- This was a partner show, not a customer show. I met four end users all week.
- Odoo 20 embraces MCP. That brings the Salesforce-in-Claude pattern to Odoo, and it is the clearest signal that 20 is a step change.
- The skills layer is the part nobody ships. That is where I am spending 2027.
- Great space, strong headline speakers, mostly good sessions, and a conference app I could not navigate.
- Transparency was a theme. The roadmap still isn't one, and light user pricing never surfaced.
- Selling a twenty-day implementation as a two-day implementation is a disservice. Configuration got faster. Understanding the client did not.
Who Is This Show For?
This was a partner conference, not a customer conference.
I met four end users the entire event. One was nine months into their implementation. Another responded to advertising and wandered in. For what it's worth, I figure I had between 90 and 100 conversations during the conference.
Except for a few software integration partners, everyone else was an Odoo employee or an Odoo partner, and most were there to sell development services.
I have good information that Odoo reps are discouraged from bringing prospects to the SF show. That's smart on Odoo's part, they'd be swarmed by people selling services. But it tells you what the room is, and it's worth knowing before you decide whether next year is worth the flight.
Salesforce Is Already Inside Claude Cowork. Odoo 20 Ships the Same Idea, Minus the Skills
There's a demo going around called Claudeforce, see it here: Salesforce in Claude. Watch it before you read the rest of this.
The pattern is already shipping at the top of the market: the system of record stops being the thing you look at and becomes the thing you talk to. SAP made the same bet with its Anthropic deal.
Odoo 20 embraces MCP, and that puts the same pattern in play for Odoo users. It's the clearest signal that 20 is a step change.
I saw a demo at the conference that basically replicated Claude Cowork + Odoo. Shall we call it ClaudeDo or Cowoodoo? Auth is the friction today. Setting it up is slightly technical. The message at the show was that it drops to a few configs, with OAuth coming.
The skills are the part that will need shipping. Claudeforce ships with some default skills. I'll be focused in this area in 2027 and beyond. I truly believe you need to build this context for your business - skills, a company wiki, etc.
Booths, Beer and Kara Swisher
The space was great. More booths than last year and there was real energy on the floor. Food vendors knocked it out of the park. The party was fun, though the music was too loud for this old man trying to meet and chat people up.
The headline speakers delivered. Kara Swisher's conversation with Chris Larson was the highlight, and I didn't agree with all of Larson's point of view, which is the point. Scott Galloway was excellent. The part about his kid leaving for school landed hard. Jacob Goldstein gave the talk I'm still thinking about. Here's a 2024 podcast. Goldstein made the connection between abundant energy and abundant intelligence.
The Conference Web App Was Confused and Confusing
I could not navigate the schedule. I couldn't tell what was live versus what was next. There was no whole-day view. I had to ask another human how to find a list of talks, and it was still hard after they told me.
Just give me the grid.
Brett Hydeman, VP of Sales, said something at the party that stuck with me: Odoo is capable without AI, and people don't always want AI. The conference app is the proof. I don't want an AI deciding which talks I should attend. Put the day on a page and let me read it.
The 20-Days-to-2-Days Promise
Sessions were mostly good. There were lots of demos. However, most of the partner sessions oversold the obvious as innovation. An AI layer that walks you through configuring Odoo is useful, but it isn't revolutionary.
These partners are taking it one step further, promising short, easy implementations. One talk promised taking a twenty day implementation down to two days.
Configuration and data conversion really have gotten faster. AI has sped up configuring Odoo dramatically and I'm not going to pretend otherwise.
But configuration was never the biggest constraint.
The constraint is understanding what the client actually needs, and that takes time no matter what the tooling does:
- Documenting the workflows that exist today
- Learning a new system
- Socializing the software so people actually use it
None of that compresses into two days, whether you're a one-person shop or a thousand-person company. Scale changes how many days it takes. Two isn't one of the answers.
Selling a two-day implementation is a disservice. It sets an unreal expectation for the ERP buyer.
Transparency Is a Theme
Transparency came up repeatedly. Hydeman raised it in his talk (which was a highlight). Wilfried Juncker, Managing Director of Odoo Inc, raised it too in his opening keynote. And, to its credit, Odoo does transparently display pricing and offer demos.
That said, the roadmap still isn't transparent, and that's the gap. Despite the tease on LinkedIn, there was no public mention of light user pricing.
Odoo 20: What I Still Don't Know
A lot of good things were pushed into the release, and my read is that this release is worth taking seriously. I'll be upgrading. I'm holding the full assessment until I have hands on the software.
My two biggest asks are still outstanding:
- Rational URL structure for Website and Ecommerce
- Category listing page
Much more to come...