Thirty years ago, SAP launched its certification program to help professionals prove expertise and advance their careers.
At SAP Sapphire, that mission is being redefined for a fundamentally different environment, one in which every industry faces the same core challenge: success depends not just on what professionals know, but on how effectively they can apply that knowledge alongside AI.
Technology has already changed. What now differentiates organizations is not access to innovation, but the ability to translate it into outcomes. According to the World Economic Forum, skills gaps are the primary barrier to transformation, ranking ahead of investment constraints and regulatory complexity. Closing that gap requires more than expanding training catalogs. It requires rethinking how skills are built, validated, and continuously developed.
Certification reimagined
SAP Certification has been redesigned to reflect how work actually gets done. Across more than 100 certifications, traditional multiple-choice exams have been replaced with scenario-based and system-based assessments. Candidates work through case-based challenges, role simulations, and practical tasks in SAP environments that mirror real-world complexity. They can also use AI tools during exams—by design, not exception.
This marks a fundamental shift. Certification is no longer a test of knowledge recall; it is a demonstration of applied capability: the ability to navigate ambiguity, make decisions, and use AI as a tool without relying on it. More than 100,000 exams have already been completed under this model, establishing a new benchmark for certification at scale and reinforcing the relevance of certification in an AI-driven workplace.
Learning is evolving in parallel
In SAP Learning Hub, AI is transforming how professionals engage with content. These capabilities are enabled by the integration of selected functionalities from Google NotebookLM into the customer and partner editions of the platform.
This shifts learning from passive consumption to active interaction. Learners can engage with SAP content in more than 80 languages, ask questions, and receive precise, source-based answers with direct references to official materials. AI also generates complementary formats. Podcasts are available for moments when a screen is neither available nor practical, whether commuting, traveling, or simply stepping away from the desk, available both for passive listening and as interactive conversations with AI hosts. FAQs, study guides, mind maps, timelines, briefing documents, and video overviews allow learning to adapt to individual needs and time constraints.
Early adoption underscores the impact. More than 7,500 users are already leveraging these capabilities. LTIMindtree reports onboarding that is 50 percent faster, while NTT Data Business Solutions has made SAP Learning Hub its primary environment for developing talent prepared for the agentic AI era. The shift is clear: Learning is becoming embedded in daily work, not separated from it.
Building the data foundation
At the same time, SAP is addressing a prerequisite for effective AI: data. Many organizations continue to operate with fragmented and inconsistent data landscapes, limiting the impact of AI initiatives. The Becoming a Certified SAP Data Architect learning journey focuses on building the capability to connect, govern, and structure enterprise data, ensuring that AI systems operate on a reliable and consistent foundation.
This capability is increasingly strategic. Organizations that establish a strong data foundation can move faster from insight to action, scale AI more effectively, and create more consistent business outcomes. In this sense, data architecture is no longer a back-end concern; it is a core enabler of enterprise transformation.
Skills at scale
SAP has committed to equipping 12 million people with AI-ready skills by 2030. Delivering on this ambition requires expanding access while maintaining depth and relevance. Select AI live learning sessions such as All Things Business AI: Latest Insights, Updates & Live Demos, are now available without login or cost, giving professionals at all career stages direct access to SAP’s business AI strategy.
Role-based learning journeys provide targeted development for key profiles such as enterprise architects, while a dedicated “Clean Core” course supports organizations in maintaining SAP S/4HANA landscapes in ways that enable faster innovation cycles and more efficient adoption of new capabilities.
Scaling skills also requires ecosystem reach. SAP’s partnership with Accenture LearnVantage expands global access to instructor-led training, combining SAP-authored content and training systems with Accenture LearnVantage’s proven experience in technology skills development for enterprise clients. This creates a continuous path from foundational knowledge to hands-on experience to certification, reflecting how professionals actually develop skills: progressively, in context, and in alignment with real-world application.
A broader shift
These developments point to a broader shift. Learning is no longer episodic; it is continuous, adaptive, and embedded in how work gets done. Participation in SAP learning has increased by 33% year over year, reinforcing that organizations increasingly view skills as strategic assets in an AI-powered economy. The Autonomous Enterprise takes shape differently across industries, and so does the capability required to make it work.
At SAP Sapphire, SAP marks 30 years of certification not by looking back, but by redefining its role. Certification is becoming a measure of capability in action. Learning is becoming an ongoing process that evolves alongside technology and business needs.
In an AI-driven world, advantage will not come from access to technology alone, but from the ability to apply it with purpose. Across industries, the pattern is consistent: how quickly organizations capture value from AI depends on the people deploying it.
To explore these innovations in more detail and understand how SAP is enabling organizations to build AI-ready skills at scale, read the SAP Sapphire Innovation News Guide.
Andre Bechtold is president of SAP Industries and Experiences.
