SAP bets big on GenAI driven by strong demand for digital transformation

German software major SAP is betting on generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in India as it announced plans to turn every developer into a GenAI developer, at TechEd 2023, its flagship event held in Bengaluru. 

This is driven by a strong demand for AI-led digital transformation across clients in the country, 80 per cent of whom belong to the small and medium enterprise (SME) 

segment. 

The company highlighted a series of GenAI advancements aimed to empower developers to boost businesses in the era of AI.

“The innovations we are launching at SAP TechEd are from AI-infused pro-code tools to a one-stop shop to create generative AI extensions and applications on the SAP business technology platform. We are supporting developers in the AI revolution and providing them with resources they need to transform the way businesses run,” said Juergen Mueller, chief technology officer (CTO) and member of the executive board of SAP.

SAP has launched Build Code Solutions that offer AI-powered productivity tools for developers, optimised for Java and JavaScript development. SAP Build Code also leverages the power of its new GenAI co-pilot referred to as Joule, to boost productivity.

SAP said good data is the foundation of good AI and SAP HANA Cloud continues to drive innovation in the data space. It adds new vector database features to its multi-model offerings at no additional cost.

In the context of SAP’s growth in India, Julia White, chief marketing & solutions officer and member of the executive board, said the India market is unique as it has a lot more local competitors and software-as-a-service (SaaS) players. “So, the market dynamics are a bit different but the shape of business in India is pretty consistent with global norms,” White told Business Standard.  Speaking about the company’s vision in embedding its solutions with AI, White said that it already has AI integrated across its portfolio of offerings. The company has about 21,000 customers using different types of AI services offered by the company.

For SAP, some of its key innovations are driven out of India. 

At the dawn of the AI era, SAP is investing and expanding in India both from a market opportunity and talent perspective.

“The reason to build TechEd in India is because many of our developers, customers, and partners are in India,” White said.

SAP Labs is also partnering business schools in India to bridge the industry-academia gap and boost AI-related skills in the market.

Recently, it signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore (IIIT-B) to enable upskilling and ensure talent remains at the forefront of innovation. The strategic partnership will help in joint research on specific industrial topics and challenges. This will further help in continuous upskilling on niche technology topics. SAP also launched ‘AI Foundation’, a new offering for developers to create AI and GenAI-enabled extensions and applications, to further boost developers’ efficiency.

As part of its commitment to upskill two million professionals by 2025 and provide free AI learning content, SAP launched new role-based certifications and has free learning resources for back-end developers.