AI everywhere: How SAP is rewiring finance, supply chains and retail operations
SAP NOW AI conference, Melbourne
Artificial intelligence (AI) is being embedded into more and more business processes and helping to maximise productivity, improve processes and drive strategic innovation.
This was one of the standout themes of the SAP NOW AI Conference, a full-day event held in Melbourne in August that featured business case studies and SAP leaders sharing their first-hand insights.
Many sessions revealed how SAP is focused on driving better business outcomes by incorporating AI, including generative AI, algorithms and agentic AI, throughout its technology platform.
“The world is shifting and we need to keep up with it. In fact, if you're not thinking about AI, your partners, your customers, your competitors, they're all thinking about it,” said Scott Nelson, CX and innovation expert with SAP.
A Copilot in every app
SAP’s generative AI copilot Joule is being integrated across its cloud-based portfolio including S/4HANA, SuccessFactors and Concur, delivering the power and ease of conversational interactions to simplify complex tasks.
Users can ask to see all the purchase requisitions in a system, find out how to change multiple entries and update master data or asset information, for example. Participants learnt that it can be extended with Joule Studio to develop custom agents that automate workflows across SAP and non-SAP systems.
“With Joule, you can just use the conversational experience to without needing to remember your transaction codes or which app you want to use to interact with a particular process,” said Murali Shanmugam, Global Business AI Strategy Advisor, SAP ANZ.
The AI vision extends beyond navigation. SAP is expanding its a library of embedded AI use cases and aiming for 400 by the end of 2025. The focus is on business process automation, covering everything from finance and HR to supply chain and field service.
“As customers and partners, you'll be able to quickly enable those capabilities in your own system and be able to see quicker business benefits,” Shanmugam told the audience.
SAP NOW AI conference, Melbourne
From AI assistants to agents
The conference highlighted how ERP is evolving from a system of record to a system of intelligence with AI. SAP has been working on AI agents for months, developing prototypes in field service, finance and asset maintenance.
Participants were shown how a field service dispatcher agent can connect to SAP’s Field Service Management APIs and check technician availability and skills, simulate optimal schedules and propose an execution plan.
SAP experts also explained how retail agents can monitor shelf cameras and proactively trigger replenishment orders. In finance, they can flag exceptions in accounts receivable and guide managers to the next best action.
AI is transforming supply chains and business operations
SAP is applying the power of AI to transform supply chain processes from cost reduction to better integration with suppliers and autonomous operations.
In a session dedicated to supply chain orchestration, SAP demonstrated how AI agents can anticipate disruptions, identifying supplier delays or weather risks before they hit. As an enterprise solution, it allows stakeholders to see across the entire supply chain.
“It can drill down into the problem so someone can quickly and easily see what's caused the alert, where the problem is and how I can actually fix the problem in the system,” said Steven Chittenden, Head of Supply Chain Management, Solution Advisory, SAP ANZ.
Customer case studies explored how Sigma Healthcare implemented SAP IBP to improve forecast accuracy by 10%, cut planners’ daily workload by two-thirds and increase product availability from 88% to 94%.
“We’re making use of the full features in IBP demand planning, especially the machine learning forecast models like extreme gradient, boosting standard, graded boosting and auto outlier correction,” said David Booker, Strategic Projects Manager at Ego Pharmaceuticals.
Speaker at SAP NOW AI conference, Melbourne
SAP is connecting data, people and partners
Behind every AI use case is a mountain of data. SAP Business Data Cloud is now the key foundation for every customer and the business has prioritised enabling integration of data into the platform.
Data sessions explored SAP’s ecosystem can integrate across hybrid landscapes with connections to AWS, Azure, Google, Snowflake and Databricks.
Customer case studies explored how Energy Queensland, an asset intensive business that covers a diverse landscape, has been on a multi-year transformation of legacy data and business intelligence tools.
It’s now migrated to an SAP data ecosystem and making use of analytics and data management through Databricks has been a paradigm change where data can be kept close to the source, connect all of its data and help drive business insights.
“We're a utility so we're forever dealing with increases in volume from smart metres and other smart assets and so it’s bringing all that together,” said Shaun Black, General Manager Digital Architecture and Strategy at Energy Queensland.
Smart retail with cameras, tech-equipped stores and more
Retail provided some of the most vivid AI demonstrations at the conference.
Savvy retailers are already seeing results. Gibson Guitars credited AI-driven personalisation in its marketing with a 50% revenue increase in the first year of adoption. It’s also enjoyed a 46% uplift in email performance leading to a 10% improvement in overall bottom-line revenue.
Participants heard how SAP’s S.Mart is a fully autonomous, 24/7 concept store that acts an innovation lab for retail technology. It combines electronic shelf labels with overhead cameras and AI to recognise shoppers, detect empty shelves and has an automated checkout.
In the US, retailers are experimenting with store assistants equipped with computer vision AI that can track a customer's journey through the store. The system can prompt staff when customers may need assistance.
The system can tell based on how quickly or directly someone walks to a shelf, how long it's going to be before they’re likely to get to a checkout.