Driving the Future: Insights from the NEXTLEVEL SAP BTP & AI Program 2024
On October 22–23, 2024, SAP Labs India in Whitefield, Bengaluru, hosted the NEXTLEVEL SAP BTP & AI Program, a prestigious event that attracted thought leaders, innovators, and SAP’s strategic partners. This event served as a vital platform for SAP’s partners, providing deep insights into the latest technological advancements and applications within the SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) and SAP Business AI.
As a global SAP Gold Partner and an integral event participant, Percipere’s team engaged in extensive discussions with SAP leaders, attended impactful sessions, and left with actionable strategies to elevate our AI-focused vision for clients worldwide.
SAP's Vision: The Power of SAP BTP and Business AI
The event highlighted SAP’s transformative vision of leveraging SAP BTP as a foundation for AI-driven innovation. Through the program, SAP showcased how SAP Business Technology Platform and SAP Business AI are transforming core business functions with embedded AI, seamless integration capabilities, and tools to empower businesses to thrive in an AI-driven world. The event’s agenda went beyond theoretical insights, offering hands-on experience with next-generation tools like SAP Build, Joule (SAP’s newly launched AI copilot), and expansive Embedded AI capabilities.
SAP BTP serves as the technological foundation that powers these AI capabilities, allowing enterprises to expand on existing solutions without sacrificing agility. The recent advancements in SAP Build enable unprecedented integration with S/4HANA Cloud, both Public and Private editions, marking a significant leap in ease of extensibility—whether through in-app or side-by-side integrations. In a world where businesses seek efficient solutions, these advancements in Cloud ERP are essential for organisations adopting low-code solutions to democratise digital innovation within their ranks.
On the AI front, Joule emerged as a revolutionary addition to SAP’s suite. As a Generative AI-powered copilot, Joule integrates deeply within SAP’s ecosystem, offering context-aware insights that allow users to make informed, data-driven decisions. This integration signals SAP’s commitment to embedding intelligent tools within core ERP software, thus enhancing AI in ERP by enabling real-time data access, interpretation, and leverage.
Key Takeaways: A Strategic Path Forward for AI in ERP
For Percipere, the NEXTLEVEL program underscored the importance of positioning SAP Business AI to meet varied client requirements while staying adaptable to industry shifts. The SAP Knowledge Graph, another notable feature presented, is poised to revolutionise data accessibility by interlinking business data through intricate relationship mapping. This tool empowers decision-makers to connect the dots in their operations, yielding insights that were previously challenging to glean.
The program’s roadmap for SAP’s AI journey featured over 100 Embedded AI use cases tailored to different business lines, demonstrating SAP’s commitment to addressing specific industry needs and workflows. This strategic approach ensures that Percipere’s clients can deploy targeted solutions that drive measurable impact.
Embracing Market Trends: AI and Cloud ERP at the Core of Business Evolution
SAP highlighted key market trends reshaping the enterprise technology landscape, with a notable focus on low-code platforms that promote user-driven application development. SAP Build addresses this demand by empowering users to create, automate, and integrate applications within SAP systems seamlessly, thus enabling agile business operations.
Another critical shift is the integration of AI in ERP, with AI capabilities now embedded directly within core ERP systems. This ensures organisations can leverage powerful automation tools and predictive insights without venturing outside their existing ecosystem. By embedding SAP AI within Cloud ERP systems, SAP enables all employees—not just specialised data scientists or IT teams—to access and utilise these capabilities, driving operational efficiency and innovation.
Valuable Exchanges: Learning from Industry Experts on SAP BTP and AI
One of the event’s most compelling aspects was the knowledge exchange between SAP’s global leads in Business AI and trusted partners. This interaction offered a comprehensive view of SAP BTP capabilities and allowed for transparent discussions on strengths, opportunities, and areas for growth within the SAP ecosystem. Percipere’s team took a particular interest in executive feedback sessions, where partners shared real-world challenges and insights on optimising SAP BTP and AI solutions for diverse client needs.
These exchanges reinforced that SAP’s BTP and AI tools are intended for practical, high-impact use cases across industries. Partners in manufacturing, retail, and finance shared examples of leveraging SAP Business AI to address unique challenges within their business environments. These insights are invaluable as Percipere refines its approach to deploying transformative AI-driven solutions for clients across sectors.
Percipere's Vision: A Roadmap for AI-Driven Transformation with SAP BTP and SAP Build
Armed with a renewed understanding of SAP’s capabilities and roadmap, Percipere has set a clear trajectory for driving customer success through SAP BTP and Business AI. One of our key initiatives is an in-house SAP Business AI R&D initiative that will allow our teams to experiment with and master the latest features in SAP BTP and AI functionalities. This project will also serve as a testing ground for integrating AI in ERP systems into Percipere’s pre-sales and delivery models, ensuring we bring relevant and innovative solutions directly to clients.
Aligned with SAP’s advancements, Percipere aims to leverage tools like Joule and SAP Build to foster seamless automation and data insights, enabling clients to make informed decisions and maintain agility in a competitive landscape. Our vision is to bridge AI capabilities with our clients’ unique operational needs, ensuring that each solution is both impactful and responsible.
Staying Future-Ready in an AI-Driven Cloud ERP Landscape
As SAP’s BTP and AI technologies continue to evolve, the future of enterprise technology lies in intelligent, adaptable, and deeply integrated solutions. The NEXTLEVEL SAP BTP & AI Program was instrumental in providing a deeper understanding of how SAP’s tools are positioned to support organisations in leading their industries. Equipped with these insights, Percipere is committed to leveraging SAP BTP and Business AI to empower clients with AI-driven tools that simplify complexities, optimise workflows, and deliver measurable value.
The journey ahead is clear: by continuing to innovate and align strategically with SAP’s advancements, Percipere will support businesses in navigating the complexities of an AI-driven world, empowering them to stay future-ready and competitive. This event laid a strong foundation for Percipere’s next steps, and we are excited to put these insights into action for our clients globally.
