Regulations on AI good as long as we don't hinder innovations: SAP Labs

SAP's latest offering, GROW with SAP, announced in March 2023 is exactly in that direction of targeting the mid-market section of customers, where we will be offering them standard business processes

SAP Labs India, SAP’s largest research and development (R&D) centre globally, is infusing artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities into its entire portfolio. SAP Labs has about 15,000 employees in India, almost 60 per cent of whom are already working on AI-related technologies. Sindhu Gangadharan, senior vice-president and managing director, SAP Labs India, talks about regulations in AI and the company’s strategy in India, in an interview with Ayushman Baruah in Bengaluru, on the sidelines of TechEd, its annual flagship event. Edited excerpts:

Recently, you mentioned doubling your AI talent base by 2024. Are you on track to achieving that?

Since then, we have completed the first cohort of engineers, who came out of IIM Bangalore after their 16 month-long curriculum on AI skill building. So yes, we are on track and just started the second cohort where about 79 people from SAP are part of that. And, when we say we are doubling our AI talent base, it includes people who are currently working on different parts of the technology. We are also building up their skills and continuing to invest and infuse AI across our lines of business. 

How do you plan to tap into the small and medium enterprises (SME) market in India?

SAP’s latest offering, GROW with SAP, announced in March 2023, is exactly in that direction of targeting the mid-market section of customers, where we will be offering standard business processes out of the box. 

The beauty of Grow with SAP is that you also have the business technology platform at the core of it. 

This technology platform allows you to either extend your applications, build something new, or go with the standard. 

You have everything out of the box. This is the combined power of this built-in package of Grow with SAP. Given that India is a huge market when it comes to mid-market customers, it is picking up beautifully as well. In fact, 80 per cent of our customers in India fall into the category of small and midsized customers. 

With US President Joe Biden’s executive order around AI regulations, do you feel India, too, should have similar regulations?    

We are in discussions on this topic even in my role as vice-chairperson of Nasscom. My take is, as long as we don't put brakes on innovation, but have the guardrails in place, we are good. It can't be everything about guardrails. We have to have the right balance between everyone in the ecosystem being able to truly leverage the potential of generative AI. But at the same time, it's important that we are responsible for it. In a lot of areas like healthcare or citizen data, we need to make sure that responsible usage of data is being applied. So, while it is very important to have the guardrails in place, giving scope to innovation is critical as well. Balance is the key.

In the backdrop of a macro-economic slowdown, is SAP feeling any impact in terms of cut in technology budget from clients?

We are driving some of the most critical business processes of the world. Every business is trying to make sure they are very efficient and innovative. So, our processes have become core to their visibility. Overall, there may be some impact on tech spending with the coming of generative AI. But when it comes to clients’ core business process, they have to have the core of SAP to support it. I don’t see any kind of impact on our business whatsoever, but rather post Covid.