The two German AI companies Celonis and Deepset are joining forces. Admittedly, outside of the tech industry, these names are unlikely to ring a bell for very few people. But the agreed partnership could be tough. It is intended to open up a European market that was previously reserved for the controversial surveillance company Palantir from the USA – even if both companies do not mention the name. A commentary analysis.
Alliance against Palantir: What are Deepset and Celonis doing?
- Celonis was created in 2011 from a research project at the Technical University of Munich. The company was valued at around $13 billion in a 2022 funding round. Celonis is World leader in business process analysisthe so-called process mining. The platform evaluates data from various company programs. These include: systems for order processing, customer management and logistics. The aim is to optimize processes economically. According to Celonis, it employs over 3,000 people worldwide. The customer base includes large companies such as Fujitsu, Uniper, PepsiCo and Telekom.
- Deepset was founded in Berlin in 2018. Although the company is slightly smaller than Celonis, it is extremely influential in its niche market. Because: With Haystack, Deepset has developed open source software for companies so that they can integrate AI components into their applications in order to develop their own models. This software is particularly often used for so-called RAG applications. This is about Connect AI systems with your own company dataso that they can not only use general knowledge, but also retrieve specific information from internal databases. Deepset counts Airbus and Bosch among its customers.
- The controversial US company Palantir has established itself as the dominant data analysis platform for authorities, security organizations and critical infrastructures worldwide – including in Germany and Europe. The company was founded by Trump supporter Peter Thiel, who still pulls the strings. Palantir is closely linked to the US secret services and is therefore extremely controversial, especially in Europe. Also because the The company’s software is very opaque is. Palantir’s business model relies on creating dependencies. There are hardly any comparable alternatives, especially for investigative authorities.
An alliance as a political signal
The point of the alliance between Celonis and Deepset is not necessarily the technology being pursued, but rather in a political vacuumthat is supposed to fill it. For years, there has been discussion in Germany about how administration, security authorities and critical infrastructures can be digitized. But the result of these discussions was always a sobering one: a call for solutions from abroad.
Not because Europe doesn’t have any smart minds, but because the focus and promotion of appropriate platforms at the political level has been neglected and delayed for a long time. The consequence of this wrong path: Anyone who needs modern analysis tools quickly ends up with US providers with a certain degree of dependency associated with it.
With their alliance, Celonis and Deepset are opening up exactly this gap. What is striking is that both companies Avoid the name Palantir consistently. But anyone who talks about an “integrated, sovereign AI platform” for government, defense, cybersecurity and critical infrastructure makes it pretty clear who the alliance is aimed at.
All of this may perhaps seem a bit unpopularbecause it’s not about endless possibilities in a chat window. But the goal is something much more important: a digital infrastructure for areas where trust, control and traceability are more important than the next AI hype.
The Celonis and Deepset technologies complement each other surprisingly well. Celonis provides the process context, i.e. the knowledge about how organizations actually work. And Deepset, with Haystack, provides the link between language models, data sources and applications. This combination promises an AI platform that does not draw decisions from a statistical fog, but rather builds on verifiable information.
That sounds less spectacular than the big promises and visions from Silicon Valley. But for European authorities and critical infrastructures could It is precisely this sobriety that is the real innovation be. Because it combines independence with technical know-how and transparent structures.
Voices
- Milos Rusic, CEO and co-founder of Deepsetin a statement: “We believe that organizations need AI systems that they can fully trust and control at all times – especially in mission-critical environments. By combining these open and regulated AI agents based on Haystack with the Celonis context model, we are creating a European alternative for operational AI that is transparent, auditable and anchored in real business context.”
- Florian Schewior, Managing Director at Celonisadded: “AI systems are only as effective as the process context they can access. By combining Process Intelligence and the Celonis Context Model with Deepset’s AI agents for regulated infrastructures, public institutions and security organizations can use AI systems that are not only powerful, but also based on real processes, work comprehensibly and meet the requirements of sovereign infrastructures.”
- Manuel Atug, expert for critical IT infrastructures and spokesman for the independent Critical Infrastructure Working Groupwarned about Palantir as early as mid-2025 when it came to the use of the software by the German police: “Our law enforcement authorities are making themselves completely dependent on a company that operates in an ethically questionable manner, where the investor and also the CEO are obviously running after ideologies, including autocratic ideologies, and are also promoting and optimizing them.”
European Palantir alternative: Just one component of many
Even if Celonis and Deepset avoid the name, the shadow of Palantir hovers over their partnership Sword of Damocles in the server room. In recent years, the US company has developed a dominant position among authorities, security organizations and critical infrastructures. The new alliance will therefore be measured by whether it can be more than a European alternative on paper.
The problem with Palantir is not necessarily that the platform is a US one, but rather an absolute black box is. In combination with a cozy proximity to the Trump administration, this could result in a pre-programmed dependency that, in the worst case, can be used as a means of pressure.
Due to a lack of alternatives, Celonis and Deepset are hitting exactly this gap. They want to rely on open components, traceable data flows and the ability to operate systems on the customer’s infrastructure. That might sound a bit lame, but it is an attractive promise for data sovereignty and independence from the USA.
However, the AI platform from Celonis and Deepset must of course be different first prove it in practice. Not just as functioning and error-free software, but as an efficient alternative that can keep up. However, the importance of the alliance should neither be downplayed nor overestimated.
The alliance can become an important building block for digital sovereignty in Europe. But: she just is one building block among many. If you really want to make authorities, police or critical infrastructures more independent, you not only need sovereign software, but also European cloud offerings, secure hardware, identity solutions and communication networks. Otherwise, the well-known European pattern threatens to return.
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