The 2025 Appian World conference, held in Denver, opened with a keynote that set the tone with a compelling historical parallel. Echoing the disruptive power of the railroads in 1869, Appian framed 2025 as the year AI truly delivers value.

Just as railroads revolutionised the American landscape over 150 years ago, reaching Denver in 1869 and representing the greatest capital investment of the era, AI now commands investment levels that eclipse even the Apollo Programme and Manhattan Project.

But unlike railroads, AI is democratised: accessible, affordable, and ready for deployment by anyone.

“This is our revolution,” said Matt Calkins, founder and CEO of Appian. “AI is not just for industrialists. It’s in our hands now.”

Cutting through the hype

While the buzz around AI often leans into the fantastical, Appian emphasised a grounded approach: AI isn’t about magic, it’s about efficiency. The core principle? “AI is for doing regular jobs with superhuman efficiency.”

The strategy is to integrate AI directly into business processes, targeting the most frequent and important tasks. According to Appian, 70% of its customers already use AI in development or production, with usage growing nearly 8-fold year-over-year in the last quarter.

Putting AI to work

Appian’s process-centric approach is key to making AI valuable. When AI operates inside structured processes, variables are clearly defined, enabling more accurate, efficient outcomes.

The goal is not to treat AI as a tool but as a team member, a worker capable of making decisions, taking actions, and learning from outcomes.

The rise of the AI agent

The highlight of the conference was the focus on AI agents: autonomous software entities that can think, act, and learn. To be effective, an agent must:

• Think – Develop a strategy based on broad data exploration.
• Act – Execute tasks as part of larger workflows.
• Learn – Improve over time by analysing outcomes.

Central to this system is Appian’s Data Fabric, a unified layer that connects enterprise data sources. With nearly 7 billion queries in Q1 alone and a 166% year-over-year growth, Data Fabric has become a foundational component, adopted by 97% of new customers. This fabric doesn’t just unify data, it fuels Appian’s AI agent, giving it real-time access to enterprise-wide information and enabling context-aware decision-making across workflows.

From claims to code: Real-world impact

Moreover, in a keynote address at Appian World, the company’s CEO highlighted how AI is not only transforming business operations but also playing a role in supporting child welfare.

Acclaim Autism’s work, in partnership with Appian, dramatically reduced treatment delays for autistic children.

The talk shifted focus to one of the most human stories of the week: the use of AI in improving the lives of children with autism.

Acclaim Autism co-founder and president, Jamie Turner stated: “1 in 31 kids in this country is diagnosed with autism,” he said, underscoring the urgency of early intervention. “Substantial improvements in social communication, language development, adaptive behaviour, it all depends on starting treatment quickly.”

Unfortunately, that’s not always the reality. “I have heard horror stories,” Turner continued, “about people waiting an immense amount of time… trapped in the system.”

That’s where Acclaim Autism stepped in.

Faced with a six-month average wait time for treatment after diagnosis, the organisation decided to act. “They built a process, they applied AI, they worked with Appian… and they cut the delay down to a single month,” he added. “They cut 83% off of this critical life-altering delay. It’s an extraordinary thing that they did.”

AI with Context and Control

The core message delivered by Appian CEO Matt Calkins during his keynote at Appian World was that AI is more than a buzzword, it’s beginning to deliver measurable, real-world impact. The focus was not just on technical innovation but on how AI can be applied effectively in practical contexts.

Appian emphasised that success with AI isn’t about selecting the best model, but about providing the right context, constraints, and collaborators. With agents, process orchestration, and real-time learning, AI is moving beyond experimentation and becoming a functional component of enterprise systems.

Calkins later concluded: “AI hype isn’t the point. We’re here for AI’s practical value, one use case at a time.”