had won Microsoft's 2026 Global ISV Partner of the Year Award, selected from more than 4,500 nominations worldwide.

The software company is based in Munich and New York. It operates as an independent software vendor in Microsoft's partner ecosystem and develops process intelligence software that companies use to examine how operations run and where they can be improved.

Celonis and Microsoft use the recognition to support a market argument: AI agents can connect to measurable operating results rather than remain stand-alone experiments. Their partnership links agent activity with process data and business metrics that customers already track, with direct consequences for claims handling, procurement and human resources.

What did Microsoft's award recognize?

Microsoft said winners and finalists in the 2026 program were chosen from thousands of entries across multiple categories and regions. The Global ISV category covers software companies that build and deliver products with Microsoft technology, and it is the category in which Celonis received the award.

Microsoft said the program honors partners delivering customer outcomes through its cloud, AI, services and devices portfolio. Celonis's work with Microsoft focuses on a specific connection: operational insight from process intelligence on one side, and Microsoft's cloud and AI tools on the other.

Nicole Dezen, Chief Partner Officer and Corporate Vice President at Microsoft, described the awards as partner and customer achievements:

"Congratulations to the winners and finalists of the 2026 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards," Dezen said.

"This year's honorees are harnessing the power of Microsoft Cloud and AI to deliver transformative solutions, accelerate customer success, and expand what's possible. Their ingenuity and impact inspire us, demonstrating what can be achieved when bold vision and technology come together to empower organizations around the world."

The announcement identifies two concrete elements of Celonis's partnership: Microsoft Agent 365 for agent oversight and an Uniper deployment for a specific human-resources use case.

How does Celonis link agents to business results?

In May, Microsoft launched Microsoft Agent 365 and named Celonis as a launch partner. The product is designed to give companies a single place to observe, secure and govern AI agents used across an organisation.

Celonis adds a layer that links those agents to operational outcomes. The company says users can monitor the business impact of an individual agent in real time. Its examples of the relevant measures are lower cost per claim and faster cycle times.

The integration also aims to identify what Celonis calls "ghost loops". In that scenario, one agent's actions prompt another agent to reverse or duplicate work. Celonis's example has one agent merge purchase orders while another splits them, creating unnecessary activity that teams can then stop or adjust through Agent 365.

That sequence matters because the purchase-order actions can create more work without adding a useful business outcome. Celonis positions Agent 365 as the place to govern the agents, while its own software supplies the process view needed to spot and change the interaction.

Marc Kinast, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development at Celonis, tied the practical return from AI to the underlying business process:

"Almost every company is using AI. Very few are getting real returns," Kinast said. "That gap isn't about the model. It's about redesigning your processes from the ground up with AI you can rely on.

Microsoft brings trusted cloud and AI technologies. Celonis brings the platform people trust to transform and improve operations. Together, we're helping companies reinvent the way we work."

Kinast's argument places process redesign at the center of Celonis's award case. It also gives the partnership a defined division of roles: Microsoft supplies trusted cloud and AI technologies, while Celonis supplies the platform for analyzing and improving operations.

What does the Context Model add at Uniper?

Celonis says its platform is built around what it calls a Context Model. The model maps a company's operations by using data from business systems and links that view to strategic goals. Celonis presents it as the basis for analyzing, designing and operating processes that increasingly involve AI agents.

Uniper, a European energy company, provides a named example. It is using an agent built on Microsoft Copilot Studio and informed by the Celonis Context Model to support its human-resources processes. The use case centers on recruiting, where Uniper and Celonis say AI tools can help teams understand the current workflow and apply automation with greater visibility.

The setup makes the existing hiring process the starting point. Celonis describes the workflow as the context for the Copilot Studio agent, while the two companies say the combined tools support data analytics, process mining, automation and AI within that recruiting operation.

Robert Daamen, Head of Process Intelligence CoE at Uniper, described the joint implementation:

"Celonis and Microsoft are helping us build AI assistants that our people can depend on," said Robert Daamen, Head of Process Intelligence CoE at Uniper.

"In HR, Celonis gives our AI the context it needs to understand how our hiring process works today, while Microsoft helps lower the barriers to using combined data analytics, process mining, automation and AI. Together, they enable us to make the HR recruiting process more efficient, more reliable, and fully transparent."

Daamen's account describes a joint implementation. Celonis contributes the operational context for the hiring process, and Microsoft contributes the tools that combine data analytics, process mining, automation and AI. Their stated objective is a recruiting process that is more efficient, more reliable and fully transparent.

Why does the award matter now?

For Celonis, the award raises its profile as software groups try to show that AI systems produce measurable operating results. The company's argument depends on linking agent activity to process data and business metrics already used by customer teams. Lower claim costs and faster cycle times make that link visible; the Uniper case extends the same approach into HR.

For Microsoft, the award shows how partners extend its AI and cloud products into business functions. The partnership can place Microsoft Agent 365 around agents used across an organisation, while Celonis connects those agents to process-level outcomes in areas such as claims, procurement and recruitment.

The market stakes are clearest in the pressure on companies to show clearer returns on technology spending. A model or assistant may sit inside a workflow, but buyers still need evidence that the workflow costs less, runs faster or avoids redundant work. Celonis's real-time metrics, ghost-loop detection and Uniper's recruiting deployment are the evidence it is putting forward.

The next test for the partnership is whether that chain can extend across claims handling, procurement and human resources while retaining the same visibility into cost, cycle time and workflow behavior.