Harnessing Human Expertise in the Age of AI: Driving Business Transformations With SAP

In the coming decades, humanity will achieve feats that would have seemed like magic to our grandparents. The rapid acceleration of progress, fueled by artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud technologies, is enabling us to solve problems once thought impossible. Some leaders are even calling this new era the intelligent age.

As our capabilities grow, businesses are embracing AI and other technologies strategically. SAP is leading the way, offering a smarter approach to business transformation services, combining cutting-edge tools with human expertise to help organizations unlock the full potential of these advancements.

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In this new era, cloud technologies, AI, and human intelligence are converging, resulting in remarkable advancements in areas like demand forecasting, supply chain resilience, and process automation. As a result, businesses are increasingly shifting their focus to high-value tasks and real-time collaboration, allowing them to unlock new levels of efficiency and innovation.

While the opportunities are immense, the benefits are not guaranteed. The winners in this new era will be those organizations that can transform their operations digitally in increasingly more intelligent ways to set themselves up for success. For example, getting the most from business AI requires first moving your systems to a cloud ERP with SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

Winning in the age of intelligence requires a newer and more intelligent approach to business transformation and the stakes could not be higher.

Combining the Power of Human Expertise with Technology

While the potential of AI-driven cloud systems is vast, some companies still struggle to fully leverage them. Many digital transformations fail to meet their objectives. Common pitfalls include a lack of technical expertise and employee engagement, inadequate management support, poor cross-functional collaboration, and a lack of accountability. Furthermore, sustaining a transformation’s impact typically requires a major reset in mindsets and behaviors.

Often the most difficult part of transforming businesses isn’t determining what to do, but rather how to do it. To address these challenges, SAP is building on a time-tested approach, combining cutting-edge tools with the power of human judgment, and taking it to the next level.

At the heart of this strategy is RISE with SAP, a game-changing initiative designed to help businesses continuously transform. To date, 7,000 companies – representing 32% of the global economy – have embraced RISE with SAP. These companies are already experiencing the benefits, including two percent lower operating costs and three percent lower inventory.

The critical “human” component of the RISE methodology are the enterprise architects, transformation experts who guide businesses through the intricacies of their digital transformation, ensuring they maximize the value of SAP tools and services.

Enterprise architects not only help customers utilize the RISE with SAP Methodology, but also harmonize all elements of the transformation, guiding customers to the modular cloud suite. This ensures a cohesive, effective process whereby the enterprise architect becomes a trusted advisor for the customer. By leveraging SAP’s integrated toolchain — across SAP Signavio, SAP LeanIX, SAP Cloud ALM, SAP Business Technology Platform, and WalkMe — enterprise architects help SAP customers transform holistically through their processes, data, systems, and their people, supporting their long-term success.

SAP has already seen a strong internal response to this approach, seasoned individuals are lining up for the role. Our recruitment and tailored enablement efforts are in full swing, with hundreds of cohorts currently going through training. We are also fine-tuning our enterprise architect operational and commercial model to simplify how we engage with customers and the early customer response has been very positive.

Shaping the Future of Business Transformations

Our early customer successes show the power and the potential of SAP’s intelligent transformation approach. By combining human expertise with advanced AI and cloud technologies, SAP is setting a new standard for what is possible through business transformations. As we look to the future, this integrated approach will continue to enable businesses to unlock new value and drive sustainable success.

At SAP, our vision is to redefine the way businesses transform, setting a benchmark for intelligent and integrated business transformations that drive real, measurable results. And for those organizations that adopt it, the possibilities in this new age are limitless.

Thomas Saueressig is a member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, leading Customer Services & Delivery. 
Thomas Pfiester is executive vice president and head of Global Customer Engagement & Services at SAP.