Globally, software companies are exploring use cases and ways to leverage large language models (LLMs) to improve their offerings. Germany-based SAP, which is the world’s leading enterprise resource planning (ERP) software vendor, is also using the technology in multiple ways. “We have been leveraging generative AI capabilities for quite a bit of time,” said Rahul Lodhe, senior director, SAP Artificial Intelligence, in an interview with AIM. 

Prior to the launch of ChatGPT, SAP was already using generative AI in the auditing space for validating contracts and legal notices in their applications. “We had deployed innovative models internally, leveraging Google’s LLMs which were already there,” said Lodhe. 

In this exclusive interaction, Lodhe told AIM that at SAP Labs India in Bengaluru, a ‘Generative AI interest group’ was launched in February 2023. The initiative was a part of the Leader Together Data Science forum to encourage and motivate AI enthusiasts and curious minds across Sap Labs India, to explore various generative AI/foundational models and the power of large language models.

“More than 2,500 colleagues joined the interest group across different roles and domains from developers, product owners, to UX/ UA designers. Interestingly, the Generative AI interest group launched a generative AI hackathon called ‘Idea2Impact’ in March 2023 across SAP Labs India,” Lodhe said.

The objective of the hackathon was to find generative AI use cases in product innovation, developer efficacy and social impact, among other things. “We received an overwhelming response with 179 ideas submitted by over 550 participants, out of which 40 ideas made it to the Proof of Concept (POC) stage and 11 of them were showcased in the Development to Community (DCOM) event to all employees. In fact, one of the ideas also resulted in a patent application.”

Integrating generative AI across core domains

“We’re applying generative AI across SAP’s suite of applications,” said Lodhe. For example, the ERP leader is applying generative AI to SAP Transportation Management. “This capability combines the power of SAP’s document processing solution with generative AI, helping SAP customers in automotive and manufacturing industries to automate the delivery of goods (e.g., freight orders) and avoid mundane, paper-based work,” explained Lodhe. 

Generative AI enables the solution to automate manual checks of goods receipts and delivery notes, reducing the time spent for delivery note processing from 10 minutes to 3 minutes per truck, resulting in 11% of savings. “With up to 70% instant accuracy, generative AI accelerates time to value without requiring customers to invest in dedicated training data or document templates,” he added. 

Not only that, SAP is revolutionising multiple domains by integrating generative AI capabilities. From SAP SuccessFactors and to Sales and Services, Marketing and Communication, SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP Signavio Process Manager, and the SAP Digital Assistant, these advancements are transforming various aspects of the business landscape.

“In a first of many use cases, SAP and Microsoft will work together on new experiences that streamline recruiting and employee development processes in SAP SuccessFactors, including the generation of job descriptions and interview questions leveraging GPT models provided via the Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service.”

Nonetheless, SAP is constantly evaluating new partnership opportunities based on costs, enterprise readiness, economies of scale, addressable market, data privacy, and more. “This is being done so that we can build upon a rich ecosystem of partner technologies and select what fits best for SAP applications and provides most customer value,” said Lodhe. 

SAP’s generative AI strategy

SAP’s generative AI strategy is in alignment with its overall SAP AI strategy, i.e., built for business and deeply embed AI into its business applications and end-to-end processes. “We leverage an ecosystem of strategic partnerships around general-purpose AI tooling. We leverage SAP’s own AI technology to deliver Business AI that is built on business data and SAP’s deep industry and process expertise,” said Lodhe. 

“We envision this to transform the user experience of SAP solutions massively – so that you can define the desired business outcomes, and SAP systems generate insights and optimisations by connecting the relevant business knowledge and process data,” he added. 

Lodhe believes generative AI can make businesses around the world more productive, more efficient and more resilient and has the potential to delight SAP’s end users in a totally new dimension so that they can achieve more and focus on what matters most. “Furthermore, we believe that AI is a useful tool but that humans continue to play a key role in the decision and reasoning processes of enterprises. Therefore, we intentionally design our AI solutions to keep humans in the loop to carefully review and approve AI-generated information,” he concluded.