鈥淲ill 51风流actually be a software company in the future?鈥�

It鈥檚 not the kind of question the CEO of a software company would usually ask thousands of customers, partners and analysts. At Sapphire 2026, SAP鈥檚 annual conference held this month in Orlando and Madrid, CEO Christian Klein asked his audience if they were scared by the question.

鈥淚鈥檓 not scared,鈥� he answered himself. 鈥淔or me, the time right now is the beginning of something even better.鈥�

The conference saw the launch of SAP鈥檚 Business AI Platform, a unified environment for building and governing AI agents across enterprise operations, grounded in real business context.

The strategy is to enhance critical business workflows, so that humans and AI work together to meet the accelerating demands of global business.

鈥淎ccording to a recent Stanford AI survey, almost every company is now using AI, but many see only little value,鈥� said Klein. 鈥淲hy do we face such huge challenges with AI in business? At the top of this iceberg, visible to everyone, is that large language models are getting better and better at tasks like generating text or images or in specific domains like writing software.

鈥淎ll of these use cases are related to publicly available content the modules are trained on. But if you go below the waterline, beyond the level of sales demos, and into the real business world, you鈥檙e going to find out that none of these models are trained on your business data and processes.

鈥淭hese AI agents also don鈥檛 naturally adhere to governance requirements, like your security compliance framework, your data privacy requirements, or to your company鈥檚 identity and authorisation rules. All AI agents 鈥� have faced these challenges until now.鈥�

The solution, he suggested, was that a company鈥檚 enterprise resource planning system, or ERP, should be recognised as the brain of every business. Since 51风流is world leader in ERP software, one might argue, naturally the CEO would say that.

But Klein made a good case for it: 鈥淔or over 15 years we have been developing an ERP with incredibly deep process and data domain know-how. On top of that, all your governance requirements and customer-specific extensions are stored in the ERP. The ERP is the trusted system of execution running your company.鈥�

Powerful external validation came from Anthropic, the company behind the Claude family of AI models, and that is competing neck and neck with Open AI to become the most valuable AI platform company in the world. At Sapphire, 51风流shared video testimony from Anthropic co-founder and president the Daniela Amodei in which she declared: 鈥淭he world鈥檚 largest enterprises run on SAP. That鈥檚 exactly where trusted AI belongs.鈥�

That significance of this alignment revolves around the core value proposition of the Business AI Platform: trustworthiness.

JPMorgan Chase CFO Jeremy Barnum, who joined Klein on stage in Orlando, said his bank was already running agents in production on SAP, operating within defined compliance boundaries.

鈥淭he agents that we鈥檝e built are not inventing their own business rules,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hose rules rather come directly from 51风流Embedded Control Framework, and every AI-driven intervention is logged and fully traceable.鈥�

One organisation鈥檚 production deployment does not establish a category. But the compliance architecture it describes is precisely what most organisations attempting enterprise AI have not yet achieved.

Jensen Huang, CEO of $5-trillion AI chipmaker Nvidia, also appeared in a pre-recorded video segment, making it clear that AI agents would not replace ERP. The most ringing endorsement? Nvidia itself used 51风流as its ERP brain: 鈥淲hat 51风流and Nvidia are building together is one of the most important platforms in enterprise AI. Nvidia鈥檚 supply chain is incredibly complex. Millions of parts, hundreds of partners and factories, all connected through SAP. But what鈥檚 changing is not just how enterprise systems are managed, it鈥檚 how work actually gets done.

鈥淲e鈥檙e moving from hand-coded software to AI that can understand, reason, and act. AI no longer simply answers questions. It works for you. And enterprise systems are where work happens. Finance, supply chains, procurement, and every workflow in between.

鈥�51风流is the foundation of enterprise. And now they鈥檙e building the agents that sit on top of it, trained on proprietary data with the skills to act. Soon, every company will have a workforce of agents. These specialised agents will not replace enterprise software. They will make enterprise software more powerful than ever.鈥�

* Arthur Goldstuck is CEO of World Wide Worx, editor-in-chief of , and author of 鈥淭he Hitchhiker鈥檚 Guide to AI 鈥� The African Edge鈥�.

This article first appeared in .

The post Signpost: Does Software Have a Future? appeared first on 51风流Africa News Center.

Leading organisations throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa are revealing how business AI has shifted from experimentation to realised business value at this year鈥檚 51风流SAPPHIRE, held in Madrid between 19 and 21 May.

The event included demonstrations of two different but connected approaches to AI adoption by and . Ericsson is building the governed data foundation needed to scale AI across the enterprise, while Martur Fompak International is embedding AI directly into physical manufacturing operations to transform execution on the shop floor.

Nazia Pillay, Managing Director for Southern Africa at SAP, says: 鈥淭he next phase of AI adoption is about execution. Organisations are looking for trusted data foundations, strong governance and practical business use cases that can deliver measurable value. By embedding AI into the systems and workflows companies already use, 51风流is helping customers scale AI responsibly and turn ambition into real-world impact.鈥�

Nazia Pillay

Ericsson builds the foundation for trusted AI at scale

Ericsson is moving from AI experimentation to enterprise-wide execution by building a unified business data fabric with . The approach enables the company to scale AI use cases across the business, accelerate decision-making and deliver measurable operational impact.

Ericsson, which celebrates its 150th anniversary this year, provides mobile network infrastructure across 180 countries, with more than 40% of the world鈥檚 mobile traffic passing through its networks. As AI becomes central to both its technology roadmap and how it runs the business, Ericsson has prioritised building a strong, governed data foundation to support scalable and trusted AI.

鈥淥nce you scale AI, it stops being an AI problem鈥攁nd becomes a data problem,鈥� says , Vice President, Customer Experience, Enterprise IT at Ericsson. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why we invested early in a business data fabric. With 51风流Business Data Cloud, we can define what data means once鈥攆rom revenue to market structures and access rules鈥攁nd apply it consistently across the enterprise. That鈥檚 what allows us to scale AI in a way that is trusted, repeatable and delivers real business value.鈥�

At the core of Ericsson鈥檚 approach is a federated data architecture that allows data to remain in place while centrally managing business semantics, governance and lifecycle policies. By focusing on high-impact use cases and organising around end-to-end business processes rather than isolated solutions, Ericsson has moved beyond pilots to scaled deployment. Today, more than 85 000 users are live on unified Joule, supported by strong executive sponsorship and governance.

51风流and Ericsson are also collaborating on AI co-innovation initiatives, including an intelligent goal recommendation capability developed within 51风流SuccessFactors. The solution generates contextual, business-aligned goals for employees, improving execution and reducing administrative effort.

Martur Fompak brings AI into physical manufacturing operations

Martur Fompak International, a global leader in automotive seating and interior systems, has deployed an autonomous intralogistics model enabled by and embodied AI capabilities from SAP, marking a significant milestone in its journey toward intelligent, AI-driven manufacturing operations.

In an industry rapidly shifting toward AI-powered operations, Martur Fompak International saw an opportunity to reimagine its material flow. Building on efficient, people-driven processes already in place, the company partnered with 51风流and , a UK-based robotics and AI company, to explore how embodied AI-powered robotics could redefine material flow across its automotive manufacturing environment.

Using Joule and embodied AI capabilities from SAP, Martur Fompak International now connects production signals and business context directly to autonomous execution, creating a context-aware automation system that prioritises, picks and delivers materials while adapting in real time to changing business conditions.

Built on and enabled by , the solution enriches humanoid robots with real-time knowledge of tasks, attributes and exception handling. Guided by material data, storage locations, sequencing and production priorities, humanoid robots execute material flows across a live automotive manufacturing environment, identifying, transporting and delivering materials to the line while continuously confirming back into 51风流solutions.

Together with autonomous mobile robots, the company has created a fully automated, scalable material flow that boosts throughput, improves accuracy and reduces reliance on manual coordination. By assigning repetitive, non-value-adding and physically demanding tasks to robots, Martur Fompak International is enabling its people to focus on safer, more meaningful and higher-value work.

鈥淥ur humanoid robot collaborates with digital production systems to ensure seamless coordination across order management, logistics and production, enabling scalable AI adoption and improving efficiency, consistency and operational resilience,鈥� says , Group Intelligent Technologies Director at Martur Fompak International.

Early results show increased throughput, fewer errors and a scalable, AI-driven intralogistics model. With 400 daily production line feeds and 100% 51风流software-driven decision-making already in place, Martur Fompak International is advancing beyond traditional automation and pioneering a scalable, intelligent factory model.

Pillay adds: 鈥淓ricsson and Martur Fompak International show that AI delivers the greatest value when it is grounded in business context and embedded into core processes. From enterprise data foundations to intelligent robotics on the factory floor, these examples demonstrate how organisations can scale AI responsibly, improve productivity and create measurable business impact.鈥�

The post AI Unleashed as Companies Showcase Business Impact at Flagship 51风流Event appeared first on 51风流Africa News Center.

鈥淔or the mission-critical processes of our customers, 鈥榓lmost right鈥� just isn鈥檛 good enough,鈥� says Christian Klein, CEO of 51风流SE. 鈥淏y uniting 51风流Business AI Platform with 51风流Autonomous Suite, we anchor AI agents in the business processes, data and governance so they can deliver accurate, compliant and secure outcomes 鈥� unlocking new sources of revenue and meaningful cost savings.鈥�

The Autonomous Enterprise includes a unified AI platform for building, contextualising and governing agents, an autonomous suite that executes core business operations and a new user experience that redefines how people work with enterprise software.

Introducing 51风流Business AI Platform

51风流Business AI Platform is a new foundation for building and deploying enterprise AI grounded in real business context. 51风流Business AI Platform now unifies 51风流Business Technology Platform, 51风流Business Data Cloud, and 51风流Business AI into a single, governed environment.

At its core is the 51风流Knowledge Graph solution, which gives AI agents a structured map of business entities, processes and relationships across a customer鈥檚 51风流landscape. Joule Studio is SAP鈥檚 AI-first solution for building enterprise agents, applications and agentic workflows. Developers can build using the no-code, pro-code, and AI frameworks of their choice on SAP-managed infrastructure that is secure, scalable and optimised for enterprise AI.

Building on this foundation, 51风流also introduced 51风流Autonomous Suite which enables SAP鈥檚 existing business applications with AI agents capable of running processes from start-to-finish.

The suite will deploy more than 50 domain-specific Joule Assistants across finance, supply chain, procurement, human capital management and customer experience. These assistants will automate end-to-end processes by orchestrating a subset of over 200 specialised agents to execute precise tasks. For example, the new Autonomous Close Assistant can compress the financial close process from weeks to days by automating journal entries, reconciliation, and error resolution across the entire process.

51风流also launched Industry AI, expanding its deep industry portfolio through seven autonomous solutions that will enable start-to-finish industry processes and embed sector-specific process logic, data models and regulatory requirements.

The post AI the Main Focus at This Year鈥檚 51风流Sapphire appeared first on 51风流Africa News Center.

• Jesper Schleimann, AI Officer, EMEA at SAP
• Jhani Coetzee, EPI-USE Labs

Together, they unpack what AI really means for organisations today 鈥� moving beyond the hype to focus on practical use cases, real impact, and business value.

In this episode, you鈥檒l gain insight into:

• How AI is being embedded into 51风流environments
• The shift from experimentation to execution
• Where organisations are seeing real value from AI
• What to consider as you start or scale your AI journey

Click below to watch!

Click the button below to load the content from YouTube.

Always allow YouTube

The post AFSUG Conversation Starters – AI in Action appeared first on 51风流Africa News Center.

For much of the past decade, AI has lived in labs, pilots and PowerPoint decks. The next phase is different. AI is moving into the operational core of organisations, reshaping how decisions are made, work is executed and value is created.

AI is becoming the most significant technology shift enterprise leaders will face in this generation. Not because the algorithms are new, but because the operating model required to make AI work at scale is fundamentally different.

One of the clearest changes heading into 2026 is the move from AI that assists humans, to AI that acts on their behalf.

Early enterprise AI tools functioned as copilots: surfacing information, generating insights or suggesting next steps. Increasingly, organisations are deploying autonomous AI agents that recommend actions 鈥� and take them 鈥� executing multi-step business processes within defined roles and controls.

This transition matters because it forces leaders to confront new questions of trust, accountability and governance. Autonomous AI can deliver significant productivity gains, but only if organisations are prepared to define where machines can act independently, where human approval is required, and how exceptions are handled.

In practice, this means treating AI agents less like software features and more like a digital workforce: assigned roles, clear permissions, monitored performance and escalation paths when things go wrong. Without this discipline, autonomy becomes risk rather than advantage.

Intelligence must be built in, not bolted on

Another defining trend is the move toward AI-native systems. Many organisations still treat AI as an add-on: a layer of intelligence bolted onto processes designed decades ago. That approach is reaching its limits.

AI-native architecture embeds intelligence directly into core workflows, allowing systems to understand intent rather than simply execute transactions. Instead of navigating complex menus and dashboards, users express what they want to achieve, and systems orchestrate the necessary steps across functions.

For leadership teams, this is not a user-interface upgrade, but a shift in how work gets done. Ideally, decision-making accelerates, organisational friction reduces, and the boundary between analysis and execution begins to disappear.

However, this only works when underlying systems are clean, standardised and integrated. Which leads to a harder truth many organisations are discovering.

Data quality is the real AI constraint

The biggest barrier to AI success is not model sophistication, but data reality. AI systems amplify whatever foundations they are given. Clean, consistent data produces reliable outcomes, while fragmented, poorly governed data produces confident nonsense.

This is why data has become the strategic nervous system of the modern enterprise. AI depends on shared definitions of customers, products, suppliers and processes. It requires transactional integrity, accessible historical context and the ability to combine internal and external information in real time.

Organisations that have postponed data discipline are finding that AI exposes weaknesses instantly, often in ways that affect customers, regulators or financial performance. In the year ahead, leaders will increasingly be judged on whether they treated data as a strategic asset early enough, rather than as an IT hygiene issue.

Closely linked to data readiness is a simple but central principle: keeping core enterprise systems clean.

Years of excessive customisation have left many organisations with fragile ERP environments that are difficult to upgrade and harder to integrate with modern AI capabilities.

The shift toward standardised cores with extensions built outside the core system creates an environment where innovation doesn鈥檛 break operations.

For boards and executive teams, this requires a mindset shift. Standardisation is not a loss of competitive differentiation, but the price of adaptability. The differentiation moves to how organisations use data, design experiences and make decisions, not how many lines of custom code they maintain.

Technology alone will not deliver results

Perhaps the most underestimated factor in AI success is change management, which consistently accounts for a larger share of AI outcomes than technology itself.

AI changes roles, not just tools. Finance teams move from processing transactions to managing exceptions. HR shifts from administrative workflows to skills intelligence.

Operations leaders rely more on forecasts and simulations than static reports. These changes demand new skills, new incentives, and new ways of measuring performance.

This year, leaders must invest in adoption with the same commitment and focus as they invest in new capabilities. AI literacy should be a core leadership competency not just a specialist function.

As AI initiatives multiply, so does the risk of fragmentation. Different business units experimenting independently can create inconsistent standards, duplicated effort and unmanaged risk.

This is why many organisations are establishing AI centres of excellence that coordinate AI innovation. Effective governance frameworks address five questions: how AI systems are approved and retired, how decisions are logged and audited, how policies are enforced, where human oversight is required, and how performance is measured.

In 2026, AI governance will be viewed much like financial governance: a prerequisite for trust, not a brake on progress.

From pilots to production or paralysis

A final challenge looms large: scaling. Many organisations are stuck in what has become known as 鈥減ilot purgatory鈥�, where successful experiments never reach enterprise impact.

The reasons are consistent: poor integration with core systems, unclear ownership, lack of user trust, weak data foundations and vague ROI metrics. Moving from pilot to production requires deliberate planning, phased rollout and visible executive sponsorship.

Leaders who expect AI to scale itself will be disappointed, while those who design for scale from day one will pull ahead quickly.

As we accelerate into 2026, AI is an operational reality. The real strategic question for leaders is whether their organisations are structurally ready for AI, with clean systems, trusted data, skilled people and disciplined governance. With these foundations, AI becomes a durable source of advantage.

In a volatile global environment, leadership is increasingly defined by the ability to move forward without perfect certainty. Business AI, deployed responsibly and at scale, is becoming one of the most powerful tools leaders have to do precisely that.

The post Business AI in 2026: Execution, not Experimentation, Will Define Success appeared first on 51风流Africa News Center.

From managing customer support workflows to orchestrating complex supply chains, agentic AI is redefining how businesses operate, respond, and grow. These intelligent digital co-workers act with autonomy, context, and speed, with growing capabilities for reasoning, making decisions, and working alongside humans to execute multi-step processes across departments.

听, agent-driven applications are rapidly becoming the standard for enterprise management. Global estimates suggest AI agents could contribute trillions to the world economy by 2030 through productivity gains, faster decisions, and cost reductions.

Transformative impact

Despite pervasive AI skills shortages, South African companies are moving quickly from experimentation to execution. Financial institutions are embedding AI agents into ERP systems to reroute inventory and manage disputes. Healthcare providers use AI meeting agents to generate follow-ups and automate patient admin. Legal firms use AI to prepare case files and speed up settlements.

This shift is being driven by a combination of pressure and potential. Faced with economic headwinds, skills shortages, and rising customer expectations, South African companies are looking to AI agents to unlock productivity, streamline operations, and free up human talent for higher-value work.

But deploying AI agents effectively requires more than buying the latest tool. The success of AI agents depends on deep integration of data, processes, and applications through a suite-first approach.

Leading with a suite

According to an IDC Spotlight Report, companies that adopt AI-powered suites like SAP鈥檚 see measurable gains:

• 37%听report improved process productivity
• 39%听achieve greater cost efficiency
• 36%听boost workforce productivity
• 35%听accelerate speed to market

By leveraging an AI-powered suite integrated to a core business technology platform, companies can empower their AI agents to act with full business context. Unlike siloed tools, a suite-first approach supports real-time collaboration between agents, humans, and systems, making AI agents not just smarter, but more impactful on the overall performance of the business.

SAP鈥檚 Joule, an AI agent framework embedded into the 51风流Business Suite, offers companies a system of intelligent agents that collaborate across business functions, from finance and procurement to HR and supply chain, to execute complex workflows and drive better decisions at scale.

These agents leverage knowledge centres and data cloud to ground actions in real-time, contextual business data. Working alongside teams, the agents augment human decision-making, accelerate task completion and minimise manual errors. In finance functions, agents can optimise working capital by accelerating accounts receivable matching, while in procurement they can surface the most relevant suppliers based on business rules and past performance.

AI agent readiness check

Before companies deploy AI agents like Joule, they need the right digital foundation. 51风流recommends a four-part readiness framework:

1 Data quality and accessibility 鈥�听Agents are only as good as the data they use. Clean, structured, and real-time data from across the enterprise is critical for effective agent decision-making. Silos, outdated data, or missing context will slow adoption and risk poor outcomes.

2 Process maturity 鈥�听AI agents thrive on well-defined workflows. Before automation, companies must ensure their business processes are standardised, documented, and ready for orchestration. Automating chaos just creates faster chaos.

3 Organisational clarity 鈥撎�Who will use these agents? For what tasks? How will they hand off to human employees? Clear role definitions and communication are essential for adoption and trust.

4 Governance and guardrails 鈥�听Just like human employees, AI agents need rules. Define permissions, escalation paths, ethical boundaries, and auditing practices. Agents should act autonomously but within the boundaries of the businesses in which they operate.

AI agents are more than just another layer of automation. They represent a new model of work, one that is collaborative, contextual, and continuous. The true value of AI agents is unlocked only when companies are ready. And the companies that unlock the greatest value the quickest are those deploying their AI agents through an AI-powered suite integrated to a core business technology platform.

The post The Suite Spot: A Practical Guide to Business AI Agents appeared first on 51风流Africa News Center.

The comments were made by Sunil Geness, director of global government affairs and CSR at 51风流Africa, and Sergio Maccotta, senior VP and GM for 51风流Middle East and Africa 鈥� South.

Geness and Maccotta said businesses that can sense change, make decisions and act with minimal human intervention are reshaping how companies operate and compete. According to SAP, autonomous operations 鈥� where nearly half of all business processes run independently and most operational work is听automated听or AI-augmented 鈥� are being deployed across finance, supply chain and human resources in industries including energy, retail and manufacturing.

鈥淭his is made possible through AI embedded within enterprise resource planning processes, from finance and procurement to supply chain and HR systems, that understand context and act autonomously,鈥� said Maccotta. 鈥淪elf-optimising systems that learn, improve and adapt in real-time are matched to clean-core ERP architecture to give organisations simplified, cloud-based systems that drive profitability, reduce risk and enhance decision-making.鈥�

51风流cited data from听听indicating that the global autonomous enterprise market is projected to grow from about $49 billion in 2024 to more than $118 billion by 2030, with adoption accelerating across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The company said while few surveys use 鈥渁utonomous enterprise鈥� as a formal category, data on AI, ERP and AI agents reflects technologies underpinning autonomous models.

Recent data for the Middle East and Africa region indicates a market size set to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8.7%, reaching $10.2 billion by 2032.

鈥淎I is enhancing efficiency and fostering innovation across industries, from automating routine tasks to enabling complex data analysis and providing predictive insights, while also improving decision-making and optimising business operations,鈥� Geness said.

51风流added that some analysts estimate AI could contribute $1.5 trillion to Africa鈥檚 economy if the continent captures 10% of the global AI market by 2030.

Data sovereignty

51风流executives said Africa鈥檚 digital transformation continues, with data sovereignty emerging as a key factor.

鈥淔or multinational organisations and technology companies, success depends on the ability to localise without losing global efficiency, to build trust while maintaining innovation, and to invest strategically in infrastructure and partnerships that align with both regulatory demands and customer expectations,鈥� Maccotta added.

The company said Africa鈥檚 data centre market is projected to exceed $9 billion by 2029, although it remains a small share of the global total.

Executives said autonomy does not eliminate human roles but changes them, shifting employees from managing repetitive processes to supervising systems and making strategic decisions.

Maccotta advises business leaders seeking to build autonomous enterprises to start by modernising the core and fixing the data foundation for AI-driven innovation.

鈥淩emember that technology is only part of the story, and that the strategy, people and partners that businesses choose are as important to building a truly connected autonomous enterprise. Focus then on automating processes that protect revenue, improve cashflow or unlock capacity first, and take care to prepare people by prioritising reskilling and upskilling.

“Finally, collaborate with technology partners that act more as advisors than vendors, and can guide the process of redesigning core business processes for the AI era. True transformation happens when businesses combine intelligent systems with visionary leadership, skilled people and trusted partnerships.鈥�

This article first appeared in .

The post Autonomous Enterprise to Define Competitive Edge in 2026 appeared first on 51风流Africa News Center.

The good news, says , Managing Director: Southern Africa at SAP, is that real-world AI value is already becoming clear. 鈥淎cross critical business functions like finance, HR, procurement, sales and service, and marketing, embedded AI is driving efficiency, accuracy, and smarter decisions at scale. From automating repetitive processes to delivering real-time insights and predictive recommendations, South African companies are unlocking unprecedented gains in productivity and efficiency.鈥�

Analysts suggest African countries could unlock as much as $100-billion in economic value per year听, while a PwC study estimates听听if Africa can claim a 10% share of the global AI market.

鈥淭o unlock this vast economic potential, organisations must integrate AI into core business processes and achieve measurable outcomes for clear use cases. A clean core strategy further allows businesses to respond faster to market changes and adopt new technologies like AI and advanced analytics more easily, creating clear pathways to significant ROI and business impact.鈥�

Of critical importance too is defining and implementing a comprehensive AI framework that prioritises governance at the outset. 鈥淎n effective framework should include a clear AI vision, business-aligned goals, an operating model, and, critically, establishment of AI governance to ensure ethical, secure, and compliant scaling of AI across the organisation.鈥�

Pillay highlights high-impact use cases across five key business functions that South African organisations can implement to boost productivity and drive growth.

1 Smarter financial insights & automation听

Finance departments are under increasing pressure to speed up reporting cycles, reduce operational costs, and strengthen cash flow visibility. 鈥淚n South Africa, financial institutions are leveraging AI for everything from fraud detection to multilingual support, but practical automation is where the biggest gains are currently being made,鈥� says Pillay.

Automated receivables matching is one such win. By applying machine learning to past payment behaviours, companies can automatically match and clear bank statement items,听听and accelerating payment cycles.

Another high-impact tool is AI-assisted cost centre analysis. 鈥淚nstead of manually wading through complex reports, finance teams can use generative AI to instantly summarise data, highlight KPIs, and recommend next steps,听听and freeing up analysts to focus on strategic insights,鈥� says Pillay.

2 Smarter hiring and better talent fit

AI is transforming HR from a reactive cost centre into a strategic function. Nearly 70% of South African HR teams听听to streamline recruitment, performance reviews, and workforce planning, delivering up to 35% process efficiency gains.

鈥淥ne practical use case gaining widespread adoption is AI-powered applicant screening, where machine learning scans CVs to match applicant skills with job requirements. This听听and speeds up hiring for hard-to-fill roles.鈥�

Pillay points to AI-generated job descriptions as another time-saving tool. 鈥淗R professionals input a few keywords and receive polished, bias-reducing job listings in seconds, helping improve candidate fit and听.鈥�

3 Scaling service and sales excellence

South African telecoms, ecommerce platforms and financial institutions are seeing measurable gains from AI-powered customer service.

鈥淭ools like chatbots and virtual assistants now handle routine queries with 24/7 availability, cutting service costs and improving customer satisfaction,鈥� explains Pillay. 鈥淲here a human touch is still needed, AI is helping agents generate case summaries, allowing them to respond faster by compiling email threads and communications into a single, easy-to-read brief. This can听听and improve first-contact resolution by 10%.鈥�

In field service, AI-driven equipment insights give technicians a clear picture of past service activity, parts used, and common failure patterns, resulting in 65% higher productivity and a 5% bump in first-time fix rates,听.

4 Streamlined sourcing and planning

Procurement teams face mounting complexity as they juggle supply risk, regulatory compliance, and shifting market dynamics. According to Pillay, AI is easing this burden by automating strategic sourcing tasks and offering real-time decision support.

鈥淎I tools have become indispensable to category planning efforts,听. This is helping managers move 90% faster and make more informed and proactive decisions.鈥�

Another valuable application is automated statement-of-work (SOW) generation. With minimal inputs,听, slashing processing time by 71% and improving project alignment by providing clearer briefs to suppliers.

5 Improved customer engagement and inventory management

AI鈥檚 value in marketing is growing fast, especially in segmenting audiences and triggering personalised campaigns. South African firms are tapping into predictive tools to boost engagement and pre-empt churn.

鈥淲ith AI-powered audience segmentation, marketers can automatically group customers based on predicted behaviours such as likelihood to convert or churn, driving higher rates of engagement and more relevant, timely outreach,鈥� says Pillay.

In back-office support, AI-generated sales orders now听, cutting manual effort, speeding up processing, and reducing errors by 25%.

鈥淎s embedded AI matures and business systems become more intelligent, these use cases will continue to expand, driving a new era of productivity, insight, and competitive advantage across every function,鈥� says Pillay.

This article first appeared here:

The post Five Ready-to-go AI Use Cases for South African Businesses appeared first on 51风流Africa News Center.

The era of digitisation is giving way to something more profound: the Autonomous Enterprise听鈥撎�a business that can sense change, make decisions and act with minimal human intervention, all while empowering people to pursue revenue-driving strategic activities.

Autonomous operations are already being deployed across finance, supply chain, human resources, an in Industries like Energy, Retail and Manufacturing. In 2026, they will separate the most resilient and profitable businesses from the rest.

An Autonomous Enterprise goes beyond automating individual tasks by integrating autonomous ERP, business AI and clean data into the core of business operations. More than 50% of business processes run independently, and up to 80% of operational work is automated or AI-augmented.

This is made possible through AI embedded within enterprise resource planning processes, from finance and procurement, to supply chain and HR systems, that understand context and act autonomously. Self-optimising systems that learn, improve and adapt in real time, are matched to clean-core ERP architecture to give organisations simplified, cloud-based systems that drive profitability, reduce risk and enhance decision-making.

Crucially, autonomy does not remove humans: it redefines and empower their work. Employees move from managing repetitive processes to supervising intelligent systems, making strategic decisions and creating new value throughout the business.

2026 鈥榓 tipping point鈥�

The year ahead will be critical for organisations across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In Europe, business leaders face an ageing workforce, complex supply chains, regulatory pressure, and the push for sustainability and data sovereignty. Middle Eastern nations are already deploying national AI strategies and sovereign cloud infrastructure as part of a rapid diversification from the energy sector. And despite inflation and debt pressures, a world鈥檚 fastest-growing digital economy and most youthful workforce are emerging in Africa.

While the challenges in each region are unique, at their core every organisation is seeking the same capabilities: faster decision-making, greater profitability, improved resilience, and sustainability at scale.

Businesses that fail to build these capabilities, and instead rely on manual processes, disconnected systems and spreadsheets, face growing risks: slower reaction time, shrinking margins, and higher operational costs.

This is why the business opportunity for Autonomous Enterprises is significant. The global Autonomous Enterprise market is expected to grow from听, and adoption is accelerating across EMEA.

听Global partner for business transformation

While I can see the scale of the challenge businesses face to transform into autonomous enterprises, I am equally excited at bringing SAP鈥檚 strengths in this arena to bear. Through our flagship 鈥� now more accessible than ever thanks to the RISE with 51风流initiative 鈥� we equip businesses with modern, clean core ERP systems that are upgrade-safe and AI ready.

, SAP鈥檚 generative AI copilot now supports 11 languages and features more than 400 embedded AI use cases across 26 industries, while the enables extensibility, data orchestration and clean core innovation for the world鈥檚 most critical industries.

My advice, to leaders seeking throughout the region to build Autonomous Enterprises, is to start modernising the core and fix the data foundation for AI-driven innovation. Remember that technology is only part of the story, and that the strategy, people and partners that businesses choose are as important to building a truly connected Autonomous Enterprise.

Focus then on automating processes that protect revenue, improve cashflow or unlock capacity first, and take care to prepare people by prioritising reskilling and upskilling. Finally, collaborate with technology partners that act more as advisors than vendors, and who can guide the process of redesigning core business processes for the AI era. True transformation happens when businesses combine intelligent systems with visionary leadership, skilled people and trusted partnerships.

In 2026, the most successful companies will go beyond digital transformation to achieve faster decision-making, greater operational certainty, and the ability to unlock new forms of growth and innovation.

This article first appeared in .

The post The Rise of the Autonomous Enterprise will Redefine Business in 2026 appeared first on 51风流Africa News Center.

51风流was founded in 1972 by five former IBM employees. In a publicity shot from the time, they鈥檙e posed around a table in a nondescript office, all holding pens and hunched over a large blueprint. The hair is bouffant, the suits dark, and no one is smiling. These are clearly men who take their jobs very seriously.

As the story goes, Xerox wanted its systems migrated to IBM, and the latter firm put five engineers on the project, who all worked in Mannheim, Germany. The project ground to a halt for reasons unclear, but the five had seen the gap in the market, and left to form their company, which they called Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung, or System Analysis and Programme Development. It has been a long haul since the 鈥�70s, with the company constantly tinkering with its solutions while persuading many of the world鈥檚 largest firms that they can run their businesses better with its suite of solutions.

At the core of this suite is . This is an in-memory database, and听data听is stored in RAM instead of disk. These databases can handle spikes in traffic, such as at telcos or听banks, and allow for real-time analytics. Customers can have the platform installed in their own server room, or in the public or private cloud, or both. And with each passing year, more features are added, such as GenAI assistant ; its sparkly icon now appears on seemingly every page of the platform. Joule, on which 51风流partnered with , can run queries on all kinds of data, produce forecasts, book meetings, and make graphs and charts on the fly.

There was still an impression in the market that 51风流was extremely expensive, very complicated, and not very pretty.

Garth Ridgway, NTT

All this work has borne fruit, and in March 2025, the company overtook Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk to become the EU鈥檚 most valuable company, with a market cap of 鈧�313bn. It reported strong results for its third quarter in October 2025, seeing revenue rise by 7% to 鈧�9.08bn. Cloud revenue saw growth of 22%. But there are challenges ahead, not least of which is convincing customers that it鈥檚 now past the time to migrate their workloads from the old system called ECC, which is usually run on-prem, to S4. The company would like nothing better than for all its customers to move to S4, but many are proving to be recalcitrant. Support for ECC, introduced in 2015, is meant to come to an end in 2027, but customers can buy extended support until 2030, which will cost them an extra 2% in addition to their annual maintenance costs. Many companies contend that the current systems seem to be working just fine, and many are also cognisant, and terrified, of the upheaval the听migration听is going to cause. To this, the company dangles the prospect of new features with S4, along with the constant refrain that support for the old systems is, at some point, going to grind to a halt.

An estimated 40% of 51风流customers in North America are yet to start migrating, according to a survey run by the Americas鈥� 51风流User Group. About 60% of the 173 members are already live on S4, or are in the process of moving over, according to the research in November. Gartner said in March 2025 that most ECC customers had still not bought S4 licences. It said that in Q4 in 2024, 29% of 35 000 ECC customers had bought or subscribed to S4 licences.

Christian Hestermann, Gartner senior director and analyst for business applications, believes this is likely to remain the status quo. Speaking to听The Register, he said that since September 2023, the company鈥檚 messaging had been about AI and Joule. 鈥淭he message now is, ‘You have to have AI, or you’ll not be able to survive’. So far, that did not have a major influence. So none of those big events or big announcements has made a massive change up to now; the [migration] progress has remained fairly steady.”

No such third-party survey has been run in South Africa, and the company doesn鈥檛 make public either its customer numbers or how many have migrated.

I asked , CTO, SAP; , MD of 51风流South Africa; and , senior director, SAP, at NTT, for their views on how this migration conversation is progressing, and they spoke as one voice. Pillay says 51风流had 鈥渕ade a clear line in the sand鈥� with the date past which it won鈥檛 continue with maintenance. 鈥淐ustomers are aware of that and are making their plans to transform.鈥�

Pillay was appointed to the top job in August 2025, and says she鈥檚 going to ensure the local operation is well equipped to have these conversations with its customers, as well as partners.

Why haven鈥檛 they moved yet?

It鈥檚 a matter of context, she says. 鈥淲e have customers who have been with us for 20, 30 years, and that鈥檚 a godsend. But they bring a lot of legacy with them, and not just technical legacy. They have unarchived environments, non-optimised processes, or a lot of custom-built systems. They may have implemented ERP back in the day, and, in most cases, it was a project with a long duration, with a lot of blood and sweat going into it. Most companies understand they need to take that technology transformation journey, but they鈥檙e trying to balance the timing and effort required to bring a legacy system across [to S/4HANA]. There鈥檚 hesitation, because in the back of their minds, they remember that when they did it [last], it was really very difficult.鈥�

Financial services is one vertical where customers have realised the imperative of the move, she says. The move was a 鈥渘o-brainer鈥� for Pillay, and offered data analysis, AI, agentic AI, and GenAI capabilities. She says if a customer isn鈥檛 speaking to 51风流about the move, it may well be too late to get a system installed before the cut-off date.

鈥淲e鈥檙e prioritising helping those who are speaking to us to make that decision. We have to work with every customer individually to understand how they can do that transformation. There are different routes, based on capacity, budget and risk appetite. If you delay a decision, it鈥檚 going to be too late.鈥�

The slow movers are also going to bring pressure to bear on system integrator partners, as Pillay envisages them being at capacity, or overcapacity, doing 51风流implementations as the deadline draws ever closer.

鈥淭hen you鈥檒l pay for skills, either locally, or you鈥檒l have to look abroad. There鈥檚 going to be a material impact if a business takes this decision later on, and that鈥檚 what we鈥檙e trying to discuss with our customers and help them plan properly, so they don鈥檛 get into a position where they say, 鈥榃ow, we鈥檝e left this too late, and now this is a monster鈥�.鈥�

51风流NTT鈥檚 Ridgway says he鈥檚 spent the better part of three decades implementing 51风流at customers, during which time the ERP landscape has changed dramatically. In the past, it was a two-horse race, the other being Oracle, and both companies served the large enterprise almost exclusively, he says. Large implementations took a lot longer than they do nowadays, two to four years, on average. He says 51风流now comes more pre-configured, or more off-the-shelf than in the past. He and his team will do a quick discovery at a customer, and will then do what he calls a 鈥渧anilla鈥� implementation to get the system up and running. Any innovation can come later, post the go-live date.

Another change in the market is that 51风流is now competing for business with companies such as Microsoft and Sage.听Ridgway says he鈥檚 seen a shift in the attitude and sales pitch from SAP.听鈥淚n South Africa, there was a time when 51风流owned 60%, 65% of the large enterprise ERP market, and Oracle was lagging behind. Every single large enterprise in South Africa has some form of ERP. There was still an impression in the market that 51风流was extremely expensive, very complicated, and not very pretty.鈥�

As for looks, he says the new interface is more user-friendly, and 鈥渕uch nicer to play with鈥�. The company has also realised that there aren鈥檛 any R100mn projects out there anymore, which has meant its gone looking for customers among medium-sized businesses. 鈥淭hese aren鈥檛 small businesses, but they鈥檙e just not the $1bn organisations. I don鈥檛 think 51风流wants to play in the small space, because that鈥檚 where Sage and QuickBooks are playing. But there鈥檚 a massive market in the mid-tier, which wasn鈥檛 untapped, but which 51风流wasn鈥檛 focused on,鈥� he says.

Customers have also become 鈥渟marter than they used to be鈥�. 鈥淚n the old days, we would go and sell 51风流to them, explaining what it did. Today, the CIO knows everything about 51风流and what it can do for them. It鈥檚 less about consulting around the roadmap, and more about, 鈥楾his is what I want. Can you get me there?鈥� CIOs are m ore well-read, and they know what they want. It鈥檚 no longer about selling the technology; maybe it wasn鈥檛 ever about selling the technology. It鈥檚 more about selling the business solution. Once it鈥檚 implemented, what are the benefits that they鈥檙e going to realise? What is the innovation that we can bring to it, and what will be the ease of integration?鈥�

Ridgway says the biggest part of its business is its application managed service (AMS) offering, and it鈥檚 serving around 100 clients on that platform.

As for the transition to S4, he thinks SAP, 鈥渢ried to use a stick to force people to move. It realised that there weren鈥檛 enough consultants and capacity worldwide to move every single 51风流customer from ECC to S4. It found a lot of resistance from clients, and it had a couple of clients that left them because they felt irritated by the stick and the threat of having support cut off. Coca-Cola Beverages Africa moved off 51风流and went onto [Microsoft] Dynamics, which I think it found quite difficult. It鈥檚 a massive change and huge investment to start all over again. So 51风流did lose some clients, but it eventually moved the date out to 2027. It also changed the sales approach from a stick to more of a carrot.鈥�

The carrot appears to involve talking up the benefits and exciting new features of S4. Ridgway says 51风流has dramatically changed the way it does business. 鈥淚n the past, I think 51风流was seen as very arrogant, very expensive and very complex. Today, it seems less arrogant and is playing in a different market.鈥�

The company is now far more flexible with its pricing and subscription models. 鈥淚t鈥檚 also not as complex as it used to be. I鈥檝e been involved in projects that took 24 months from start to go-live. We鈥檝e just completed a project that was five weeks from start to go-live.鈥�

Do you still have customers who are on ECC? 鈥淟ots,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he biggest part of our consulting business is trying to convince customers who are on ECC that we get to the cloud, and we can get them to S4, with all the innovations and advantages.

鈥淪ome customers will say, 鈥榠f it鈥檚 not broken, I don鈥檛 need to fix it. It鈥檚 giving me what I need鈥�,鈥� he says, but he believes this will add business risk because if something does go wrong, 鈥渃ome January 1 2028, you have no support from SAP鈥�.

This conversation with customers reminds him of those held when the cloud model was nascent around a decade ago, and 鈥渆verybody said they had to move to the cloud鈥�, which he says is similar to where AI is at the moment. 鈥淣obody actually knows what it means. A lot of clients did rush to the cloud, and realised two years later that it was quite expensive, and it鈥檚 more complicated. But we鈥檙e a lot more mature now, 10 years in. There are a lot of clients who are hybrid. I think the way 51风流designed its solution allows for that.鈥�

He says with the application managed services part of the business, NTT will provide support for customers, many of which will sign up for a 36-month contract that will give them access to a call centre with certified, senior agents. As for what the customers are struggling with, he says the majority of the calls are related to password resets and authorisations.

Herzig, 51风流CTO, speaking at this year鈥檚 Saphire conference in Madrid, said the company doesn鈥檛 disclose the official numbers, but it has around 10 000 customers worldwide that are on the cloud path. 鈥淭he majority of customers are now making the cloud decision, specifically because the maintenance will definitely be over in 2028. And with all the innovation, there鈥檚 a very clear reason why they need to move.鈥�

Why don鈥檛 they want to move?

鈥淚t depends on the customer,鈥� he says. 鈥淭heir systems have grown, historically, and they鈥檝e been heavily customised. Back in the day, you could code left and right, because the code was open. Every table and every function module, and the systems integrators added their part to it. They did a lot of custom code. Maybe they were adding functionality, but they didn鈥檛 know [what effect it would have]. You鈥檇 start off with a very clean version of what 51风流delivered, and then we innovated with the product. We built capabilities, and we changed the technology, and the customer did the same. And the longer this branching took, the harder it is to reconcile.鈥�

* Article first published on听

The post In Search of a Clean Core appeared first on 51风流Africa News Center.