SAP is full of amazing people, incredible stories, and things to learn. Super Awesome Profiles is a short, sharp introduction to some of our most interesting people. We’ll go beyond the normal business questions to dig deep into their careers, their business insights, and their personal passions.
Today we meet Dr. Kim Oosthuizen, Head of Artificial Intelligence for SAP Australia and New Zealand. Originally from South Africa, Dr Kim is now based in Sydney, Australia and has worked with SAP for more than four years.
Let’s meet Dr Kim.
What is the best part of your day at SAP?
I’m passionate about all things artificial intelligence (AI) and how it truly changes how we all work. The part I love most about my job is that I get to help our customers discover the potential our technology has on their business and showing our teams how they can benefit from working with AI. This year the focus of my role has shifted more into helping our customers adopt SAP Business AI. As someone who comes from an academic and business background, it’s really rewarding for me to be able to teach our customers how they can leverage AI to work better, faster and smarter.
If SAP is a song, what would it be?
I think it would be Upside Down by Jack Johnson. It’s all about how looking at the world from different perspectives can help us understand our business and world better. As the world of work is always changing, it’s important that we are taking our customers on a journey and showing them how our new, exciting and innovative embedded and generative AI capabilities can help them modernise their businesses.
Which living business-person do you most admire?
There’s a few. One of them would be Jeff Bezos – I really like his story of how he started Amazon in his garage, and how with hard work and persistence, he turned it into the world’s largest online retailer (that I see as a technology company underpinned by AI).
I also really admire Dr Fei-Fei Li. She’s a renowned expert in AI and an academic at Stanford University who advocated for diversity and inclusion in AI and for how to use AI technology responsibly.
Beena Ammanath, who leads Trustworthy AI and Technology Trust Ethics at Deloitte in the United States, is also doing some really great work in helping businesses navigate ethics in AI.
I look up to both of them because there aren’t many women working in AI globally, and they are really paving the way for other women in this area, something I am also very passionate about.
When and where were you happiest?
This is an easy one for me. I’m truly in my happy place when I’m sailing with my husband. Growing up in South Africa with the closest beach being seven hours away, I feel so lucky that I’m so close to the water here in Sydney. It’s somewhere where I can really unwind with no distractions. I also used to be a scuba diving instructor, which I really enjoyed because I got to show others the beauty of exploring and being out in the water.
I also like going for runs. Running has been part of my life from a young age, and I used to qualify and compete at world championships. I am a little bit slower and older now but love to go for a run to clear my mind, and Sydney is beautiful for that.
Which talent would you most like to have?
I love 90s grunge music like Pearl Jam and always wanted to be a grunge rockstar, so I really wish I was a better musician. I also play a bit of bass guitar, but I’m such an amateur!
