The News: SAP has announced 15 new business AI capabilities, many of which are powered by generative AI. These artificial intelligence-powered improvements to its cloud ERP platform are known collectively as SAP Business AI. SAP says that Business AI has the capability to assist customers in various aspects of the sales and customer management process. SAP also announced the expansion of its partnership with Microsoft on generative AI for recruiting and employee development. Read more from SAP.
SAP Unveils Business AI, Bringing AI to its Cloud Platform for Sales and Customer Management
Analyst Take: At SAP Sapphire in Orlando this week, SAP announced 15 new business AI capabilities, many of which are powered by generative AI. These artificial intelligence-powered improvements to its cloud ERP platform are known collectively as SAP Business AI, which has the capability to assist customers in various aspects of the sales and customer management process. A few of the SAP Business AI offerings encompass intelligent collections, which empowers finance teams to predict the likelihood of late payment on an invoice and prioritize follow-up for specific customers. This feature is currently accessible on SAP’s cloud platform, and I have a feeling it will make CFOs very happy.
SAP shared plans to introduce order auto-completion later this year, which aims to support sales teams by automatically completing intricate sales order documents, resulting in quicker processing. SAP will also offer tools for inventory and logistics management.
In addition, there is an AI-powered companion app in SAP Business AI designed to manage customer interactions. This app employs generative AI to provide comprehensive insights, generate personalized recommendations, and automatically create content to enhance customer experiences. SAP Business AI will also offer products that assist HR teams in effectively managing staff and automating tasks such as customer support.
SAP Has a Long History With AI
AI in general, and generative AI in particular, have been top of mind for almost every organization of every size today — and with good reason — they are, and will be, transformational in a way that we’ve not seen in a very long time. But as excited as we all get when talking about the power of AI, and when exploring these announcements at Sapphire from SAP, I think it’s important to note that for SAP, AI is not by any measure a new thing.
SAP — and SAP partners — have been integrating AI into solutions over the course of the last eight years or so and when it comes to a vendor partner that can be trusted to have widely and obsessively experimented and worked out all the kinks, I believe you would be hard pressed to find someone more reliable on that front than the team at SAP. And that was part of the messaging we heard at the event today: AI that is built in (meaning immediately available to use), relevant to customer’s needs and challenges, and responsible (ethical, bias-free, etc.) is the key to SAP’s offerings.
New SAP Business AI Features
SAP’s new Business AI features include:
- SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting. Using SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting, generative AI capabilities are designed to save hiring managers time and also help improve the interview quality, helping to maximize the effectiveness of the hiring process.
- SAP Transportation Management. SAP’s Transportation Management solution will leverage generative AI to enable automotive and manufacturing companies to automatically process the tens of thousands of delivery notes in different formats.
- SAP Business Network. Using SAP Business Network, procurement teams can easily onboard new suppliers by automatically extracting and processing relevant information from supplier invoices.
- SAP Ariba Buying. SAP Ariba Buying will personalize the employee purchase experience with AI and is available today.
- SAP S/4HANA. SAP S/4HANA will help collection specialists be able to forecast the risk of a late payment on an invoice and prioritize the need to follow up on customers.
- SAP Digital Assistant for Customer Experience. Using the SAP Digital Assistant for Customer Experience, sellers and customer support teams can automatically generate content to allow for a personalized customer experience.
These are just some of the new Business AI capabilities that SAP is rolling out. Here is a good snapshot of all of them.
SAP’s announcement of SAP Business AI and the introduction of generative AI into its cloud-based products follows on the heels of a flurry of generative AI recent announcements by other Big Tech players.
As mentioned, SAP is not by any stretch new to the AI game. That said, it is fantastic to see the rollout of SAP Business AI and the clever integration of generative AI into SAP solutions. Whether it’s recruiting and talent management, procurement, transportation management, Ariba for employee purchases, invoice forecasting and collection management, or personalized and effective customer experiences, SAP has clearly focused on the most pressing needs and challenges its customers and prospects have today.
These announcements around SAP Business AI, combined with the news also announced this week of SAP’s partnership with Microsoft integrating SAP SuccessFactors with Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot for Microsoft Viva Learning are impressive and makes for exciting times ahead for SAP customers. And speaking of customers, I’m very much looking forward to hearing customer success stories at the next SAP event sharing their experiences with these newly announced solutions, as there are bound to be many interesting use cases.
Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.
Other insights from The Futurum Group:
SAP and Microsoft Announce Generative AI Collaboration to Address Talent Gap
SAP Introduces SAP Datasphere, Next Generation Cloud Data Warehouse
Author Information
Shelly Kramer is a Principal Analyst and Founding Partner at Futurum Research. A serial entrepreneur with a technology centric focus, she has worked alongside some of the world’s largest brands to embrace disruption and spur innovation, understand and address the realities of the connected customer, and help navigate the process of digital transformation. She brings 20 years' experience as a brand strategist to her work at Futurum, and has deep experience helping global companies with marketing challenges, GTM strategies, messaging development, and driving strategy and digital transformation for B2B brands across multiple verticals. Shelly's coverage areas include Collaboration/CX/SaaS, platforms, ESG, and Cybersecurity, as well as topics and trends related to the Future of Work, the transformation of the workplace and how people and technology are driving that transformation. A transplanted New Yorker, she has learned to love life in the Midwest, and has firsthand experience that some of the most innovative minds and most successful companies in the world also happen to live in “flyover country.”
