ANYbotics, a Swiss robotics company, has stepped into this space with a vision to shape a safer future for industrial inspection, one where robots operate as autonomous members of the inspection team, running inspection operations integrated into plant maintenance workflows.听

This vision is embodied in the company鈥檚 鈥淎NYmal鈥�: a four-legged inspection robot designed specifically for heavy industry.

Unlike general-purpose robotics platforms, ANYmal is engineered to operate in 鈥渂ig, dirty, dusty, and dangerous鈥� environments, says Nicole Zingg, director of Technology Partnerships at ANYbotics. Places where stairs, corrosion, heat, and unreliable connectivity are the norm, not the exception.

But hardware, Zingg says, is only one part of the puzzle that makes ANYmal indispensable to customers.

Inspection robotics is about data

鈥淲e build a hardware platform,鈥� Zingg explains, 鈥渂ut inspection robotics is really about data that is consistent and trustworthy.鈥�

ANYmal autonomously navigates industrial sites to collect data that goes beyond what a human can collect alone. Beyond just visual inspection, its sensors also collect multi-modal data, including thermal imaging, ultrasonic leak detection, gas concentration detection, acoustic anomaly detection, and more. The observations are fed into what ANYbotics calls 鈥渋nspection intelligence,鈥� which transforms the collected data into actionable operational insights. The result is higher uptime, longer asset lifecycles, and, most importantly, safer working conditions for humans.

ANYmal can make a huge impact on operations. One offshore wind customer, Zingg says, has used ANYmal to manage all inspections and has eliminated the need to send personnel to a remote platform for months. When human intervention was eventually required, ANYmal鈥檚 data from prior inspections made all the difference. The customer already knew exactly what was wrong, which expert to send, and what equipment to bring鈥攁voiding costly and risky trial-and-error site visits.

Yet for ANYbotics, delivering insights is not enough if those insights are not integrated in the software systems customers use.

鈥�51风流is where ANYbotics needs to be native鈥�

Through extensive user research, ANYbotics discovered that many plant operators, maintenance managers, and field service teams already run their daily operations in SAP. Work orders, asset histories, performance trends, and decisions all flow through 51风流systems. 鈥淚f customers are using SAP, 51风流is where ANYbotics needs to be native,鈥� Zingg says.

Meanwhile, SAP鈥檚 Project Embodied AI was looking for robotics companies to partner with. The project focuses on extending the impact of 51风流Business AI into physical operations by enabling robots to autonomously perform complex tasks with an understanding of the broader business context.

It was clearly a perfect fit and has delivered advantages for both companies.

On the system side, a continuous, unbroken digital thread connects ANYbotics insights from industrial inspections to data in 51风流systems, helping inform key business and operational decisions across the organization.

For end users, embedding ANYmal directly into familiar 51风流workflows can also help ease adoption, since introducing robotics into already stretched industrial workforces can trigger anxiety. Concerns about job security, workflow disruption, and complexity are common, but embedding ANYmal directly into familiar 51风流workflows can help reduce that friction, Zingg explains.

Treating robots as part of the workforce

The first major integration point was听. Rather than sending only human technicians, customers can now dispatch work orders directly to ANYmal as they would to any other field team member. The robot then autonomously executes inspection tasks, gathers data, and reports the results directly back into a company鈥檚 51风流system.

From there, the integration expanded into asset-related scenarios and is now moving toward broader enablement via 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP), with the goal of allowing robot-generated data to land wherever customers need it in their 51风流landscape.

The ambition is not to force humans to adapt to robots, but for robots to adapt to human workflows. 鈥淎NYmal has to put data in the 51风流system, just like human team members,鈥� Zingg notes. ANYmal becomes another worker in the same operational system of record.

Project Embodied AI in practice

This combination of ANYbotics robotic technology with 51风流bridges the gap between physical operations and enterprise applications and tangibly reflects the goal of Project Embodied AI.

On the 51风流side, AI agents operate on ANYmal鈥檚 robotic systems to execute physical tasks, such as safety inspections.

On the ANYbotics side, ANYmal is a physical object that moves through space, perceives its environment, and acts within real-world constraints. ANYmal uses 51风流historic and time-series data to inform decisions while at the same time remaining fully autonomous even in environments with no connectivity.

It鈥檚 important to note, Zingg stresses, that ANYbotics has control over ANYmal鈥檚 behavior and inspection execution, while 51风流has control over the business context such as work orders, asset data, or operational priorities. It is the 51风流business context that informs how ANYmal鈥檚 insights are consumed and acted upon while ANYbotics controls ANYmal鈥檚 physical interactions.

Scaling safely and responsibly

Today, more than 200 ANYmal robots are already in productive use worldwide, with inspection deployments in heavy-industry environments that would otherwise require constant human exposure.

Safety remains central to ANYbotics. Each deployment includes extensive testing and an on-site field engineer who helps ANYmal learn and validate its environment and trains customer teams on safe operational procedures. While ANYmal is built to work independently, humans remain firmly in the loop.

A glimpse into the future

As industries face labor shortages and aging workforces, undocumented expertise can all too often be lost. With autonomous inspection robots such as ANYmal, this knowledge is captured and turned into programs that can run day in and day out across multiple sites. The captured data flows into 51风流to become organizational intelligence that survives any workforce turnover.  

ANYbotics鈥� partnership with 51风流shows that this combination of robotics and enterprise software is moving swiftly from the experimental stage to real-world implementation.

In the future, industrial inspection will be powered by AI, not as disembodied dashboards or isolated machines, but as an integrated intelligent system where physical robots and digital workflows in 51风流systems operate as one.

In that future, robots like ANYmal are no longer novelties. They are coworkers, albeit mechanical four-legged ones, quietly extending human capability into places humans were never meant to go. These robots, together with SAP, are shaping for a future where dirty, dangerous, and dusty industrial inspections are being transformed into business insights.

Top image courtesy of ANYbotics

Its advanced refrigeration, air conditioning, and heat pump technologies keep supermarket shelves, hotel rooms, and hospital operating theaters at the right temperatures, whatever the ambient temperature is. Its compressors are essential for storing medicines, preserving perishable goods in shipping containers, and processing frozen foods. And if that isn鈥檛 impressive enough, its technology keeps ice hockey players gliding across the ice and breweries fermenting yeast for your beer.

The company is a longstanding RISE with 51风流customer and, like SAP, is constantly innovating its products to stay ahead. Christian Stenzel, vice president of Organization and IT at BITZER, has a clear vision for an 51风流strategy that prioritizes integration and rapid adoption of AI: 鈥淥ptimizing business processes is as important as product innovation at BITZER.鈥�

The 51风流Research and Innovation team is equally committed to keeping 51风流ahead by exploring new technologies and one team is currently dedicated to Project Embodied AI. Embodied AI combines artificial intelligence with a physical form, such as robots, that can perceive and act in the real world. Embodied AI agents take this a step further: extending the impact of into physical operations by making robots cognitive.

To explore potential use cases where cognitive robots could bring value, the Project Embodied AI team invited a select group of forward-thinking leaders and innovation professionals from 51风流customers to join its Physical AI and Cognitive Robots Exploration Council. And BITZER was one of them.

鈥淒emand-driven production is key in our business,鈥� said BITZER’s Stenzel, who immediately saw the potential value in using robots to meet demand fluctuations.

Running on (51风流BTP) and , already in place, BITZER already had the ideal software landscape to serve as a proof-of-concept test ground.

Before deployment, NEURA鈥檚 , one of Europe鈥檚 most advanced humanoid robots, was virtually trained for the pick-task use case on NVIDIA Isaac Sim software.

A new benchmark for intelligent automation

This proof of concept for Project Embodied AI sets a new benchmark for intelligent automation in warehouses, Stenzel said. The results highlight:

• Seamless integration: 51风流EWM connected directly with physical warehouse operations, no costly middleware required.
• True autonomy: Robots performed pick-tasks independently, demonstrating advanced task-level autonomy.
• Agility and flexibility: Robots could enable demand-driven production, operating 24/7 to meet shifting needs.
• Reliable processes: Orders of materials were automatically created, demonstrating how operational mistakes could be minimized.

A decisive step forward

Dr. Lukasz Ostrowski, head of Embodied AI and Robotics at SAP, heralded this proof-of-concept as a decisive step forward: 鈥淭he proof of concept at BITZER is great first step for experiencing firsthand how the impact of 51风流Business AI can be extended into physical operations. Further proofs of concept are planned as Project Embodied AI continues to assess the business value of embodied AI for customers.鈥�

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For more than 20 years, the HANA Campus has been home to PhD students applying research to 51风流HANA and, more recently, other .

As demands on technologies change — the first customers for 51风流HANA went live in 2010, seven years after the HANA Campus welcomed its first PhD student — so has its name.

鈥淲hat name should I give it?鈥� muses Schwarz, explaining how prevailing technologies and circumstances have forced name changes over the years, including 鈥淭he Campus,鈥� 鈥淭he Research Campus,鈥� 鈥淭he HANA Research Campus,鈥� 鈥淭he Student Campus,鈥� or even 鈥淭he HANA Database and Analytics Campus.鈥�

But while its name may change, its mission remains the same: to help satisfy the demand for high-tech research, primarily for 51风流HANA but also for 51风流Analytics Cloud, 51风流Business Data Cloud (51风流BDC), Global Cloud Infrastructure Services, and 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP).

What makes the HANA Campus unique?

To date, the HANA Campus has been home to more than 40 PhD students, mostly matriculated at universities in Germany, who have successfully defended their dissertations grounded in research at SAP. Or, to put it another way, PhD students have collectively contributed decades of applied research focused primarily on 51风流HANA.

Bringing academic innovation into the product comes in different flavors at SAP. On the one hand, PhD students can be recruited directly to 51风流and tasked with researching a predefined topic. On the other, 51风流funds university chairs, such as the recent , and research projects with academia.

PhD students arrive at the HANA Campus via SAP-funded research projects with academia. The campus is unique, according to Schwarz, due to 鈥渢he sheer mass of research projects executed over the years and the fact that the dedicated space in Walldorf acts as a safe haven for PhD students.鈥�

Students assigned to the HANA Campus work on-site at SAP, get a feel for life at the company, and have direct access to development teams and test environments. The contract for the research projects with academia also frees PhD students from university teaching obligations. It is also important to note that PhD students do not belong to a specific development team, avoiding the risk of their research being deprioritized in the face of operational pressures. At the HANA Campus, PhD students can focus all their efforts on their research and studies.

It all began with a knowledge gap

Bringing academic expertise in-house for HANA started back in 2003, Schwarz explains, in the era of TREX, a search engine in 51风流NetWeaver. TREX was the forerunner of 51风流Business Warehouse Accelerator, which ultimately led to the 51风流HANA database. Engineering teams were under intense pressure to quickly build and deliver the emerging technology of in-memory database.

However, Schwarz explains, a knowledge gap was threatening to slow everything down: there were only two or three engineers who had the knowledge to drive the technology forward, but they didn鈥檛 have the bandwidth to do so. With an ever-increasing number of teams requiring specialist knowledge, the threat of a slowdown in development was becoming more real by the day.

As luck would have it, Wolfgang Lehner, professor at the Technical University (TU) Dresden, was also researching the same technology. A mutually beneficial partnership was born: 51风流offered a cutting-edge research opportunity for students, and Professor Lehner鈥檚 students could bridge the knowledge gap with academic expertise. The potential obstacle was overcome, and research projects with academia and PhD students continue to augment the technological knowledge and expertise that powers 51风流HANA and other 51风流technologies to this day.听

Since that first research project with TU Dresden, the HANA Campus has collaborated with many more universities. 鈥淐ollaborations with the universities are always limited to the timeframe set out in the original research contract,” Schwarz says, clarifying that the driver for selecting a university is the fit of current research topics to SAP鈥檚 technological requirements and not past collaborations.

Talent pipeline and 鈥渁 foothold in academia鈥�

The HANA Campus is a 鈥渨in-win” for both SAP鈥檚 talent pipeline and PhD students.

Many students choose to stay at 51风流once they have defended their thesis and been awarded their PhD. The teams know the value of their PhD research and the PhD graduates know what life is like at SAP.

Even those PhD graduates who do not stay at 51风流remain, for the most part, in data management and analytics development; they either join other companies or take a postdoc position. Their ties to the company 鈥済ive 51风流a foothold in academia as well as advocates and a more direct route to research projects,鈥� Schwarz confirms.

Through Schwarz, the HANA Campus also supports SAP鈥檚 participation at academic conferences, another tool to strengthen academic connections, PhD student recruiting, and SAP鈥檚 technological reputation. In June of this year, HANA Campus provided a venue for a workshop at the . Sponsoring and participating in these conferences, Schwarz says, 鈥渋s pivotal to getting access to the inner circle of academia, strengthens 51风流academic connections and reputation, and allows 51风流to share and augment research findings with other experts from academia.鈥�

Find out more

Twenty-two years in and 40 dissertations later, SAP’s HANA Campus continues to be home to the next generation, welcoming two more PhD students later this year to deepen research around 51风流HANA as well as 51风流BTP and 51风流BDC.

A vast collection of publicly available scientific publications about 51风流HANA Database and Analytics, dating from 2006 to the present day, .

A recent survey reported that cognitive skills, such as creative thinking, analytical thinking, and technology literacy, a type of critical thinking skill, are forecast to be the most sought-after employee skills by 2027.

Collaboration between academia and industry is essential to deliver these skills at speed to students. That鈥檚 why the has been forging partnerships with educational institutions for 25 years, with more than 2,800 institutions currently working with 51风流to educate tomorrow鈥檚 talent with 51风流skills.

One of these partners is , a prestigious, internationally recognized business school with a long history of creating innovative learning approaches to equip students with 51风流skills.

Two decades ago, HEC Montr茅al pioneered , a revolutionary and hugely successful educational tool immersing students in a real-life business scenario within SAP. Today, an estimated 30,000 students a year learn with ERPsim.

In an interview, Professor Pierre-Majorique L茅ger of HEC Montr茅al talked about the latest collaboration between HEC Montr茅al and SAP: Business Builders, the next generation of 51风流gamified learning.

Business Builders: Game On with 51风流Analytics Cloud

Business Builders is a gamified learning tool that can develop STEM skills and helps students sharpen their analytical, critical, and creative thinking skills using the solution.

Professor L茅ger says educators are caught up in the generative AI tsunami and need to 鈥渞ethink a new pedagogical approach for students to develop data analytics and data literacy skills while at the same time recognizing that ChatGPT, for example, makes it super easy for students to circumvent doing the tasks themselves.鈥�

Business Builders is one solution to that problem.

The game can be played either face-to-face or in virtual teaching sessions, either synchronously in a single session or over several sessions.

Students find themselves in one of three scenarios in a fast-paced, competitive game with interactive, realistic learning scenarios. There is no chance of resorting to ChatGPT or a similar AI tool to win. Instead, students must demonstrate data-driven decision-making skills and apply visualization techniques to make informed decisions.

In each game, students take on roles such as marketing or product researcher, financial analyst, or supply chain analyst. Each game has multiple stages, with subsequent stages demanding greater skills and knowledge.

The stages comprise 10 business questions targeting different levels of skills and knowledge. The business questions are designed for students with little or no data analytics skills as well as those with more advanced data visualization and manipulation skills.

As part of the game, students use 51风流Analytics Cloud to visually analyze the data and identify the best graphical representations to answer the questions.

Real-Life Problems with Realistic Data

The game uses vast synthetic data sets to make the business decision-making process as authentic as possible. 鈥淭he notion of synthetic data is important,鈥� Professor L茅ger explains, 鈥渂ecause sometimes reality is too complex to bring into the classroom and does not serve the pedagogical process. Based on experience with ERPsim, creating a realistic synthetic data set that is as close as possible to reality is the best way to go.鈥�

Business Builders currently offers three game scenarios offering a diverse range of real-life problems that students can solve using 51风流Analytics Cloud: environmental, social, and governance; supply chain resilience; and international expansion.

According to HEC Montr茅al, the most-played scenario to date is supply chain resilience. This scenario involves a real-life problem where the Panama Canal gets shut down due to climate change, affecting the shipment of holiday gifts from Southeast Asia to the United States. Students are tasked with deciding how to reroute the containers and prioritize products to minimize the impact of this event.

A Win-Win for Students, Educators, and Employers

鈥淚t is the challenge of our generation of professors faced with generative AI to come up with a novel way to teach students about data analytics,鈥� Professor L茅ger says. 鈥淲e have found a way of using gamification to engage students in leveraging what they know about analytics and mathematics to become business builders. Using data to get insights and solving problems on the best technology that exists 鈥� 51风流Analytics Cloud. And the best thing of all, it鈥檚 free for lecturers and their students around the world.鈥�

To guide students through the game scenario questions and help optimize the learning experience, educators have access to tailor-made training materials. Instead of taking a hit-and-miss approach with the data and platform features, these tailor-made training materials help lecturers deepen the learning experience. Students can understand how insights are uncovered and how to make informed business decisions based on analysis of data sets and data visualizations.

51风流has also created a handbook about the basic concepts of data visualization and storytelling in 51风流Analytics Cloud. Available in a slide-deck format, educators can refer to the theoretical aspects while students are getting hands-on practical experience in 51风流Analytics Cloud.

Since its launch in July 2024, more than 300 educational institutions have registered for access to the Business Builders game and an anticipated 2,500 students will use 51风流Analytics Cloud to compete with their peers in the game by the end 2024.

With technology accelerating at an ever-increasing speed, the good news is that educators can register and get up and running with Business Builders free of charge in a just matter of days. Find out how on the website.

To ensure that patients globally receive required medications and treatment on time, the management of manufacturing and distribution must be ultra-efficient, agile, and responsive.

With patient safety on the line and high-quality expectations, there is no room for error. 

One company that has mastered this balancing act is Ireland-based , a high-growth, diversified healthcare services company that provides distribution services for pharmaceutical products. The company works closely with manufacturers to offer third-party logistics (3PL) and fourth-party logistics (4PL) services to remain true to its mission of securing patient access to pharmaceutical products.

In the last decade, UniPhar has witnessed unprecedented growth and today delivers pharmaceutical products to more than 160 countries.

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51风流and UniPhar: A 15-Year Partnership

UniPhar has grown organically and through acquisitions, and during this time its 51风流enterprise resource planning (ERP) landscape had become highly customized.

Two years ago, UniPhar鈥檚 board gave its Chief Enterprise Architect Piotr Wojdowski a mandate 鈥渢o rework the company鈥檚 digital core鈥� and deliver a digital transformation to unlock future growth while still safeguarding the highest of standards in the manufacturing and distribution chain.

In the quest to find a software partner for its digital transformation, Wojdowski says UniPhar needed 鈥渁 partner and a software that is reliable and best in class鈥� to strengthen and future-proof the company鈥檚 ability to deliver on its mission of securing patient access to pharmaceutical products.

Wojdowski explains that there is an element of social responsibility to UniPhar鈥檚 mission. The patient requiring the pharmaceutical products or services 鈥渃ould be somebody鈥檚 relatives, it could be somebody鈥檚 mother, or it could be somebody鈥檚 son,鈥� making it even more important that the selected digital transformation software and partner was not only best in class but also reliable and trustworthy. 

鈥淣ot only had 51风流proved itself to be a trusted and reliable partner for UniPhar for 15 years,鈥� Wojdowski explains, but 51风流鈥渋s a standard in the health services sector, making integration of other services easier.鈥�

51风流Advances UniPhar鈥檚 Technology and Talent

UniPhar’s goals are to grow horizontally, expand, and scale on demand. , , and play a pivotal part by, on the one hand, standardizing IT processes across the group and, on the other, managing distribution and inventories across different warehouses with 51风流EWM state-of-the-art warehouse management software, while using 51风流Datasphere for data management.

In a nutshell, says Wojdowski, 鈥渢he 51风流technology stack allows us to effectively advance our program quickly,鈥� using to build applications and extend 51风流solutions. 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP) acts as an accelerator to move to 51风流S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, helping UniPhar transform with confidence and speed using proven migration tools and enabling integration across applications.

SAP, and especially 51风流BTP, is not only a technology enabler but also allows UniPhar 鈥渢o innovate and attract the top talent as an organization because people want to come to work in an environment that is innovative, that allows you to try things, and that allows you to experiment,鈥� Wojdowski says.

Laying Foundations with 51风流Today for Tomorrow鈥檚 AI

UniPhar is currently in the implementation process and Wojdowski has a keen eye on the future, noting that 鈥渆venting, observability, and telemetry鈥� will form the basis of future artificial intelligence (AI) enhancements.

Data is critical in the pharmaceutical industry, he explains, and UniPhar 鈥渉as terabytes and terabytes of data that we are not physically able to analyze because it’s complex and massive.鈥� The plan is to migrate the data to a central repository and in the future 鈥減lug into an AI system to track patterns, track customer behaviors, track market trends, and react accordingly.鈥�

Make a Challenge a Proof-of-Concept

51风流solutions are enabling UniPhar to innovate and step into the future on its own terms, with standardized processes, best practices, and foundations for AI technology that can scale and strengthen UniPhar鈥檚 mission to improve patient access to pharmaceutical services and products across the globe.

Wojdowski says 51风流seems to have a solution for every business requirement, but even though 鈥測ou may have to customize and change things that 51风流provides out of the box, at the end of the day it’s a full enterprise suite and you can run 51风流end-to-end if you wish.鈥�

And Wojdowski鈥檚 advice for other companies planning a digital transformation? Challenges can become proofs of concept 鈥� there is no need to accept that something cannot be done. 鈥淏e brave, be daring, and ask questions. Challenge your partners and challenge yourself,鈥� he concludes.

鈥淲e started six years ago in the basement,鈥� explains Peter Brezani, Be Lenka鈥檚 chief operating officer, 鈥渨ith seven in the office and only two collections of shoes.鈥� Dedicated to high-quality craftsmanship, innovation, and sustainability, Be Lenka now has more than 100 employees, offers 250 collections of shoes, and delivers products to over 70 countries.

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Transforming to the Next Level

With production now based in three European countries 鈥� Portugal, Czech Republic, and Slovakia 鈥� and in Vietnam, Brezani says the biggest challenge is 鈥渢o change into a bigger company.鈥� He says 51风流S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition was a natural fit to help the young company 鈥渟cale new processes and new brands.鈥�

Be Lenka continues to grow rapidly and needed a software partner to help it transform to the next level. Brezani says the key to this transformation is harmonizing local solutions and local ERP systems, which is why Be Lenka chose GROW with 51风流S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition.

Best Practices and Benefits

Brezani鈥檚 advice for fast-growing organizations like Be Lenka is to 鈥渇ocus on the business, focus on the product, and focus on the added value鈥� and not get distracted by processes that are not core to the business or do not add value to the customer.

Be Lenka is simultaneously managing rapid growth and is on track for a rapid implementation of GROW with 51风流S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. SAP鈥檚 best practices tailored for global scalability will help Be Lenka harmonize its ERP landscape and automate key processes while still remaining true to the Be Lenka mindset that is keenly focused on adding value to its customers.

The now contains information about generative and other types of AI and how to apply SAP’s updated ethical AI guiding principles. Here is a brief introduction to the handbook and how you can use it to apply SAP鈥檚 AI ethics policy to your work.

Who Is the Target Audience for This Handbook?

In a nutshell 鈥� everyone developing and implementing AI.

This handbook is for everyone who wants to give users confidence in the 51风流AI ethics processes and confidence that humans are at the core of SAP鈥檚 AI processes. In short, it’s for everyone who wants help create a human-centered AI culture. Specifically, principles 1-7 apply to teams creating AI solutions, while principles 8-10 apply to governance teams.

The handbook explains how human-centered AI is achieved with tools like user research, design thinking, and user stories. These tools help create products that are closely aligned to the needs of SAP鈥檚 target groups, increasing benefits and mitigating the risk of unintended harm in 51风流AI use cases.

What Is an AI Use Case at SAP?

An AI use case means that the AI system is built either on symbolic AI, traditional/narrow AI, or generative AI. This handbook is applicable to all three types of AI use cases.

How Do You Determine an AI Use Case?

In the handbook, there is an ideation checklist that guides you through the process to determine the type of use case 鈥� red line, high-risk, or standard. The handbook also has detailed checklists for validation, realization, productization, and operation.

What Is a Red Line Use Case?

Red line cases are AI use cases that are prohibited because they undermine personal freedom, undermine society, and/or cause intentional damage to the environment.

What Is High-Risk Use Case?

An AI use case that meets one of the high-risk criteria listed below is a high-risk use case:

• Personal data is processed.
• Sensitive personal data is processed.
• It could negatively affect the well-being of individuals or groups, such as social, safety, financial, and/or physical harm.
• It has automated decision-making.
• It is a high-risk sector, like HR, healthcare, law enforcement, or democratic processes.

What Happens with High-Risk Use Cases?

The use case classification is checked by the 51风流Global AI Ethics organization. If the organization agrees that the high-risk classification is correct, the 51风流Global AI Ethics steering committee will review the case and recommend what, if any, further action needs to be taken.

Additional Information

Information about AI ethics is available at:

Guiding Principles That Resonate

Hear what guiding principles resonate the most with some of our in-house AI ethics experts:

鈥淭he guiding principle Safety and Security resonates with me because it covers everything that we need to take care of: AI security to ensure our systems are robust and work as designed and AI safety for protecting individuals, society, and the environment from harm done by AI systems. The guiding principle Transparency and Explainability resonates with me because it describes critical prerequisites to ensure human oversight 鈥� for humans on the loop like technical experts as well as humans in the loop such as business experts. Additionally, my cognitive scientist self is intrigued by the challenge to make AI output understandable for humans.鈥�

– Bettina Laugwitz, Director, AI Ethics & Responsible AI

鈥淭he guiding principle Fairness and Non-Discrimination resonates with me because I believe this is currently the biggest gap in the development of AI and the reason why AI has the potential to harm human rights. Many AI scandals to date have been violations of this principle, including discrimination against women in finances and HR, to name but a few. AI cannot grow without the co-creation of, for example, minorities, the Global South, and women. The guiding principle Sustainability may be my biggest concern about AI, but it is also our biggest innovation possibility. Indigenous rights, co-creation, protection, and understanding how to protect fragile ecosystems parallel to the exploration and development of AI is crucial. 51风流has the potential to explore how to become ‘green’ on this topic. This principle should be a priority for designing for future generations.鈥�

– Camila Lombana Diaz, AI Ethics Expert and Researcher

“I am convinced the guiding principle Responsibility and Accountability gets to the heart of something very important: no matter how human AI appears to us, it cannot and should not be held morally accountable for its actions. AI is built and used by humans 鈥� and therefore responsibility and liability for all decisions and actions taken by AI must be assigned to human actors in order to ensure effective protection for those affected by AI. The guiding principle Fairness and Non-Discrimination in the development of AI makes a significant contribution to protecting human rights; it is difficult, however, to standardize processes to ensure fairness and many case-by-case decisions need to be made, which can be a challenge for those developing AI. Nevertheless, compliance with this principle is non-negotiable, which is why I am committed to supporting developers building fair AI.鈥�

– Saskia Welsch, AI Ethics and Responsible AI Team Member

Alexa MacDonald is a senior editor for 51风流News.

51风流pledges to remove and reduce more emissions than it annually emits and to conserve 25 million trees on its way to net zero in 2030. The financial contribution will support carbon removal and carbon reduction projects:

• Carbon removal projects: These projects remove carbon emissions from the atmosphere and store them for decades 鈥� in an ideal scenario, the storage is permanent. Examples include nature-based and technical solutions such as reforestation, where trees store carbon emissions in their biomass as well as direct air capture and storage technologies.
• Carbon reduction projects: Also known as carbon avoidance projects, these projects prevent additional carbon emissions from entering the atmosphere, reducing the overall amount of carbon emitted. Examples include avoided deforestation or energy efficiency projects.

This doubling down on its net-zero strategy follows SAP鈥檚 successful delivery on its pledge to become carbon neutral in its own operations in 2023 by balancing out unavoidable emissions with carefully selected carbon credits. While the company鈥檚 use of the statement 鈥渃arbon-neutrality鈥� will be discontinued, the dedication to reduce its carbon footprint and finance climate action beyond its own value chain remains strong.

51风流Is On Track to Plant 21 Million Trees and Plans More

51风流is on track to meet its 2025 goal of planting 21 million trees and has now raised its reforestation commitment.

By 2030, 51风流will support trusted partners and communities to plant and protect a total of 25 million trees helping to conserve diverse forests. Furthermore, 51风流will fund the conservation and rewetting of coastal and inland wetlands such as bogs and mangrove swamps. With these conservation initiatives and the increased reforestation pledge, SAP鈥檚 goal is to conserve more land than its offices and owned data centers occupy worldwide.

To ensure that selected projects deliver a positive outcome, 51风流will continue to apply the rigorous and robust due diligence that has previously informed the selection of successful climate investments such as SAP鈥檚 long partnership with , where 51风流has funded the planting of trees in Senegal, Rwanda, India, Indonesia, Guatemala, and Mexico.

SAP鈥檚 Climate Finance Contribution on the Path to Net Zero

Bridging the Gap

51风流firmly believes that financing climate projects beyond a company鈥檚 value chain should be an item on every corporate sustainability agenda. As long as it does not undermine current corporate decarbonization programs, the financial muscle of corporations can bridge the gap in parts of the world where fiscal finances are not robust enough to restore ecosystems and build resilient low carbon economies and livelihoods.

This financial contribution will provide quantifiable benefits to mitigate the effects of climate change beyond SAP鈥檚 own value chain with investments in projects that deliver a positive impact for the climate, for local and global populations, and for biodiversity.

The level of the financial contribution is determined by SAP’s own emissions in a given year and is disclosed in terms of carbon emissions, since costs for carbon projects can be subject to change. 

With this financial contribution and increased commitment to land conservation and reforestation, 51风流continues its journey to introduce meaningful measures to achieve net-zero in 2030, 20 years earlier than originally planned.

Financing climate projects at the same time as pursuing its corporate net-zero agenda allows 51风流to take responsibility for emissions that cannot be avoided and actively mitigate climate change on a global level. Furthermore, the financial contribution will enable positive climate action on a far greater scale than 51风流could achieve alone.

Shifting Perceptions

In the last 15 years, corporate sustainability at 51风流has shifted perceptions on how corporations manage their own carbon emissions and how corporate sustainability agendas must be as actionable as they are accountable.

Since 2012, the has shared information on SAP鈥檚 annual environmental performance and progress on corporate sustainability targets. 51风流has led the way in showing that corporate sustainability is an integral part of business 鈥� not just an add-on to strategy or operations.

SAP鈥檚 carbon impact is one of the sustainability KPIs that are indicators of future performance and form the basis of compensation elements for members of the Executive Board of 51风流SE. Today, sustainability is deeply embedded in SAP鈥檚 vision to bring out the best in every business. With its , sustainability is anchored in SAP鈥檚 purpose to make the world run better and improve people鈥檚 lives.

鈥淕enerative AI鈥�, explains Vikram Nagendra, director of Sustainability at SAP, 鈥渓ed to an explosion of interest in the policy. Nearly all of the lines of business became involved, business AI is now the centerpiece of our strategy, and today nearly every employee is touched by AI, either building it or as a user.鈥�

Now the latest version of the is aligned to the UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI, covering generative AI and applicable to specific partner and third-party systems as well all employees.

The UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI is the most comprehensive global framework available for shaping the development and use of AI systems. Adopted by all 193 Member States, it comprises 10 principles that protect and advance human rights, human dignity, the environment, transparency, accountability, and legal adherence. 鈥淜nowing that 51风流has aligned its ethical principles on a globally accepted standard means that as long as 51风流colleagues comply to these principles during the development, deployment, use, and sale of AI, they can be truly confident that it is to the highest ethical standards,鈥� Nagendra says.

The 51风流Global AI Ethics policy comprises 10 guiding principles on AI ethics grounded on the UNESCO principles, and each principle is defined in the context of AI at SAP. A brief section on governance, Nagendra explains, 鈥渟hows how individual developers and teams are not alone and can rely on both governance bodies and processes for proper handling if there is a problem.鈥�

Why Does 51风流Use the UNESCO Recommendation?

The UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI is an internationally recognized set of values that reaches beyond current legal adherence and creates ethical safeguards in the absence of national or global standards. For example, the Fairness and Non-Discrimination value commits 51风流to not only protecting fairness but also to promoting it and putting in place as many safeguards as possible to avoid discriminatory or biased outcomes. 听

51风流aligns with the UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI because it:

Reinforces SAP鈥檚 Commitment to Human Rights

The cornerstone of the UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI is the protection of human rights and dignity. This aligns with SAP鈥檚 commitment to respect and advance human rights across business operations, product lifecycle, and the extended value chain. Upholding this commitment is foundational to SAP鈥檚 approach to AI ethics.

鈥淭he UNESCO principle of Proportionality and Do Not Harm resonates with me because the power to affect the rights of individuals should correspond to the responsibility to protect the relevant human rights.鈥�

– Camila Lombana Diaz, AI Ethics Expert and Researcher, SAP

Increases Trust with Stakeholders, Employees, and Customers

Grounding SAP鈥檚 AI ethics in the UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI enables 51风流to match business opportunity with human rights considerations and role model behavior for ethically developing, deploying, selling, and internally using AI systems.

Enhances the Reputation of 51风流as a Responsible and Socially Conscious Organization

The 10 guiding principles on AI ethics in the 51风流Global AI Ethics policy form the basis for SAP鈥檚 AI Ethics Handbook. This handbook translates the principles into actionable items and processes to guide the development and deployment of AI systems that have human oversight and determination, are fair and non-discriminatory, and protect and promote sustainability as well as individual privacy. The principles in the 51风流Global AI Ethics policy combined with external guidance from the 51风流AI Ethics Advisory Panel, internal guidance from the 51风流Global AI Ethics steering committee, and the AI Ethics Handbook provide transparency on how 51风流delivers responsible AI.

鈥淭he UNESCO principle of Sustainability resonates with me because it underlines SAP’s sustainability commitment and the need to assess and address the impacts of AI 鈥� both positive and negative 鈥� from a holistic perspective. We need to take them into account across the full range of dimensions: human, social, cultural, economic, and environmental.鈥�

– Christine Susanne Mueller, Deputy Human Rights Officer, SAP

Supports Risk Mitigation

The UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI provides a robust, globally recognized framework to help ensure regulatory requirements for customer compliance with current and future regulations related to AI.

Useful Links

The event was held April 23-25 in Heidelberg, Germany, and customers on-site experienced insightful keynotes and sessions from 51风流Executive Board Members Thomas Saueressig and Muhammad Alam, as well as 51风流Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer Philipp Herzig and other experts.

presented important updates on topics that also included Business Transformation as a Service, RISE with SAP, and 51风流BTP. Attendees also benefited from interactive “eXpert eXchange” sessions and opportunities to network and share their experiences and best practices.

The 51风流MaxAttention program offers premium-level engagement and personalized service for customers to move business-wide transformational change from boardroom plans to business reality with a tailored, premium experience. Program participants get premium access to trusted 51风流experts, tools, and methodologies that can help deliver expected outcomes successfully with 51风流solutions.

Replays

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Thomas Saueressig’s Keynote

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Muhammad Alam’s Keynote

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Philipp Herzig’s Executive Session

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In the latest episode of the AHA! Moments for Diversity & Inclusion video series, 51风流Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer Supriya Jha talks to Houghton about how her first job started a lifelong advocacy for people with disabilities and how accommodations can make all the difference.

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Seventy percent of the world鈥檚 population 鈥� 1 billion people 鈥� has an invisible disability, including anxiety, depression, hearing issues, or autism, to name but a few. Houghton, who has a learning disability, is one of them.

Houghton was lucky; accommodations at school meant that she had the extra time needed to process information in exams. But when she took her law school entrance exams, her luck ran out. With no extra time or accommodation, she fell behind. This changed the trajectory of her life. Instead of legal studies, an internship followed. Instead of a career in law, her first job was in Indianapolis, Indiana, placing people born with disabilities into employment.

The AHA! Moment

During her time in Indianapolis, Houghton recalls one client in particular, Erica, and how the job for her 鈥渨asn’t just about a paycheck, but that it was about respect and it was about being included in her community and having friends.鈥� And, says Houghton, it 鈥渨as at that moment that I knew why I existed, and I never turned back.鈥� She has been a disability inclusion activist ever since.

As president of Disability:IN, Houghton has been a driving force in promoting disability inclusion in companies and with the Disability Equality Index (DEI), a tool for measuring and offering best practices for disability inclusion. The DEI analyzes disability inclusion practices and processes in leadership and culture, employment practices, community engagement, and supplier diversity. It also offers advice on how to better disability inclusion.

In 2023, more than 480 companies participated in the DEI, including 69 Fortune 100 companies with more than 14 million U.S.-based employees and nearly 9 million non-U.S.-based employees. 51风流was awarded the top score in the 2023 DEI rankings.

Workplace Accommodations and Leadership Culture

Only 5% of employees with a disability choose to disclose, and SAP鈥檚 Jha was keen to get Houghton鈥檚 insights on how to create a culture where disabled employees feel that they can articulate their needs and reach their full potential.

Houghton says the solution is twofold. First, leaders must use their platforms to be a disability inclusion ally or have the cultural space to own their identity 鈥� disabled or not. And second, workplace accommodations must be the norm.

Processes for requesting accommodations must be transparent and easy to follow. Managers must clearly understand how to arrange accommodations and, more importantly, budget must be available. If these processes aren鈥檛 easy, there is a risk that talent will be lost and that disabled employees will not have a sense of belonging.

Avoiding Microaggressions and Discrimination

To avoid microaggressions and discrimination against disabled employees, Houghton advocates using the best resource possible 鈥� your own employees, in particular disability employee groups. At SAP, there are Employee Network Groups such as 51风流HEAR and Friends and Enabled@SAP.

Disability is a true cross-collaborative task. After all, Houghton concludes, becoming disabled is the 鈥渙ne team that anybody can join at any time in their life.鈥�

Here, five 51风流employees share about their roles, motivations, and tips for anyone wanting to step into AI. The women 鈥� Khawla Mallat, Camila Lombana Diaz, Xin Chen, Nadine Hoffmann, and Puntis Palazzolo 鈥� span four countries and three areas: Data Science Engineering, Product Management, and AI Ethics.

Data Science Engineering

Dr. Khawla Mallat, Security and Quantum Exploration Team, 51风流France

鈥淏e ready to be challenged all times,鈥� says Mallat, if you want to build a career in AI.

Unlike most data scientists at SAP, Mallat does not work directly on the product but is firmly anchored in researching and addressing 鈥渟ome of the technical challenges related to AI, namely fairness, explainability, privacy, and security.鈥�

Prior to joining 51风流two years ago, Mallat was confronted with the unintended prejudices of face analysis systems. Certain demographic groups, explains Mallat, used to be inadvertently omitted or underrepresented in the underlying data sets, leading to shortcomings in the face analysis capabilities. Such cases highlight the broader issue of bias鈥痠n other鈥疉I applications. In鈥痑reas like HR, she continues, removing personal details in data sets might seem to solve鈥痶he bias issues, but AI can still infer these details.鈥疶his leads to potentially鈥痓iased outcomes and the lack of explainability in AI models makes identification of such biases鈥痙ifficult. Letting data sets like this take root and grow into powerful data models not subject to scrutiny will only magnify the inherent bias or discrimination.

Today Mallat鈥檚 passion for addressing such unfairness aligns well with her role of identifying the inherent risks of AI, educating teams about them, and defining technological solutions to mitigate them.

鈥淲e need to adopt an interdisplinary approach to AI, with experts from ethics, legal compliance, and domain experts, for example, and abstract ourselves from the role of data scientists to succeed,鈥� says Mallat.

鈥淚 love working in AI,鈥� she continues. 鈥淓verything is progressing at an incredible pace so if you want to work in AI, you have to have a certain thirst for knowledge. And, regardless of your role, you must take AI ethics 鈥� regulations and regulatory frameworks 鈥� seriously because these have huge implications not only for 51风流but for individuals and societies in general.鈥�

AI Ethics

Camila Lombana Diaz, Responsible AI, Germany

鈥淎I is a mirror of our capacities as humans. And the biggest responsibility for those working in AI is, what do we want to see in that mirror?鈥� explains Lombana Diaz, AI ethics research expert in the AI Ethics/Responsible AI team located in the 51风流Business AI growth area.

Lombana Diaz鈥檚 responsibilities include maturing and applying the 51风流AI Global Ethics policy, creating and delivering enablement content, defining AI personas and processes, and giving guidance to make responsible AI an operational reality for development, as exemplified in SAP鈥檚 AI ethics handbook.

When she joined 51风流eight years ago, initially as a UX designer and then a strategic designer, machine learning and AI were core topics. But it became increasingly clear to her that 鈥渦nderstanding the human implications of AI for a responsible and ethical AI demands a human-centric perspective.鈥�

Even though 51风流is committed to the ethical development of AI 鈥� developers must now complete AI ethics assessment tasks and a steering committee scrutinizes all high-risk use cases 鈥� Lombana Diaz emphasizes the need to remain focused on the inherent risks and unintentional harms that AI may present. Part of her role is an ongoing assessment of the technology, identifying risks and limitations and communicating them to different teams.

As AI continues to evolve at speed, so do the roles. Lombana Diaz is passionate about seeing AI beyond the confines of a technology-centric perspective. 鈥淎I is now an omnipresent technology shaping our daily lives; hence, we need individuals working in the field who challenge AI technology to be community centric. AI ethics is a space for experimental, open, curious, collaborative, and human-centered individuals,鈥� and, she concludes, 鈥渢he time to step into AI and build a career is now because, unlike the technology, the business of AI, the legal and ethical aspects, are still being shaped.鈥�

Data Science Engineering 

Dr. Xin Chen, 51风流HANA Machine Learning, China

鈥淚 have always enjoyed working at 51风流since joining nine years ago. I like the work environment and the colleagues here and I really want to encourage others to join us here in AI,鈥� says Chen, data science researcher on the 51风流HANA Machine Learning team.

The team works on a toolbox providing different kinds of machine learning algorithms for regression, classification, clustering, and so on for the 51风流HANA predictive analysis library.

Part of Chen鈥檚 role is investigating research papers on the latest machine learning algorithms and, together with the team, deciding which algorithms would be beneficial to customers. Once the machine learning algorithms are implemented, Chen and the team evaluate feedback from customers and deliver enhancements.

Recently Chen and her team researched machine learning algorithms investigating notions of fairness. 鈥淔airness is a very hot topic just now,鈥� she says. 鈥淚n mathematics, there are different notions of fairness, but it is still a complex and evolving topic.鈥�

And Chen鈥檚 advice to would-be AI developers? 鈥淐ritical thinking will become even more important to understand what solutions to offer, to make judgements on your own innovations, and to know if the generated output is right or wrong,鈥� she says, reflecting on how this skill will become ever more important for future AI developers.

Product Management

Nadine Hoffmann, 51风流Business AI, Germany

鈥淚 translate and I want to fascinate,鈥� says Hoffmann, global AI product manager in the 51风流Business AI growth area.

Even after more than 20 years at SAP, disruptive ideas and mindset shifts still energize Hoffmann. To be an expert in new technologies, and to be energized and enthused by the constant volume and speed of them, is critical to being successful in the AI product management teams of today because product management is the glue between partners, customers, the field, and development.

鈥淥n the one hand,鈥� says Hoffmann, 鈥�51风流has data scientists, software engineers, and researchers taking our software to the next level. And on the other, there are experts defining the legal and ethical guardrails.鈥� Product management must be fluent in both 鈥渢echnical software speak鈥� and 鈥渃ustomer speak鈥� to understand desires, pain points, and business processes.

Pivoting between these and aligning customer speak with technical software speak is akin to being a听 translator, Hoffmann says. Our software will only meet the requirements of customers if there is a common understanding between the teams responsible for the technological development, the legal teams responsible for ethical and legal compliance, and the customer.

Regardless of the latest innovation, Hoffmann says success in product management is 鈥渘ot only about convincing teams and partners about the ease and positiveness of a technology, but also infusing them with a fascination about it so that they become passionate advocates and are intrinsically motivated to find out more by themselves.鈥�

Data Science Engineering

Puntis Palazzolo, AI Strategist & Ethics Lead, 51风流SuccessFactors, U.S.

鈥淭he ethical challenges presented by AI have transcended the scope of individual enterprises, extending beyond entities like SAP. It is crucial that we collaborate with others to collectively address AI鈥檚 emerging concerns,” says Palazzolo, who leads the 51风流SuccessFactors Data Science team.

The team acts as a consulting service on AI use cases for product teams in 51风流SuccessFactors, analyzing the problem, developing code and algorithms, and building proof-of-concepts. Successful AI use cases are then integrated into 51风流SuccessFactors solutions.

Much of the data in 51风流SuccessFactors solutions is sensitive customer data. With the dramatic increase in generative AI use cases, safeguarding customer data must take precedence, Palazzolo says. 鈥淕enerative AI is a powerful technology that introduces new challenges, such as hallucinations and automated decision-making. In high-risk sectors like HR, we need to explain how we reach certain decisions, especially when we are impacting people鈥檚 lives.鈥�

Palazzolo joined 51风流11 years ago and has been based in Palo Alto, California, since 2013, where she represents 51风流on 鈥� a collaboration of academia and companies, such as Google and NVIDIA, dedicated to developing safe practices and industry-standard benchmarks to improve AI models.鈥�

Her advice to current and would-be AI practitioners? Follow your passion, be ethical, and make your voice heard while we still have time.

鈥淟egislators alone cannot write AI regulations for us because they do not have a full understanding of its complexities,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e cannot solve all the problems by ourselves, but we must make our voices heard to shape the future of AI.鈥�

Alexa MacDonald is an 51风流News editor.

Q: What is your vision for how AI will shape the future of the IT industry?

Sun: Like with other major technology shifts, such as the breakthrough of the Internet, consumer understanding and adoption pave the way for more rapid business adoption. I think the same thing is happening in generative AI. The rapid consumer awareness of artificial intelligence, especially generative AI, in the past year was largely due to the November 2022 Chat GPT consumer release opening the door for AI and business applications.

Practically speaking, I’m seeing a crawl, walk, run approach to adoption. First of all, business leaders want to see it work. So, they鈥檙e going to try it out with close supervision and in smaller, more cautious ways to start.

After they鈥檝e gained some trust, they鈥檒l deploy it more broadly. Later, they will be so comfortable that they鈥檒l use it in all lines of their business. That will be a great opportunity for 51风流to help these businesses crawl, then walk, then run through this process.

Where do you see the biggest opportunity for 51风流in the AI space?

As a global leader in business applications, we can play a very big role in shaping how businesses adopt AI. It鈥檚 very exciting to be at the forefront of technology and also be in a position to do it responsibly.

At SAP, we want to grow trust from our customers. As you know, 51风流Business AI is relevant, reliable, and responsible. This position is deeply rooted in adhering to EU data protection laws. We have content filters, data provenance checks, and other features to help ensure accurate and reliable results. Our ethically responsible handling of AI helps ensure that customers can trust how we鈥檙e building these capabilities.

We are built for business: we have the deep knowledge and the shipped capabilities to make AI work for our customers. They know what their pain points are, and we can figure out how to solve the problem with technology. This is also about democratizing information for everybody, and we鈥檙e democratizing the ability for all businesses 鈥� large and small 鈥� to use AI.

I think we can use SAP鈥檚 unique selling point, which is our access to business data combined with this strong data privacy and protection standards, to get customers to understand that they can trust our technology. With Joule, 51风流is already shipping generative AI capabilities and, as we saw at 51风流TechEd, we have plans for delivering more both in product and for our developers in 51风流Business Technology Platform.

How do we balance the urgency of innovation with the prudence of ethical consideration in the deployment of AI?

I think AI ethics is an extremely important part of our equation. Trust takes years to earn but can be lost in seconds with one failure or one mistake. At SAP, we have made investments in to ensure we鈥檙e building responsible AI for our customers. This includes fairness, explainability and transparency, reliability, and safety. It also includes having accuracy of information, privacy, and security in place. We also have our 51风流AI Global Ethics Steering Committee helping to ensure further safeguards.

If we miss any aspect of this, we run a risk of breaking trust and moving backwards in our fast push to progress. From talking to customers, I鈥檝e been reaffirmed that they want to know what鈥檚 going on under the hood.

This is not just for knowing so they can share with their company leaders, but to help everyone be comfortable with generative AI because it is new to everybody. People are a little bit cautious as to what is possible, and they want to know what鈥檚 happening.

The more we can explain, the more we show that we have the technology under control, the more comfort people will have in adopting and using it, which then creates that flywheel of more usage, more trust, and more adoption.

How do you view the collaboration between academia and industry?

With any new innovation, having the collaborative effort is really important to move fastest.

As someone who has worked both in academia and industry, I see exciting opportunities in collaboration. At SAP, we want to build bridges, not silos. Let鈥檚 acknowledge academic priorities of publishing papers and state-of-the-art science and ask ourselves, 鈥淗ow can we partner so that it is a win-win situation for both of us?鈥�

We collaborate with academic research institutions to understand what state-of-the-art development is in the pipeline. Our role is to provide business knowledge and use cases and then merge that with the research scenarios to identify what could be practically implemented and be valuable to our customers.

SAP鈥檚 relationships with many top institutions, such as Stanford, Berkeley, MIT, and Technische Universit盲t M眉nchen, are really great. Our membership into the Stanford HAI program is a specific example. Beyond the research collaborations, the relationships help ensure that the best graduates from these universities think of 51风流when looking for their first job and guarantee that we鈥檙e on top of the latest technology.

In the latest episode of the AHA! Moments in Diversity & Inclusion video series, 51风流Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer Supriya Jha and Lengler discuss what inclusion awareness means to him.

On the Trail

The World Economic Forum estimates that more than 150 million people are homeless globally and, for Lengler, meeting one of them further cemented his passion for diversity and inclusion.

During his 162 days on the Appalachian Trail, Lengler discovered that another hiker he met had been homeless for more than 10 years. Initially, he was a little apprehensive about this fact 鈥� and the hiker. However, he quickly discovered that sharing a common goal 鈥� in this case to complete the trail 鈥� meant that any preconceptions or concerns about this formerly homeless individual ceased to be relevant. They were to spend the next four weeks hiking the trail together.

鈥淥n the trail,鈥� Lengler explains, 鈥測ou have the same goal, and you are open to all people there.鈥�

Unlearning Ingrained Behavior Patterns

Lengler reflects on those groups of individuals he refers to as 鈥渙ld white men clubs鈥� who have never consciously suffered exclusion and have no understanding of the barriers that others face. Identifying unconscious biases and unlearning ingrained behavior patterns is critical to sustaining the success of diversity and inclusion initiatives.

For Lengler, the important aspect of inclusion is not just to increase the number of employees from diverse backgrounds but to create a culture of true inclusion. Passionately, he explains that for him true inclusion means 100% acceptance for all team members, regardless of their backgrounds. Only team members who are 100% accepted and truly included in all aspects of team life will be able to bring their best selves to work and can be 鈥渙pen in their voice and their mind.鈥� 

The AHA! Moment

On the Appalachian Trail, Lengler experienced first-hand how a common goal and common hardship can bring people together. Above all else, someone who has different life experience or is in some way different from the rest of the team will bring another point of view and, says Lengler, 鈥渨ill look at the same problem in a different manner,鈥� crystallizing his conviction that when you share your goal, 鈥測ou can reach it together more easily instead of making it alone.鈥�

Diversity and Inclusion at SAP

In its , 51风流states its mission to become 鈥渢he most inclusive company in the world.鈥� In the U.S., for example, more than 40% of employees are from underrepresented groups. 51风流is on track to achieve long-term gender goals and has a five-generation workforce. 

One of the initiatives that the Global Diversity and Inclusion Office has launched to help further SAP鈥檚 progress towards becoming the most inclusive company in the world is the Inclusive Mindset Challenge. This challenge allows employees to learn about inclusion topics and the importance of becoming an ally for marginalized groups at their own pace. The challenge comprises a broad range of micro-learnings, such as menopause, transphobia, or sexism to name a few. In 2022, more than 11,000 employees completed this challenge. New challenges are added regularly; recent additions include indigenous inclusion and infuse D&I with AI.

51风流Inclusion Month

51风流has designated October 2023 as 51风流Inclusion Month. All employees are invited to join the inclusion journey and to get involved in an Employee Network Group (ENG) journey, allyship journey, and, for leaders, the intentional inclusion journey.

With more that 40,000 employees, ENGs are voluntary, employee-led diversity and inclusion initiatives representing groups such as visually impaired employees, caregivers, or Latinos.

With the allyship inclusion journey, employees are invited to use their privilege and power to support marginalized groups. With the intentional inclusion journey, leaders learn about intentional inclusion practices that can help further advance SAP鈥檚 journey to become a truly inclusive workplace.

Top photo courtesy of 51风流employee Celia Carillo.

Q: What is at the heart of the 51风流AppHaus approach?

A: 51风流AppHaus has always been a front-runner for incubating new products, technology, and methods. To date, we鈥檝e completed more than 1,000 customer co-innovation projects. But what makes us unique is our human-centered approach to innovation driven by a combined methodology of .

At an 51风流AppHaus customer workshop, people from IT, the business, and end users of our customers often come together for the first time ever! And this is where the dialogue begins 鈥� with the end users at the heart of the process. The core of our methodology is, first and foremost, to understand the end user鈥檚 problem. Finding a solution to that problem guides us from the first iteration to the go-live. And this is why, I believe, customers love to work with us 鈥� because we help them understand their problems before we come up with a solution and then help them solve it with 51风流technologies. Making innovation real and getting it into the hands of end users is our mantra.

One of the issues I see time and time again in some organizations is a tendency to build, sell, or talk about products before understanding the customer problem. Generative AI is a case in point. With all new technologies, people often believe that technology alone will solve all their problems. But generative AI cannot solve everything. To this end, we鈥檝e created a new . The goal is to identify use cases where generative AI is the perfect solution and can create high business value for our customers. 

What sparks change and innovation?

Experience drives change. Ten years ago, our customers wanted to have an Amazon-like experience with their 51风流apps, and this started to shift the focus to end-user experience and expectations. What, we had to ask ourselves, do customers and their end users need?

Creativity and new ideas are useless if they鈥檙e not implemented. If we implement something that nobody needs, then there鈥檚 no value. And with no value, there鈥檚 no innovation.

Innovation is creativity multiplied by execution to increase business value. True innovation adds business value and customers benefit from it. That鈥檚 innovation.

How do you measure the success of 51风流AppHaus? What are your KPIs?

Our focus on getting customers on stage to tell their story is unrelenting because are our currency.

Customers talking about their successful implementations and how they use 51风流solutions is the most powerful way to change perception about 51风流products. With our human-centered approach, we demonstrate that we support SAP鈥檚 activities and ambitions in different ways: by helping to sell our software and services, drive adoption of our products, improve products based on customer feedback, and promote 51风流as the innovation partner of choice. Our customer relationships are long-term 鈥� from accompanying customers to go-live, to helping them work successfully with their new 51风流solution, to helping them with further improvements and innovations.

51风流AppHaus focuses on use cases where customers want to innovate at speed and have a solution in a matter of months or even weeks. Getting those customers live on the stage at events like 51风流Sapphire and 51风流TechEd is a major performance indicator for 51风流AppHaus.

At 51风流TechEd this year, for example, our customer success stories included AMD, Doehler, Henkel, Pif Paf, and Orbia. Let鈥檚 not forget, this is always the result of a cross-team effort that involves organizations from across SAP. All organizations contribute their outstanding business and technical knowledge to the overall success. The additional skills 51风流AppHaus brings to the table are methodologies to understand the needs of people (user research) and visualize the potential solutions (UX design) as well as the skills to execute a customer project on a holistic basis.

How is 51风流AppHaus scaling its success?

As long ago as 2016, we had to think about how we could scale our approach and create even more customer success stories, which led to us launching our first pilot with a partner based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Today has 22 locations and teams 鈥� three run by 51风流and 19 by partners 鈥� with more than 15,000 employees. There is an 51风流AppHaus partner on every continent! Our most recent partner addition is in Mexico.

All partners joined the network as single companies. But over time, the network has evolved, with its members teaming up across the globe to form a community of collaborating companies. What unites them is their joint vision to make innovation real by applying a human-centered approach that starts with people, not technology. To give an example, the network has a very active enterprise architect community with about 120 members currently focusing on generative AI.

51风流AppHaus typically works with local 51风流market units to identify smaller, agile partners that can provide a deep understanding of the local culture and a focus on that region or country.

What makes 51风流AppHaus special?

In the team, there鈥檚 a culture of openness, a lack of hierarchy, space for disagreements, and time to reach a consensus. Above all, I would say that the team is a learning organization. The team has the amazing power of reinventing itself every two years or so to embrace new products, trends, and methodologies.

What have you learned about leadership during your time at 51风流AppHaus?

As a leader, the process of learning how to lead the team the right way is an ongoing process. I absolutely believe in empowering employees to be their best selves and to reach their potential. But the flip side of empowering employees is that employees need to take accountability. The role of a leader is to find the balance.

I have had a very good experience with just being authentic, telling it like it is, and putting my ego aside. It is all about the team and its focus on customer success. I am a person just like everybody else. And, yes, I play a certain role, but like others I too have had my challenges.

I鈥檝e led 51风流AppHaus since it was founded 10 years ago. During that time, I had cancer twice. It gave me a chance to reinvent myself. Today, I am thankful for this experience because it helped me find a better work-life balance and become a better leader. My key takeaway is this: focus on the topics that really matter, get them done, and give others the space to do what they are best at.

Top image courtesy of 51风流employee Karsten Hohage

Reforestation projects have long played a crucial part in storing and removing CO₂ from the atmosphere and are one of the keys to a low-carbon future. For more than a decade, climate action has been at the top of SAP鈥檚 corporate agenda along with the three other key sustainability focus areas 鈥� holistic steering and reporting, circular economy, and social responsibility.

One of the company鈥檚 climate goals is to foster biodiversity and nature-based solutions to combat climate change. The provides transparency on SAP鈥檚 financial, social, and environmental performance and targets; information on measures to reduce CO₂; and progress on SAP鈥檚 journey to achieve net zero along its value chain by 2030. For example, 51风流runs all its offices and data centers with 100% renewable electricity, delivers sustainability management solutions to customers, and has financed the planting of more than 15 million trees to date to restore ecosystems and foster sustainable development. Since 2021, 51风流has been part of , a corporate alliance committed to conserving, restoring, and growing 1 trillion trees by 2030.

Planting trees might sound simple, but reforestation projects must be in harmony with the needs of the local community and ecosystem to avoid doing more harm than good in the long run. This is where scientific tree planting projects have a vital role to play.

Project Highlight: The Carbon Community

Charitable donations from 51风流support scientific plots in 51风流Forest UK at , based in Wales, UK.

The Carbon Community鈥檚 mission is to optimize nature-based solutions to combat climate change. SAP鈥檚 donations have contributed to a landmark carbon study that started two years ago.

This study 鈥� the world鈥檚 first 鈥� investigates how sequestration of CO₂ in trees and soil can be accelerated by combining two nature-based climate solutions. This aligns with SAP鈥檚 strategy of using nature-based solutions whenever possible to fight climate change.

To be as sure as possible that planted trees deliver the anticipated benefits, 51风流works with reputable and experienced partners like The Carbon Community that have been subjected to a rigorous selection and monitoring process.

Other Trusted Partners

SAP鈥檚 longest partnership is with , where 51风流investments have funded the planting of over 13 million trees in Senegal, Rwanda, India, Indonesia, Guatemala, and Mexico. These investments with LCF help the environment and the local community while also generating carbon credits.

51风流also donates to charitable organizations, extending support to projects in countries such as Australia, Brazil, Haiti, Indonesia, Nepal, Madagascar, and scientific research in Wales.

Providing Transparency

Trusted partners must provide transparency on their projects; for example, key metrics, annual reports, and updates such as the from The Carbon Community.

For customers, offer transparency on environmental and social performance. 51风流solutions can record emissions in supply chains, report emissions in a way comparable to standardized reporting, and identify and analyze ways to reduce emissions. , for example, is a single solution to help calculate and manage a full range of corporate, value chain, and product-level greenhouse emissions. And, 51风流is pioneering a concept that can allow customers to track the carbon entering and leaving their systems and to balance their 鈥渃arbon books鈥� in the same way as they balance their financial books.

A Step in the Right Direction

Although cost-effective and essential for all life on earth, it is a gross oversimplification to claim that nature-based solutions alone, such as those proposed by The Carbon Community, or planting 1 trillion trees in the next seven years will fix the global loss of biodiversity and stop climate change. 

For this reason, reforestation projects and scientific tree planting projects are just one piece of SAP鈥檚 climate action plan, along with reducing its own carbon emissions and enabling customers to accelerate their own net-zero journeys with customer solutions for sustainability.

In terms of numbers, the scientific plots of 51风流Forest UK account for less than 1% of the total number of trees planted with support from 51风流鈥� but measuring the potential is another matter altogether. If the current field studies facilitated by The Carbon Community are successful and scaled up, that 1% could make an immeasurable difference to how beneficial future reforestation initiatives could be in terms of promoting biodiversity and rates of carbon sequestration.

Science-based research to optimize nature-based solutions , together with 51风流Sustainability solutions to combat climate, change is, without doubt, a significant step in the right direction.

Top image courtesy of The Carbon Community

The recent acceleration of generative artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities — as shown in a demo of at 51风流Sapphire Orlando this year, for example — has left customers eager to embed these capabilities into their 51风流applications as soon as possible.

Now, the challenge for 51风流is to meet this demand with embedded generative AI capabilities that are not only efficient but also sustainable, responsible, and trustworthy. One part of this complex puzzle is collaboration with the 51风流AI Ethics Advisory Panel.

51风流was the first major European tech company to create an AI ethics advisory panel five years ago, comprising independent AI ethics experts from academia and industry. The panel, sponsored by Thomas Saueressig, Executive Board member of 51风流SE, 51风流Product Engineering, convenes twice a year. Together with the 51风流AI Global Ethics steering committee, panelists discuss current AI ethics issues and anticipate upcoming ones. Continuing to build on this tradition, panelists this year included:

• Peter Dabrock听(virtual), chair of Systematic Theology (Ethics), University of Erlangen, Germany
• Susan Liautaud, lecturer in Public Policy and Law Stanford University, U.S.
• Nicholas Wright, consultant and intelligent biology affiliated scholar at Georgetown University Medical Center, U.S., honorary research associate at University College London, UK
• Paul Twomey, global听founding figure of ICANN, co-founder of STASH, Australia
• Emma Ruttkamp-Bloem, professor and head of the Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities at the University of Pretoria, South Africa

The Office of the Chief Sustainability Officer chairs this annual meeting and, as Schmid explained, 鈥渞uns the AI ethics governance process to guarantee independent oversight of AI ethics at 51风流and to guarantee that the 51风流commitment on global human rights is taken into account.鈥�

Day One: Understanding the Risks

With human rights top of mind, the AI Ethics Advisory Panel got to work, focusing on use cases with embedded generative AI capabilities.

Discussions were frank and fruitful: Is the identity of the individual really protected? Are users truly informed about what the app can and can鈥檛 do? What about consent? What is the risk of harm to individuals if information is incorrect? What about legal liability? 51风流has a responsibility to make apps safe — how can it? Does the cost of raising revenue and efficiency with generative AI also mean an increase in risk to our customers’ data, reputation, and to SAP?

51风流regards all generative AI use cases as high risk because of current technological limitations such as hallucinations, high effort of training, and the high effort of operations. In addition, other risks include biases in output, potential misuse of models, and the fact that the legal frameworks for intellectual property and copyright for generative AI are still uncertain.

High-risk use cases are subject to a high degree of scrutiny and must be assessed by the 51风流AI Global Ethics steering committee before development can continue.

For example, aspects such as processing personal or sensitive data, automated decision-making, and the negative effect on individuals or groups of individuals are examined, as well as the planned domain for deployment. Law enforcement, healthcare, democratic processes, employment, and HR are just some examples of types of applications that 51风流deems to be high risk in the context of generative AI.

Day Two: Unlocking the Potential with AI Ethics

On the agenda for day two was SAP鈥檚 strategy for generative AI, a discussion on human rights and AI, and the progress that 51风流is making toward equipping the workforce to deliver responsible and trustworthy AI.

Part of the AI ethics framework is dedicated to workforce enablement, delivering the knowledge, skills, tools, and processes required to make informed decisions about deployment. The panel offered feedback on SAP鈥檚 proposals on how to further embed AI ethics in its corporate DNA.

The advisory panel concluded that the key to unleashing the full potential of generative AI is to understand the current potential pitfalls and dangers and that SAP鈥檚 AI governance framework is in a strong position to adapt, respond, and manage the ethical challenges of generative AI going forward.

The detailed findings of the advisory panel are shared with the 51风流AI Global Ethics steering committee and the Executive Board of 51风流SE.

Interview with Professor Ruttkamp-Bloem

In an interview, Ruttkamp-Bloem answered questions on AI, her experience on the panel, and why language matters.

Q: How can the potential of AI be actualized?

A: The potential of AI can only be fully actualized if it is fully adopted, and it can鈥檛 be fully adopted if it is not trusted — and it won鈥檛 be trusted if it is not ethically governed.

What is sustainable AI technology?

The only sustainable AI technology is ethical, responsibly governed AI technology. If you don鈥檛 have sustainable AI — AI that is ethical and responsibly governed — your reputation will be damaged, you鈥檒l have court cases and, ultimately, you will lose business.

How does 51风流work with the AI Ethics Advisory Panel to make AI ethics part of our corporate DNA?

The 51风流team that the panel interacts with doesn鈥檛 actually need the panel! 51风流has done homework itself on these issues and, in many cases, they are people who have not had any kind of specific training and have stepped beyond the parameters of their software engineering background, but they knew what they are talking about with terms such as structural bias, identity, prejudice, and more. And now, 51风流has a whole AI ethics structure in which, from my experience at World Benchmark Alliance, is lacking at many other companies. 51风流is one of only 22% of companies that say anything about ethics on their Website.

Just putting up guiding principles is useless without actualizing them, but SAP, unlike other companies I have consulted, has a bottom line, meaning that if there are certain ethical concerns it will pause the project and go back to the drawing board.

51风流does have an AI ethics structure in place, 51风流does know what it鈥檚 talking about, 51风流does understand that the next step is actualization, and 51风流listens to the panel.

For example, at last year鈥檚 meeting, the panel discussed how 51风流could start talking about the impact of AI ethics in the company and how teams would feel if their projects had to be rethought or paused because of AI ethics concerns. 51风流responded with different initiatives, such as the very successful open51风流course “AI Ethics at SAP,” as well as an internal AI ethics speaker series. It鈥檚 also clear that, on the ground and in the company itself, 51风流is actively supporting development teams to manage the additional requirements of developing AI ethically. 51风流is going out of its way to tell teams why these steps are necessary because, ultimately, developing AI ethically is about developing a sustainable product.

Why is the intersection of human rights and AI critical?

The growing number of use cases means that the scope for harm and misuse is also growing. As previously explained, sustainable AI technology has to be ethically and responsibly governed and the reason for this lies in the nature of the technology; it鈥檚 not human-centered, but human-driven.

The math behind AI is beautiful, but without the human data it鈥檚 nothing. This is not emphasized enough because AI builds on what we typically do as humans and thus builds on bias, so bad things are amplified because the algorithms latch onto patterns and, in the absence of knowing good from bad, bad things can be amplified and the whole thing explodes. There is an ethical reason to take responsibility and ethically govern software because of the harm that can come from AI and the overall threat it has to what it means to be human.

How does the phrasing of guiding principles impact trust?

The phrasing of principles is critical to making them understandable. It is hard to adhere to principles that you were not part of framing and a language you do not recognize. This is where the UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI is unique, as the ad hoc expert team that drafted the recommendation, of which I was the chair, went out of their way to include different articulations of shared values — some of which had to regrettably be changed during member states negotiations as there is the issue of diplomatically recognized vocabulary.

Companies that operate globally and have ethical principles want everyone to understand them and ultimately these companies want the technology that they鈥檙e building to be useful in the society in which it will be deployed. But if you have a set of principles articulated in a vocabulary that doesn鈥檛 make sense to the society where you鈥檙e deploying your technology, it will impact the trust and the scope of adoption. Culture plays a part. It鈥檚 an interpretation tool, a lens that, if used in policy making and related discourse, can make people feel more involved. They see the vocabulary they know and, consequently, adherence to and trust in this process come more easily.

Arroyo uses she/her/hers pronouns, identifies as a woman, and regards being transgender as a process and not an identity. As a woman, a Latina, and a member of the security and compliance community at large, 51风流Concur, Intelligent Spend Management, and SAP, she discusses how intersectionality 鈥� the overlap of distinct identities 鈥� is key for understanding that LGBTQIA+ individuals are more than their sexual orientation or gender identity. At SAP, intersectionality is part of our culture and allows Arroyo to bring all these identities together and be her authentic self at work.

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The AHA! Moments

For Arroyo, there was not one but two defining AHA! moments in her life when she realized that she can be her authentic self at work 鈥� the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court Bostock v. Clayton County ruling and reviewing the 51风流gender transition guidelines.

In June 2020, 19 years after the birth of Pride@SAP and nine years after 51风流pledged in its to prohibit 鈥渄iscrimination and harassment based on personal factors including but not limited to […] gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or expression,鈥� the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it was illegal to fire employees because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Prior to this ruling, employees could be fired for being gay, bisexual, or transgender in more than half the states in the U.S. 鈥淪eeing that ruling,鈥� recalls Arroyo, 鈥渨as very encouraging for me to come forth in the workplace to be myself.鈥�

The 51风流gender transition guidelines also signaled clearly to her that 51风流is a safe place to transition.

For many transgender people, including Arroyo, there comes a point when they start to align their lives and physical identities to their gender identity, generally with the goal of living consistently in their gender identity full time. Employers are key to facilitating this process to make it as smooth as possible. For many 51风流employees, teams, and managers, working with a transitioning or transitioned colleague will be a new situation; there may be anxiety about expected behavior or questions and uncertainty about how to support a colleague during the gender transition process.

The Employee View

The 51风流gender transition guidelines set out clearly how an employee can start this process 鈥� from the notification of gender transition to clarification on appearance. All 51风流employees are bound to the 51风流dress code and have the right to express themselves according to their gender identity. Issues like restroom and health facilities access based on an employee鈥檚 gender identity are also, for example, addressed in the guidelines.

The HR and Manager View

The correct support of HR and the manager of the transitioning employee is a top priority to safeguard employee well-being.

The guidelines explain how HR designates a people relations partner to support the transgender or transitioning employee and explains the manager鈥檚 obligation to respect employee privacy. It also provides guidance on how a manager can address concerns of other team members as questions may arise. Managers are urged to be open, to listen, and to work closely with the people relations partner.

HR is also responsible for changing names and pronouns on all non-regulatory documentation such as e-mail, access badge, and so on.

No More Deadnaming

Deadnaming happens when a person鈥檚 previous name, which does not correspond to their gender identity, is used. Using this previous name stops others from seeing and getting a sense of the person鈥檚 true identity.

Arroyo explains that updating her name, pronouns, and gender marker in company applications, such as 51风流SuccessFactors solutions, e-mail, MS Teams, and other communication systems, was extremely important to convey to others who she is. Although this was not a simple process because of the coordination required between the IT and HR departments, these updates are crucial to successfully transitioning at SAP.

Updating her name to Robyn was a critical component in coming out at SAP. It allowed her to be her authentic self and, as she says with a broad smile, 鈥淲hen I saw my name, I saw myself. And when others see my name, they know who I am.鈥�

鈥淓veryone鈥檚 autism is slightly different,鈥� Dietsch explains. Before the terms neurodiversity and neurodivergent became common currency to describe these differences in brain functions and behavior, autism was often classified as a disability.

Today, most individuals on the autism spectrum reject the 鈥渄isability鈥� label. Neurodivergent means just that: different, not disabled.

More often than not, says Dietsch, neurotypical individuals who view neurodivergence 鈥渁s a disability and a hindrance鈥� are the ones applying a disability label to an autistic individual鈥檚 differences in behavior, interaction, or communication.

Unfortunately, these differences can sometimes make it difficult for autistic individuals to shine in conventional job interviews, contributing to the higher rates of unemployment or under-employment in this group.

To make recruiting practices fairer and to promote an autistic-inclusive workplace, 51风流founded the program in 2013.

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Autism at Work Program

With a team dedicated to fostering an inclusive workplace experience for autistic colleagues, the Autism at Work program offers tailored accommodations including, for example, the sharing of interview topics in advance and an Autism at Work buddy for new hires.

This global program not only signals a commitment to autism inclusion but provides robust tools and processes to deliver it. More than 215 colleagues have been hired in association with this program or have self-disclosed.

The program has been vital in hiring autistic employees who, in turn, often become role models and an inspiration to others.

The AHA! Moment: The Role Model

Dietsch recalls very clearly the moment when he realized that 51风流could be the right fit for him and a workplace where he could thrive.

At an Autism at Work event in 2018, Dietsch met someone on the autism spectrum working in cybersecurity at SAP. Seeing this positive role model made him believe in himself and that he, too, could work in cybersecurity. He felt inspired to apply.

With a hiring format designed to set him up for success 鈥� no open questions, no group tasks, no relying on eye contact, for example 鈥� Dietsch secured an internship at 51风流before applying to his current permanent position.

鈥淚 Do Not Have to Mask Myself鈥�

Only 5% of disabled and neurodivergent employees choose to disclose. A culture that makes employees feel uncomfortable or vulnerable about being their true selves puts great pressure on the individual, increases the chances that employees will not reach their full potential, and increases the chances that companies will lose out on valuable talent.

By the time Dietsch joined SAP, he had experienced firsthand the strength of SAP鈥檚 commitment to welcome neurodivergent employees. He had first heard of Autism at Work in 2013, attended another Autism at Work event in 2016, and experienced a life-changing moment in 2018 when, at another Autism at Work event, he met the colleague who worked at 51风流in cybersecurity.

By 2019, Dietsch had also experienced the Autism at Work hiring process that played to his strengths and had secured an internship.

Disclosing his neurodivergence was not an issue 鈥� there was no risk. SAP鈥檚 commitment to autism inclusion was already clear to him. He could be his true self with no need to adapt his behavior or endure the mental strain of trying to be someone else to fit in. He felt included and had a clear sense of belonging.

A Culture of Autism Inclusion

51风流has two important pillars for fostering inclusion of individuals on the autism spectrum:

• Autism at Work: This program was Dietsch鈥檚 initial touchpoints with SAP. It acts as the external-facing arm focused on hiring and onboarding autistic employees as well as creating an inclusive workplace.
• Autism Inclusion Network (AIN): This is an Employee Network Group from 51风流with Chief Technology Officer and Executive Board Member Juergen Mueller as the sponsor. AIN acts as the internal platform promoting belonging for 51风流employees and driving workplace diversity and inclusion.

Working with Our Strengths

Dietsch is clear about the strengths of autistic colleagues. For example, if you are looking for a frank, honest opinion, then your autistic colleagues will give you one each and every time 鈥� especially at SAP, where autistic colleagues are empowered to be their true selves. The important thing to remember, says Dietsch, is that even when the honesty feels brutal, it鈥檚 not personal.

Leave out the irony, the sayings, and any form of communication that requires 鈥渞eading between the lines鈥� to get the best out of your interactions with autistic colleagues. It is, says Dietsch, quite simple: 鈥淟et鈥檚 meet in the middle.鈥�

In the latest episode of the video series AHA! Moments for Diversity & Inclusion, 51风流Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer Supriya Jha talks to Romo Edelman about how personal experience and a desire to safeguard her daughter鈥檚 future has resulted in 300 global corporations signing the Hispanic Promise, a pledge to recruit, retain, and promote Hispanics.

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Video by John Hunt

Romo Edelman is a Mexican-Swiss diplomat: an activist for diversity, equity, and inclusion who has led marketing and advocacy for global organizations such as the World Economic Forum, UN Refugee Agency, and UNICEF. She founded to advance equity through diversity and inclusion, as well as the to elevate and empower Hispanics, the largest and fastest growing ethnic minority in the United States.

鈥淚 lived my entire life as a happy Mexican,鈥� she recalls, until, after 25 years in Europe, she moved to the United States and heard, for the first time, that she was not (just) a Mexican or a Mexican-Swiss but a Hispanic 鈥� that is, a person living in the United States who is descended from Spanish-speaking people.

Initially, being Hispanic seemed amazing to her. Judging by the number of Hispanics living in United States 鈥� the largest ethnic minority 鈥� she thought she would no longer be in a minority. But she 鈥渄idn鈥檛 see the red carpet anywhere,鈥� recalls Romo Edelman.

Her ‘AHA’ moment came when she realized that her Hispanic daughter would face discrimination in the workplace, likely earning far less than her U.S. counterparts. Wanting her daughter to graduate and get a job in a society where being Hispanic is a positive and not a negative, Romo Edelman decided to focus her energy, experience, and expertise on her own community, creating Hispanic Star, a foundation to promote Hispanic inclusion.

Romo Edelman鈥檚 approach to Hispanic inclusion is threefold, comprising the Hispanic Star Fund, the Hispanic Star, and the Hispanic Promise. The Hispanic Promise, of which 51风流was one of the first signatories, is a corporate pledge to recruit, retain, and promote Hispanics; the Hispanic Star is a brand to represent Hispanic unity and pride; and the Hispanic Star Fund allows companies to donate to causes important to the Hispanic community.

Romo Edelman says that the journey to equity for Hispanics is about recognizing their distinct roots and cultures, and that the 鈥淗ispanic Star鈥� is one of many stars that make up the United States. 鈥淭here is no one seat at the table because there’s no table. There’s only a country full of opportunities for everybody to be able to shine,鈥� she says.

Here, meet the finalists in the Products and Technology category.

The Hasso Plattner Founders鈥� Award is the highest
employee recognition at SAP, awarded annually by the CEO
to an individual or a team.

Finalist: Carbon Data Network

In the chase for net zero, all businesses must disclose their carbon emissions, but aggregating verified emissions data along their entire supply chains is not possible.

Considering the limited accuracy of public emission databases often used for measurements, numerous suppliers and countries, and no common standards for measuring, auditing, or verifying carbon emissions, pressure is growing on businesses for transparent, credible supply chain emission information.

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Video by Esteban Villate

鈥淚f you don鈥檛 have the underlying data about the entire footprint of carbon emissions in the supply chain, how are you going to make good decisions about your suppliers? It鈥檚 just not possible if you don鈥檛 have good quality data,鈥� says Marcus Krug, product manager at SAP.

In addition to verifiable emissions data, the team around Carbon Data Network realized that the carbon emissions sustainability space has a unique feature: all industries — or, at a minimum, certain sectors of industry — are potentially interconnected, regardless of vendor, size, or country. Ultimately, nearly every business, large or small, must track emissions. Any boundaries would be artificial and could exclude businesses.

To secure success in this space, networks must be open and inclusive. How can such a network be secure, trusted and credible?

Decarbonization Is a Team Sport

Using blockchain technology, zero-knowledge proofs, and self-sovereign identity (SSI), the team created Carbon Data Network, an interoperable network that is open to all businesses while safeguarding business data privacy and verifying carbon emissions.

Trusted issuers assign decentralized identities as verifiable credentials to businesses joining the Carbon Data Network. With SSI, businesses have control over when and how they share emissions data. When a request for emissions data is sent to a business (data owner) from another business (requester), the data owner transfers the requested emissions data directly from its back end to the requester’s back end. Zero-knowledge proofs verify accounting standards in the emissions calculations.

Pilot customers include Maersk and H&M, , among others. The team also has proof feasibility in the Chinese blockchain infrastructure, as well as the EU and U.S.

Decentralized and open, Carbon Data Network can be monetized via the network clients. If successful, this network will connect businesses globally and extend the reach of 51风流Business Network. A plan to issue decentralized identities to the 3 million customers in 51风流Business Network offers another possible revenue stream for SAP; existing 51风流Business Network customers will request emissions data from non-51风流Business Network customers.

Decarbonization Is a Global Collaborative Process

With a permission-less blockchain infrastructure and an extremely low barrier for entry, Carbon Data Network offers a vendor-neutral network. Decentralized identifiers guarantee that businesses in the network can be trusted, so every business on the planet will have access to verifiable carbon emissions data and decarbonization becomes a global collaborative process.

Finalist Fast Facts

• Submission Title: Carbon Data Network
• Team: Marcus Krug, Mehran Shakeri, Nicola Zanon, Anne Taubitz, Niko Lockenvitz, Madhubala Ganesan, Pembe Karahan, Phipps Xue, Jesper Schleimann, Mohan Shekar, Yan Zhao, Pouline Mensen
• Number of employees: 12
• Achievement: An open, decentralized network application allows every business on the planet — regardless of geography, industry, or company size — to share trustworthy, verifiable carbon emission data with each other.
• Impact: The ability to measure and reduce carbon emissions influences the planet’s decarbonization. The established network could be leveraged to enable any other cross-company business collaboration and is not restricted to sharing only carbon emission data.

Finalist: 51风流Intelligent Agriculture

While more than one quarter of the global workforce is employed in agriculture and feeds Earth’s population, agriculture is currently facing an unprecedented mix of challenges driven by climate change, global conflicts, and limited resources.

All players along the agribusiness and food value chain are increasingly concerned about sustainability, how to make regenerative agriculture profitable, and how to remain competitive. A common vision has emerged of efficient, sustainable, and resilient agriculture.

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Video by Matt Dillman

The team around 51风流Intelligent Agriculture leveraged the 51风流Advisory Council for Agribusiness and worked with the associated Workgroup for Efficient and Sustainable Farming with 14 customers to understand needs and challenges.

鈥淲e discovered that the vision of applying technology to make farming smart in many aspects just practically wasn鈥檛 working yet,鈥� recalls Cedrik Kern, solution owner at SAP. “Many of our customers had already invested in new capabilities such as drones and AI models, but had significant challenges to leverage these investments in their day-to-day farming processes, services, and decisions.”

Industry Cloud Solution Helps Future Food Security

鈥淲e knew we needed to deliver fast to capture a critical time window in the market, so the whole team committed to releasing after only nine months of development,鈥� says Florian Waidner, product manager at SAP. “The team worked relentlessly and we were able to get the solution to the market in time, which is truly remarkable.”

51风流Intelligent Agriculture makes next-generation, data-driven farming processes and services a reality. For the first time, 51风流customers can now rely on an enterprise-grade, native cloud solution to capture and manage farm data at a granular level and optimize farm planning and operations based on their valuable experience. Combined with artificial intelligence (AI) and data science models, agribusinesses now have the potential to produce more while reducing water, fertilizer, and pesticides.

Driving innovation, 51风流Intelligent Agriculture is also a frontrunner in multiple areas, such as feature-driven development supported by deploy with confidence, which helps to release new features instantly, and the new Industry Cloud Enterprise Agreement.

Royal Eswatini Sugar Corporation Limited is already on board as an early adopter customer, with others in the pipeline.

Farming for the Future

51风流Intelligent Agriculture is unlocking a market of intelligent farming operations for 51风流鈥� estimated to be worth US$1 to $2 billion 鈥� empowering agriculture customers to remain competitive, run resilient operations, farm efficiently and sustainably, and help ensure food security.

Finalist Fast Facts

• Submission Title:听51风流Intelligent Agriculture 鈥� Sustainably Feeding the World
• Team: Cross-functional team
• Number of employees: Core team of approximately 50, with many other stakeholders and supporters across the company
• Achievement: Enabling data-driven farming processes and services for more a sustainable, efficient, and resilient agricultural production, now working with the first early adoption customer to bring the solution capabilities to the field.
• Impact: Enormous potential for 51风流to grow with cloud solutions in the agribusiness industry’s total addressable market of US$5 to $10 billion, with the solution as a driver and enabler for 51风流S/4HANA, 51风流Digital Supply Chain, 51风流Business Technology Platform, and 51风流Customer Experience solutions in the space.

Finalist: Feather by SAP

Brand retailers often use dedicated brand-owned channels to sell their premium apparel. These channels offer carefully curated customer journeys and customer touchpoints. Outstanding customer experience is the key to customer brand loyalty.

However, Joanna Maryeswka, general manager and founder of the SAP.iO Venture Studio program in New York, experienced another journey when selling and buying secondhand brand apparel, a journey that 鈥渇elt very tedious鈥� to her as a customer. 鈥淲hy,鈥� she wondered, 鈥渁re these consignment marketplaces making so much money out of a product they never made?鈥�

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Video by David Aguirre

Venture capital funding trends today are showing the continued rise of the secondhand apparel market. One estimate projects that the global market for secondhand apparel will grow 127% to US$218 billion in the next five years, driven in part by a demographic looking for lower acquisition costs, concern for the planet, or both.

How can brand retailers appeal to this market, particularly consumers motivated by lower acquisition costs and concern for the planet? How can they take control of their secondhand apparel, monetize it, promote responsible consumption, and protect their brand?

Apparel Retailers Grow Sales Without Manufacturing More

The answer is Feather by SAP, which unlocks recommerce, a new growth area for 51风流and brand retailers, with an end-to-end solution to launch, manage, and scale resell.

Built on a cloud-based platform, Feather by SAP, now part of the 51风流Customer Experience portfolio, comprises back-end integrations and workflows that feed all transaction data to a reporting dashboard. From managing inventory and taking back the apparel to issuing store credits, preparing apparel for recommerce, and posting the apparel to a branded storefront, Feather by 51风流manages the complete resell cycle.

From five full-time members after their first year to 11 today, the lean team has had more than 30 customer engagements, including Tapestry, PVH, and one active pilot customer, Sports Basement.

Fashion for the Future

With this new business model and solution, Feather by 51风流is shifting brand retailers from a linear to a circular business model, increasing business value with no additional resource consumption with a model that manages the green line, unlocks a new market for customers and SAP, and grows the customer鈥檚 and SAP鈥檚 top line at the same time.

Finalist Fast Facts

• Submission Title: Feather by 51风流鈥� Reimagine Recommerce
• Team: Joanna Maryewska, Raghunath Posa, Kenneth Fajardo, and a global team spanning four continents
• Number of employees: 11 employees supported by fellows and interns
• Achievement: The enterprise-ready鈥痚nd-to-end solution for a new sustainable business model of resale had its first customer onboarded, a planned a recommerce pilot, and more than 30+ accounts engaged this year. Resale capabilities to 51风流customers at scale are in the pipeline.
• Impact: For a better, more sustainable tomorrow, Feather by 51风流is an enabler for launching and scaling recommerce, allowing customers to purchase, manage, and resell pre-owned goods while simultaneously tracking key financial and performance indicators.

Visitors flocked to these portraits on opening night. Shot in black and white and devoid of the stereotypical feminine attributes of perfectly made-up face, hair, complimentary clothes, or colors, these images condense and edit to the essence of Merkel鈥檚 character. Captured by a female photographer, the focus is not on Merkel as female but on the characteristics that made her a powerful politician.

Christa Winter鈥檚 modern take on Renaissance women, such as those portrayed by Leonardo da Vinci, concentrate attention very much on gender. During the Renaissance, an era that marked the end of the Middle Ages in Europe, aristocratic urban women had some level of determination over their own lives; they could, for example, have a profession and some measure of control over their finances. Winter captures this growing sense of entitlement and self-confidence in her portraits that are of 鈥渂ody-conscious women, strong, intelligent, beautiful, [who] could be entrepreneurs, bosses, or startup founders, without denying their feminine physicality.鈥�

It鈥檚 difficult to tell if the women in Look At Me, by Danielle Zimmermann, are body conscious or not. Is the seated woman posing suggestively or innocently? Is her companion, her face hidden by a head of long and luxurious brown hair, shy or defiant? Knee-length silk tunics reveal their flawless skin, their perfectly shaped legs, and manicures. Delicate hummingbirds are fluttering around them. These idealized portraits would not be out of place on the cover of a glossy magazine, except for the canvas 鈥� old cardboard boxes 鈥� wash powder, meat, car oil, and tissues, the mundane reality of consumerism clashing with an unrealistic construct of beauty.

Even for visitors unfamiliar with EVA & ADELE, themselves both artists, Birgit Helmy鈥檚 sculpture of the couple perched on a gold chair with their egg-shaped shaved heads, matching pink mini dresses, and knee-length red boots gives visitors pause for thought on feminine physicality, gender, and sexuality. EVA & ADELE did not marry until EVA 鈥� who has the body of a man 鈥� was legally recognized as female. What role does gender play here? In a conversation, the sculptor stresses how important it is to celebrate and defend such gender journeys.

Another of Helmy鈥檚 sculptures, Rettungsring (Eng: Lifesaver ring) is a life-size terracotta statue of a young girl in a blue bathing suit with a red lifesaver ring around her waist. With open eyes, she is staring into the distance and, as your mind orders the contents of what you are seeing, you realize that her arms are trapped inside the lifesaver ring, rendering her captive and immobile. She exercises power in the only way possible 鈥� in giving us the finger.

Other women do not even have the option of moving a finger in protest: in Phase 2, metal fishhooks stretch lips to create a perfect smile, women are completely absent from the dancing skirts (Broadway) or trapped in a dystopian world (Rituale der Neuenzeit, Eng: New Age Rituals).

These 14 female artists, born between 1935 and 1981, present visitors a wealth of perspectives in this extensive range of works that include sculpture, a video installation, paintings, kinetic installations, and photographs. With this exhibition now open, visitors can experience for themselves 鈥� both virtually or in person 鈥� how female artists use women and femininity in their art to continually reframe and recalibrate topics such as power, beauty, and gender.

Curated by Alexandra Cozgarea, the exhibition is at the 51风流Training Center in Walldorf, Germany, and runs until September 30, 2022. Opening hours are Monday through Friday, 10:00 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Admission is free. In addition, there鈥檚 a available.