Gen-AI will be transforming our world: Juergen Mueller, CTO, SAP SE

India is fuelling the technological era, proclaimed Sindhu Gangadharan, SVP and MD of SAP Labs India. We will be $1 trillion economy by 2030. India will have 1.5 million cloud professionals by 2025. 16% of global AI talent pool is from India. India is also home to the largest developer community. She was speaking at the launch of the SAP TechEd 2023 event held in Bangalore, India, and welcomed everyone after an energizing dance troupe experience. Sindhu is also Head, SAP User Enablement, and Vice Chairperson, NASSCOM.

At SAP TechEd 2023, there are 12 session formats, 1,000+ hours of education, and 500+ SAP speakers from across the world. Among them, there will be 70+ external speakers, and 500+ sessions. We also have the Developer Community as the star of the evening. Sindhu added that AI represents once in a lifetime opportunity today.

Juergen Mueller, Executive Board Member and Chief Technology Officer, SAP SE, said that we have seen a huge leap forward in Gen-AI. It will be transforming our world. We are now applying this through SAP Business AI. We will also look at SAP BTP. SAP is your best friend to deploy reliable Gen-AI. We have delivered over 1K items since last year. We have 22,000 live BTP customers in the cloud. We are onboarding the experience as quickly as possible. We also have Joule AI to help you out. It is integrated across all SAP solutions. Later, Michael Ameling, SAP was successfully added to the BTP account via Joule.

Kalyan Kumar, HCL Tech, was the first invited on stage. He stated that we are doing SAP BTP. We can continue to innovate and expand, and scale. It is an amazing collaboration between HCL Tech and SAP. One example was the automated sales return capability. We have made Gen-AI as part of the function. We can change the whole integration layer by bringing conversations. We are also looking at value attraction, and build new apps. We also have AquaSphere, which is about using intelligence for the usage of water. HCL Tech was first to join Water Resilience Coalition and endorse the CEO Water Mandate.

Next up, Ms. Leticia Nunes, SDW, Brazil, said that they have tried different things with water. We use solar energy to purify water. We need to put lot of effort for funding. We need to have the highest impact for the customers money. The app is also looking at KPIs. It works on SAP BTP. Mueller said that the first pillar is app development.

SAP Build Code is here!

Michael Ameling, SAP, talked about app development. SAP Build has become the fastest growing app, with 172K learners, and 10K customers. Today, we are announcing the SAP Build Code. It has fusion development, generative AI capabilities, etc. It uses cloud app programming (CAP). Sangeeta will create an app live on stage. SAP Build is meant for professionals and other developers to create new apps. Joule is integrated into the SAP Build Code. Ameling noted that SAP Build uses CAP in the background to build the solution. You can register at https://url.sap/t2oq7e, should you wish.

SAP Build, SAP Build Code, and SAP BTP ABAP environment can now be used to develop anything. Thereafter, we can preview Gen-AI with the ABAP Cloud. ABAP code can be used inside SAP BTP and SAP S/4 HANA. SAP BTP's Developers Guide is very useful for everyone. It includes pro-code offerings on SAP BTP for CAP development. Fusion Development is possible with SAP Build.

Sakaya, GM, Hitachi Hi-tech, noted that they have been deploying SAP since the last 20 years. We need to reduce complexity. We used S/4 HANA. We reduced the add-ons to 800 from over 9,000. We also aim to automate RPA. We are planning to enhance the process integration. We are now using SAP BTP, and build smart global digital processes. SAP BTP can be useful tool to accelerate business processes. Automation and integration are also very important.

Mueller stated that SAP has Signavio that enables you to do that, and more. We can now check the process anomalies with SAP Build. Enterprise automation also has SAP Signavio. SAP Build, and SAP Integration Suite are also essential.

Rise and shine!

Further, Rucha Nanavati, CIO, Mahindra Group, said that we need to rise for a more equal world. We need to rise to create value. We need to rise to be future ready! We use SAP BTP Build, and, we also use the citizen developers. The SAP Integration Suite has helped connect, and integrate. Re-usability is a major KPI for us.

The outcome has seen 900 workdays saved, and 400 developer workdays saved. We have seen 35% gain in developer community. We have saved over 13,000 trees so far. AI at large is big part of our work. We are now moving towards AI-based documents. We are translating and proposing repair solutions. We are also SuccessFactor users.

Mueller said we are using Gen-AI for SDW. We plan to make the solution available in H1-2024. He also talked about SAP Integration Suite with Edge Integration Cell (EIC). The EIC allows processing data in private landscapes. You can comply with local regulations. With SAP Signavio, SAP Build, and Enterprise Automation, we also have Joule, the AI copilot.

Ms. Micky Lawter, President, Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), said that WTA has amassed rich throes of data since 1973. We have now developed a data transformation strategy. This is only the beginning!

Mueller noted that SAP launched the SAP Datasphere on March 2023. It has business data fabric. SAP Datasphere unifies all your data. It works with your data infrastructure. Datasphere has low-code interface for analytical queries. Now, we are announcing SAP Datasphere Semantic Onboarding. Self-service can be available within and outside organizations.

SAP HANA Cloud is one of the most adopted apps. It also takes centre stage with the SAP HANA Cloud Vector engine. The general availability is Q1-2024. It helps combine LLMs with all the data. You can now tap into all mission-critical data. Sabrina talked about SAP Vector, as well. There are vector embeddings and similarity search.

Next, Ms Dharani, talked about analytics. We are offering 63% faster rendering. Lightweight viewer will be announced in Q1-2024. We have also provided 60% improvement in filtering, 74% increase in initial load, and 98% faster navigation. We have also added Just Ask, where, you can get the answers automatically. We are continuing to invest in the model that we had last year. From Q1-24, users will be able to use the enriched new model.

Digital transformation journey

Michael Nilles, Chief Digital & Information Officer (CDIO), Henkel, stated that SAP Build is an app used by Henkel. BTP has been our innovation platform. We are going with SAP BTP. Henkel has two businesses -- industrial and consumer products.

We started on the digital transformation journey four years ago. We have been long-term SAP customers. He spoke about a case around trade promotion management (TPM) and optimization (TPO). They are a key discipline in CPG. We manage and optimize all promotional activities. Gen-AI starts to disrupt the economy and society, very similar to the Internet, at lightspeed. We are now using TPO with Just Ask. It uses explainable AI. Mueller said that we have seen the role analytics plays. He summarized the SAP Analytics Cloud.

Business AI

Next, Walter Sun, Head of AI, SAP, said we are at the forefront of business AI. There are a set of services for the AI developers on SAP BTP. This includes AI Foundation. We are now announcing the release of the Generative AI Hub. It will be available from Dec. 2023 onward. It provides access, trust and control, and toolsets. Longer term, we are building LLMs, and expanding our partnerships and investments. We also have a collaboration with Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI.

Joule is the co-pilot that truly understands your business. SAP Business AI includes AI Foundation and embedded AI capabilities. SAP has many partners, including Anthropic, AWS, Cohere, Databricks, DataRobot, Google Cloud, IBM, Microsoft, etc.

Partners at work!

Finally, Julia White talked about SAP and Microsoft bringing together the power of business AI. Scott Gunthrie, Microsoft, said that we are working to provide customers better apps. Our joint work opportunity will help customers stay ahead of the curve. SAP's partnership is very important to Microsoft.

Chip R Klein, Deloitte, said that as technology evolves, we are bringing newer capabilities. We are complementing that with Deloitte insights. We have also created a finance AI engine.

White noted that SAP partners are doing quite a lot. We also have SAP DataRobot AI models into SAP ERP, etc. There was a partner solution demo. We can use DataRobot to build a predictive model. SAP Build can integrate them into super charts. Users can also upload invoices, so, you know those that need attention. You can use DataRobot with SAP Build. We are focusing on upskilling and learning. We have already taught 1.5 million out of 2 million, by 2025. We now have agile AI cloud solutions.

Later, the Developer Keynote showed us how the developers are today making things real with AI, cloud computing, and terminal technology.

Announcements

At the SAP TechEd event in 2023, SAP announced a comprehensive series of generative AI capabilities and advancements aimed at empowering developers of all skill levels to supercharge businesses in the age of AI. AI Foundation on SAP BTP, a new one-stop shop for developers to create AI- and generative AI-powered extensions and applications on SAP BTP, will further help increase developers’ impact and efficiency. AI Foundation includes everything developers need to start creating business-ready AI tools on SAP BTP.

SAP also joined the Stanford HAI (Institute for Human-Centered AI) Corporate Affiliate Program. Researchers and engineers at SAP will work with Stanford’s academic community, including research faculty and students, on the intersection of generative AI and business.

EverEnviro Resource Management adopted SAP S/4 HANA to boost business operations. The initiative titled 'Saksham'—meaning 'Competent'—reinforces the group's commitment to harness technology for excellence in business processes.