The Age of AI ERP transformation: Highlights from the Melbourne SAP NOW AI conference
Pictured: Craig Lanigan, Ram Kalyanasundaram, Ian Harvison, Nick Blamey, at SAP NOW conference, Melbourne
More than ever, AI and data-driven transformations are reshaping ERP, supply chains, customer experience and retail, creating the foundations for a new era of intelligent enterprises.
This was the unifying theme of the SAP NOW AI Conference, a full-day event held in Melbourne in August that featured a broad mix of speakers from Australian and New Zealand businesses, SAP leaders and AI experts.
Across more than 40 sessions, business leaders drawn from mining, healthcare, utilities and retail discussed how SAP and technology can connect every part of an organisation and deliver end-to-end transformation by bringing together AI, data and applications.
AI everywhere – from copilots to agents
AI is no longer experimental but embedded in everyday tools, from SAP’s Joule copilot to emerging AI agents designed to help automate finance, HR and field service roles.
Sessions explored how major brands that are utilising AI are saving time, fuelling growth and transforming their customer experience (CX) — and the time is now to act.
Gibson Guitars has embraced the power of AI to improve personalisation and seen a 50% revenue boost, while SA Power Networks is now able to mine 50 years of data in seconds to power insights and boost efficiency.
“The world is shifting and we need to keep up with it. In fact, if you're not thinking about it, your partners, your customers, your competitors, they're all thinking about it,” Scott Nelson, CX and innovation expert at SAP, told the audience.
Data as the foundation of transformation
Without trusted, well-governed data, ERP migrations and AI initiatives risk falling short, making data strategy the cornerstone of digital success. Sessions showed how brands that take a data-first approach can de-risk transformation programmes and unlock value more quickly.
Mitre 10 New Zealand is working with Syniti, part of Capgemini, to replace fragmented ERP systems and modernise its business processes. Energy Queensland shared how it is building a flexible data fabric using SAP Business Data Cloud integrated with Databricks.
ERP modernisation with speed and flexibility
Modern ERP transformations demand both urgency and pragmatism. Participants heard how enterprises that approach transformation selectively, while embedding intelligence into everyday processes, are best placed to succeed.
The SAP Finance & Spend showcase demonstrated how modern ERP systems are embedding intelligence directly into finance and procurement.
Mining company GM3 delivered a full cutover in just eight months, migrating to S/4HANA, Success Factors while also rolling out a new corporate brand across its operating mines.
Amanda Crehan, General Manager of Development at GM3, described the balancing act of maintaining operational safety while simultaneously standing up an entirely new organisation.
Pictured: Sussan Lam, SAP NOW Conference, Melbourne
Supply chain and operations – efficiency, resilience and people
Supply chain and operations sessions explored how SAP delivers powerful improvements in supply planning, digital field service and AI forecasting and is delivering efficiency while also addressing workforce shortages and skills challenges.
Business case studies features Sigma Healthcare implemented SAP Integrated Business Planning (IBP) Response and Supply to replace manual spreadsheets supply planning and improved forecast accuracy, lifted product availability and reduced inventory days by 10.
In another example, UGL applied Field Service Management (FSM) technology to increase compliance and visibility across its field operations and the company is now piloting AI-powered inspection tools.
Sustainability embedded in business processes
Procurement and finance sessions demonstrated how these teams can leverage SAP tools, integrated business planning and AI copilot capabilities to streamline work and align with sustainability goals.
SAP’s spend management showcase demonstrated how buyers can use tools like Joule in guided sourcing to evaluate suppliers by risk and sustainability scores — finding suppliers where their risk level is pretty low and their sustainability score is pretty high.
The focus was on embedding carbon and compliance data alongside cost and quality criteria so sourcing decisions can support sustainability goals rather than sitting as a separate initiative.
Human-centric transformation
Mining and utilities panels highlighted the pressure of an ageing workforce, with half of mining engineers set to retire within a decade.
Companies are responding with creative recruitment, reskilling and new training models — from pilots and athletes retrained as operators to VR simulations that accelerate learning and improve safety.
There’s potential for reskilling programmes to be accelerated with virtual reality simulations that boost safety and engagement among employees.
The message was clear: technology can extend capability, but long-term transformation will fail without strategies to empower and sustain the workforce.
Integration and ecosystem partnerships
The conference highlighted how SAP customers are increasingly integrating SAP and non-SAP data to create unified insights and enable advanced analytics.
Examples include Energy Queensland’s work with SAP Business Data Cloud and Databricks to create a lakehouse model that integrates smart meter and asset data to produce new insights such as electric vehicle charging patterns and unusual usage anomalies.
At a broader level, SAP highlighted partnerships with Microsoft and enables integration with AWS, Snowflake and Google, underlining its strategy of supporting an open ecosystem rather than a closed platform.
Trust in AI and digital agents is essential
Customer experience and retail sessions emphasised that trust is central to AI adoption.
Scott Nelson, CX and innovation expert, said brands are learning that customers will only embrace AI when it feels authentic and supportive, not intrusive. The lesson is that AI must augment customer engagement rather than overwhelm it.
In retail, PwC’s Brian Man noted that the shift to agent-to-agent commerce, where consumer-owned AI tools negotiate directly with retailers, will succeed if people have confidence in how their data is managed and the outcomes these agents deliver.
Sessions highlighted how SAP can help businesses with the shift to AI agent commerce, offering the technology that power the agents, tools such as Joule to help with configurations, and prediction and forecasting algorithms.
Retail reinvention
Retail sessions highlighted how physical stores are regaining importance while digital innovation reshapes engagement underpinned by SAP.
PwC’s Brian Man argued that the store experience is becoming a competitive differentiator, noting how overseas retailers are reinvesting in physical sites bolstered with technology to improve sales, customer experience and stock management.
Ruth Tan, Industry Solutions Advisor, SAP ANZ, demonstrated how S/4HANA Cloud for Retail brings together store operations, merchandising, procurement, sales and finance on a single platform, with AI assistance to streamline replenishment and decision-making.