SAP and Microsoft announced a new collaboration to develop a generative artificial intelligence (AI) solution to help businesses across a variety of functions, including increasing the productivity of end users, changing how they interact with SAP, and even helping to address the talent gap across industries. The partnership will integrate SAP solutions, including SAP Signavio Process Manager business process software, with Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot in Viva Learning, and Azure OpenAI Service to leverage language models that analyze and generate natural language, helping organizations in a number of areas, from human capital management to finance operations to the customer experience.

This announcement comes on the heels of similar developments in artificial intelligence by both tech giants – developments that have ramped up in recent months. Earlier this year, Microsoft began rolling out the aforementioned Microsoft 365 Copilot, which aims to improve day-to-day productivity across the broad set of Microsoft 365 applications. Meanwhile, SAP has been layering AI capabilities throughout its powerful ecosystem of products. In early May, SAP announced a new partnership to embed IBM Watson into SAP solutions in order to improve automation and accelerate innovation via its digital assistant SAP Start.

On the backend, SAP also announced a partnership with Google Cloud aimed at helping businesses improve their data ecosystem in order to optimize the value of AI capabilities. As data rests at the center of AI value, this new partnership will allow businesses to combine the robust business data from SAP with essentially any other data set, as managed by Google Cloud, to effectively eliminate issues with data silos and low/no-context data.

SAP and Microsoft – Generative AI Solutions at Work

The 15 new business AI capabilities at announced at SAP Sapphire will aim to develop innovative methodologies for businesses to engage end users in new ways with the software, with business process transformation leading the way. Some of these capabilities include:

• Strengthening Human Capital Management, helping organizations recruit, retain, train, and develop their employees, leveraging SAP SuccessFactors.
• Growing Supply Chain Resilience, helping businesses predict, prepare, and respond rapidly to changes in supply and demand, leveraging SAP Transportation Management and SAP Extended Warehouse Management.
• Increasing Efficiency and Compliance in Procurement, enabling end users to better contain costs and increase compliance across markets, leveraging SAP Business Network and SAP Ariba Buying.
• Reducing Risks and Controlling Costs in Finance, helping companies transform finance operations with meaningful insights, recommendations, and automation, leveraging SAP S/4HANA.
• Improving Employee & Customer Experience, helping end users improve productivity and enhance the customer experience, leveraging SAP Digital Assistant.

Addressing the Talent Gap

The news of this collaboration is especially well-received by business that have been facing unprecedented challenges and disruptions due to global socioeconomic and political events over the past three or four years and need innovative solutions to address these emerging problems. In today’s landscape, where even the most resilient organizations are still struggling to address the challenges presented by the “Great Resignation” and “Quiet Quitting,” the need for innovative and effective solutions to engage and retain top talent while helping your business operate in new and more efficient ways is significant.

Prioritizing Data and Analytics

While this is an exciting advancement in generative AI that has the potential to change the future of talent development and business transformation, businesses must prioritize their data processes and strategies to realize true potential in their digital transformation journey.

Our SAP experts will continue to monitor this announcement from SAP and Microsoft. If you’d like to chat with one of our team members about emerging SAP trends and solutions, reach out to us today.