And actually, it all started the evening before.
A full house at Knorr-Bremse
On Wednesday we kicked off with our pre-event evening at Knorr-Bremse in Berlin. Interest was so high that more people had signed up than we were ultimately able to take along.
An exclusive plant tour gave us insights into production and, above all, into how Qlik is used in shopfloor management. An exciting start that showed right away what the next day would be about for us, too: making data usable where decisions are made and processes are steered.
Starting the day together
On Thursday, 17 September, the actual Qlik AI Reality Tour Berlin 2026 got under way. We started at a relaxed pace with a shared breakfast and – almost a tradition by now – fresh coffee from the CoffeeBike.
Achim Gnadt and Sebastian Nädtke then opened the day with a short overview of what has happened at Qlik and data+ since our last AI Reality Tour.
And that was quite a lot.
Business intelligence in the age of AI
Right afterwards, Sebastian Nädtke explored how business intelligence is changing in his keynote “Business Intelligence in the Age of AI – from Trusted Analytics to Intelligent Action”.
Trusted data and analytics remain the foundation. But in the age of AI, simply providing information in dashboards is less and less enough. What matters is what happens next.
In live demos, Sebastian showed how we build business apps directly on Qlik and data+ today, which new possibilities AI opens up – and where its limits currently lie.
The core idea: get out of “stuck in analytics” and move towards intelligent action.
Data integration and data quality as the foundation
Steffen Bischoff from Qlik then showed why a reliable data foundation is crucial, in his talk “Qlik Talend Cloud: What’s new and what it means for your architecture”.
It covered current developments in data integration and how modern data architectures evolve with Qlik Talend Cloud.
Mohamad Naser Alnakshbandi from leitart picked up the topic with “Data quality needs ownership”. Good data quality doesn’t come from technology alone. It takes clear processes and ownership – and ways to check, complete and correct data right where people work with it.
Lunch break? Not only.
During the lunch break there was, of course, food, discussion and networking. But anyone who wanted to could also use the time for a look behind the scenes of our site.
Sebastian Grüber from EBK and Sebastian Nädtke led two groups through the halls of EBK Krüger.
Our guests saw how we use Qlik ourselves on site and how we use our model factory to develop and test new applications, technologies and use cases under real conditions.
Qlik + Mail & Deploy + data+: working together in practice
After the break things got very concrete again.
In their talk “Smart Last Mile: How Berlin Recycling enables user-friendly customer reporting”, Emma Camacho from Mail & Deploy and Christian Polle from Berlin Recycling showed how different solutions can be combined into one end-to-end process.
Berlin Recycling uses Qlik as its calculation and analysis layer, Mail & Deploy to create and distribute the reports, and data+ as an intuitive in-app control center.
The result: customer reporting that is easier to manage and at the same time delivers reliable, meaningful insights for customers and managers.
For us, a particularly nice example of how Qlik, Mail & Deploy and data+ can work together when the focus is not on a single tool but on the whole process.
With MCP out of the chat – and into action
In the afternoon we went deeper into AI once more.
We showed the current state of our work with MCP, and in particular how it makes not just one but several Qlik apps accessible to AI and connects them with each other.
For us it is about the next step: not stopping at “stuck in chat” or “stuck in analytics”.
Instead, the AI assistant of your choice should access the relevant data and business applications and – with the right permissions and controls – trigger actions directly.
From the question to the analysis, and from the analysis straight into action.
Customer case speed dating: Qlik in practice
Our customer case speed dating then showed how different such applications look in reality.
The concept: real Qlik apps, short pitches and then the chance to ask questions right away.
Philipp Block from BizLink Special Cables Germany GmbH, Norman von Chamier from PŸUR and Christian Polle from Berlin Recycling each gave us exciting insights into their projects and applications in about ten minutes.
No long theoretical presentations, but concrete solutions from everyday work – including the challenges, ideas and experiences behind them.
Hands-on to close the Qlik AI Reality Tour Berlin 2026
To finish, things got practical once more: Ahmad Abou Ezzah from leitart led a hands-on session on financial planning.
Anyone who wanted to could click along and follow step by step how such an application is built. The day ended exactly the way we had imagined it: not just talking about possibilities, but trying them out yourself.
Thank you for two great days!
What remains? Many conversations, new ideas, concrete use cases and plenty of inspiration. Above all, we were once again delighted to see how much comes about when users, customers, partners, Qlik and our teams get together and talk openly about what already works today, what is emerging right now and what will be possible next.
Many thanks to all speakers, customers and partners who shared their experiences and projects with us – and of course to all participants who once again made the Qlik AI Reality Tour Berlin 2026 such an inspiring day.
We are already looking forward to next time.
