Throughout time, businesses of all sizes have relied on processes to create their goods or offer their services in a way that delivered value to customers. For example, a lemonade stand needs fresh lemons and sugar to make the best lemonade, and going to the right fruit stand and buying the freshest lemons was part of that “business process.” In large companies, business processes are much more complex and have many steps inside and outside the company, which means that there is a need for business application software to manage their processes efficiently, network-aware, and end-to-end.
SAP invented the first software-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, the world’s first system of record and a powerful innovation that has changed the face of business and the ability of our customers to deliver value. With cloud and mobile technology, we delivered systems of engagement. More recently, we’ve been using artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics to help organizations become more intelligent enterprises. And now with the new generation of SAP Business AI, we are able to step into creating the first system of value.
We will now bring forward the first systems of intelligence – a true, integrated system that has artificial intelligence infused throughout its core and in every interface that matters. Once again, we will work to fundamentally change the way in which companies operate, helping them to ensure their core business processes while also freeing them to adapt, adjust, and uniquely optimize for their needs. SAP Business AI can become a self-learning, personalized interface with contextualized insights just a prompt away.
This vision becomes real with the SAP portfolio – the broadest suite of business applications on the planet, all running on and powered by SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP). With our portfolio and the many partner-ecosystem solutions providing AI-powered, end-to-end business processes, the system can become truly robust.
AI Potential and Opportunity for SAP Customers and Partners
AI is helpful, as it can accomplish tasks that are not suited for the human brain such as using large amounts of detailed data. This may sound complicated, but the basic idea of AI is actually a lot simpler than one might think. Three things are needed for an AI platform or system of intelligence:
- A model that can be trained
- Data to train the model
- Vast computing power to actually do the training
SAP has the data sets and data structure of business-related data – protected, anonymized, and made available following the strict standards of European data protection laws. This data structure and the historical industry and business knowledge can enable us to create accurate AI models in our powerful systems of intelligence for our customers – a true business AI.
SAP Business AI – What Is It and How Can It Help Businesses?
According to global research from Accenture, 60% of companies are merely experimenting with AI. Only 12% are using AI that achieves a strong competitive advantage. Through our past AI efforts, we have gained the ability to differentiate our AI strategies and to operationalize for value. With SAP Business AI, we are building the system of intelligence with three core principles: relevant, reliable, and responsible.
Relevant
SAP’s AI applications have your business context in mind. SAP Business AI is embedded in our leading enterprise applications and business technology solutions. Customers can count on their SAP systems to be future-proofed with the most relevant AI experiences in the context of their business.
Reliable
Based on unique business data structures and the business process context, we can deliver the most reliable business AI. The AI is trained on industry and business process data, driven by SAP process expertise and accessible in the solutions companies use daily.
Responsible
For years, we have delivered AI with the highest levels of concern for security, privacy, compliance, and ethics. Our customers trust us with their most critical data and processes because we know how to build and run powerful and trustworthy solutions, including AI that touches their most vital data and systems.
What Solutions Do We Offer with SAP Business AI in Industries?
We have embedded AI functionality in our industry-specific SAP solutions to help optimize strategic areas of our customer’s businesses, not a built-on technology that tries to replicate data and get out of synch. Here are some examples:
Intelligent Product Recommendations with SAP Business AI
Our new SAP Intelligent Product Recommendation application uses SAP Business AI for a sales experience that is based on what the customer actually needs by reducing the effort required to create quotes for configurable products. SAP provides a machine learning-based application that can enable users to train language models using historical data from various sources and provide product and solution recommendations to the end customer.
The SAP Business AI used in SAP Intelligent Product Recommendation is trained on sales data like opportunities, quotes, and orders. Based on that data, it then recommends the optimal product and configuration that best meets customers’ needs. See it in action here.
AI-Trained Digital Assistants for a Seamless Customer Journey
Bosch Power Tools Accessories turned complex technical specifications into customer-centric language that was used as a foundation for digital assistants. In this way, customers can more easily find the right accessories for the power tools for their specific needs and applications. Zoovu, a partner solution in SAP’s industry cloud, integrates with SAP Marketing Cloud to help ensure a seamless customer buying journey experience for Bosch’s customers. Bosch estimates an increase of 65% customer engagement in over 35 global markets with its 46 new digital assistants. Read more about it here.
Managing Retail Orders with SAP Business AI
To manage the complex world of shopping, retailers need an intelligent system that can centrally manage orders no matter where they come from. They also need to handle returns through a fast closed-loop process with advanced AI that understands when to return the item into stock or dispose of it while preserving an optimal shopping experience. With SAP’s industry cloud solutions for retail order management, businesses can track sales, orders, inventory, and fulfillment in real time and optimize the sourcing of products to help ensure robust deliveries at optimum costs.
What’s Next?
We deliver SAP Business AI that is already built into the SAP applications that power the most critical business processes. Organizations can use it with confidence, as it is created using responsible AI practices. In essence, SAP Business AI is AI built for business.
We have been developing automation with AI for years, and at SAP Sapphire in May 2023 we announced several new business AI capabilities, with additional AI and generative AI services in progress. We are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with our AI – all the while working to ensure that it is relevant, reliable, and responsible – to support customers with their most complex and pressing business needs, so they can unlock their business’ full potential.
Sven Denecken is SVP and CMSO for SAP Industries and CX.