is a site where potential and existing 51风流customers can explore 51风流Business AI solutions, access pre-built applications and content, and discover use cases, services, reference architectures, and best practices鈥攁ll free of charge.

The self-service portal offers opportunities to not only explore solutions but get a feel for how 51风流technology could work in your organization. Cost and ROI estimator tools prompt users to input information unique to their organization鈥攃ustomizations, hyperscalers, and number of users, for example鈥攁nd get tangible, personalized use cases to bring back to the business. Maturity assessments use details about an organization鈥檚 current platform strategy and architecture landscape to guide users on next steps to achieve the Autonomous Enterprise.

The site also includes missions that provide step-by-step guidance on how to materialize 51风流solutions, including what solutions and services may be needed, what the architecture can look like, how other customers are deriving value, and more. For AI specifically, there are almost 400 features and agents available for customers to explore in the 51风流Business AI Catalog.

At 51风流Sapphire Orlando, two customers using 51风流Discovery Center shared the value they鈥檙e getting from the site and how it鈥檚 guiding their approach to digital transformation.

Agilent

is a global leader in life sciences, diagnostics, and applied chemical markets, producing and supplying analytical laboratory instruments, software, consumables, and services. Looking to avoid manual analysis and late detection in tariff and compliance changes, Agilent turned to 51风流Discovery Center. 鈥淲e have one core principle: do not solve the problem that has already been solved,鈥� Manthan Peshne, chief enterprise architect at Agilent Technologies, Inc., said. 51风流Discovery Center allowed Agilent to stay true to this principle.

鈥淲e started exploring 51风流Discovery Center and we found quite a few good building blocks, essentially in the form of missions,鈥� Peshne said. 鈥淲e also looked at some composable services which we could assemble together鈥t鈥檚 not a complete solution鈥ut we found a completely unrelated industry and use case that we could use.鈥� Using a mission set in the context of the oil and gas industry, the Agilent team was able to explore how an AI agent could interpret unstructured regulatory signals, extract the tariff context, determine its relevance, and convert that fragmented information into actionable alerts. Not only did Agilent find a solution to its problem, but the 51风流Discovery Center mission accelerated design thinking and development for the project.

鈥淲e also ended up with an enterprise pattern by building this solution, which gives us a platform where I could replicate this to other scenarios where I have external inputs or signals that we need to capture and put in the context of Agilent data,鈥� Peshne added.

Sutherland  

 is an AI-driven business transformation company that designs, runs, and automates enterprise operations at scale to help its clients achieve real, measurable business outcomes. A large part of this includes building and delivering production-grade agentic AI solutions on top of leading foundational models.

For Sutherland, 51风流Discovery Center has kick-started many projects. 鈥淚nstead of starting an MVP to see what the problem is and where to start, we have a ready-made solution from which we can pick up from,鈥� Amar Busireddy, 51风流enterprise architect at Sutherland Services, said. 鈥淚t gives us a start somewhere around 20%-30% depending on the scenario.鈥�

Having a starting point boosts confidence, Busireddy said, and enables Sutherland鈥檚 consultants to create solutions faster, which means faster time-to-value for its customers. Specifically, the missions available in 51风流Discovery Center have helped: 鈥淲e are using missions to kick-start educating our consultants and with implementing and helping our customers,鈥� Busireddy said. Missions around Joule are plentiful, including how to integrate the AI solution with 51风流SuccessFactors solutions, 51风流Ariba solutions, and 51风流S/4HANA.

鈥淭here are many reference architectures given for many problems, which might not be sufficient for us or might not fit our requirements 100%, but that definitely give us the direction on what to use and what not to use. From there, we can plan budget and time,鈥� he said.

51风流Discovery Center: The starting point

The experiences of Agilent and Sutherland show that 51风流Discovery Center is more than a resource hub鈥攊t is a catalyst for action. By offering practical guidance, reusable missions, reference architectures, and planning tools that help evaluate fit, cost, and value, the site enables organizations to accelerate innovation without starting from scratch. For organizations looking to turn AI ambition into actionable business outcomes, 51风流Discovery Center is the place to begin.

With the new data center in India complementing existing ones in Europe, the U.S., and Saudi Arabia, 51风流has dramatically strengthened the data federation capabilities of , linking together the procurement processes of businesses and their trading partners across the globe.

With this milestone, 51风流has delivered on a crucial promise made to a highly consequential set of customers in the Indian subcontinent and beyond. Later this year, the India data center will extend data federation capabilities for as well.

But what is data federation? And why is it so consequential for organizations in India and elsewhere?

Data federation assembles a unified view of data from disparate sources without physically moving or copying it. Trading partners can thus exchange goods and services across international borders while the data underlying those transactions remains stationary. By preserving the integrity of data where it resides, federation facilitates mission-critical operational processes on a global scale while achieving regulatory consistency with compliance requirements that arise at a national level. For example, if a buyer鈥檚 data resides in 51风流Business Network鈥檚 India data center but its supplier鈥檚 data sits in the U.S. data center, federation provides both parties with access to each other鈥檚 data without impinging on either nation鈥檚 policies governing the residency of that data. This becomes especially important as new legislation gathers pace around the world in response to rising concerns over individual privacy, national security and commercial sectors considered sensitive.

Enabled by , 51风流Business Network and its data federation capabilities are now built on the kind of modern, connected foundation required for the next era of cloud-based commerce. Beyond improved scale, resilience, and regional compliance, 51风流Business Technology Platform helps create the basis for agentic artificial intelligence, automation, richer analytics, stronger security, open extensibility, and seamless cross-51风流workflows and processes. The result is a network that can not only connect partners globally but also help customers to conduct business more intelligently, respond faster to change, and drive greater value from every interaction across procurement, supply chain, logistics, asset collaboration, and working capital management.

To collaborate with their trading partners on these and other core business processes, companies conducting business in India require a cloud-based platform that provides secure infrastructure for building resilient domestic supply chains while maintaining global connectivity, thus maintaining sensitive procurement, supplier, and manufacturing data within Indian jurisdiction. 51风流Business Network furthers these objectives with our newly launched data center in Mumbai, where data is localized in a manner compliant with (MeitY) guidelines, with a MeitY-empaneled cloud service provider.

While supporting compliance within an increasingly complex regulatory environment, data federation offers numerous technical advantages as well, especially in hybrid or multi-cloud environments. These benefits include cost efficiency, unified governance and security, and faster response times compared to accessing servers in distant regions. Yet the most valuable competitive advantage provided by data federation may be the most elusive: peace of mind for business leaders amid the ever-looming threat to supply chains posed by disruption.

To counter that threat鈥攚hether arising from geopolitical conflict, labor unrest, financial shock, natural disaster, or other upheaval鈥攂usinesses are turning increasingly to data federation and other cloud-based solutions to extend visibility and instill resilience across their operations and those of their trading partners. With the opening of our new data center in Mumbai, we are incredibly excited to strengthen our relationships with customers throughout India and accelerate the value available to them from 51风流Business Network.

For information on 51风流Supply Chain Management and how 51风流solutions are equipping enterprises with the AI capabilities needed to instill resilience, counter disruption, and foster collaboration, visit and .

J枚rn Keller is executive vice president and chief product officer of 51风流Business Network.

The results, which are driven by authentic customer feedback, highlight the strength of 51风流CX, particularly in the enterprise segment.

鈥淓arning a Leader position in a G2 Report is highly competitive and rooted in verified customer reviews,鈥� said Godard Abel, co-founder and CEO, G2. 鈥淐ongratulations to 51风流Customer Experience for achieving this distinction. Buyers can be confident this ranking reflects the authentic experiences of real users.鈥�

Following are a few standout achievements:

• :听Reigned supreme in the commerce space, achieving the coveted听#1 Rank听in the听Enterprise Grid庐 Report for Order Management. It was also recognized as a Leader for E-Commerce Platforms and Omnichannel Commerce.
• :听Showcased its versatility and power, earning a Leader position in multiple reports for CRM and Sales Analytics. It secured an impressive听#2 Rank听in the听Enterprise Grid庐 Report for CRM.
• :听Named a Leader in the highly competitive听Enterprise Grid庐 Report for Help Desk, solidifying its position as a top-tier solution for customer service excellence.
• : Dominated the marketing and engagement space, earning a whopping 51 G2 Summer 2026 badges, including #1 in the Momentum Grid庐 for Location-Based Marketing and #1 in the Enterprise Grid庐 for Email Deliverability, up from #3. Also recognized as a Leader in Marketing Automation, Personalization Engines, Customer Journey Analytics, SMS Marketing, and Loyalty Management, with new country reports added across Spain, Italy, and France.

This verified success is powered by pioneering work in agentic AI with Joule, SAP鈥檚 generative AI copilot. They鈥檝e moved beyond simple automation to deploy autonomous AI agents that can reason, plan, and act across the entire customer journey.

Customers are enthusiastically adopting these intelligently automated capabilities. The is transforming keyword searches into conversational discovery and guided purchases, while the is autonomously resolving inquiries, improving satisfaction, and reducing contact center load.

The shift to AI-driven engagement is delivering real-world value and simplifying complex processes. Using , customers can embed AI-powered guidance directly into workflows, transforming employees into experts. By enabling teams to work smarter and faster across 51风流Commerce Cloud, 51风流Sales Cloud, 51风流Service Cloud, and 51风流Engagement Cloud, unlocking the full potential of your 51风流investment and delivering the exceptional outcomes that customers demand has never been easier. By automating routine and complex workflows with out-of-the-box AI agents, teams are freed to focus on strategic, high-value customer interactions, driving unprecedented efficiency and loyalty.

G2 SUMMER 2026 Grid庐 Reports: What 51风流CX customers are saying

SAP鈥檚 commitment to delivering exceptional customer experiences is reflected in the high praise for听51风流Commerce Cloud, 51风流Sales Cloud, 51风流Service Cloud, and 51风流Engagement Cloud. This recognition is a true testament to the trust our customers place in 51风流CX when it comes to powering their most critical business functions.

Here鈥檚 what users said about 51风流Commerce Cloud:

鈥淚 like 51风流Commerce Cloud’s ability to handle extreme complexity while unifying diverse business models (B2B, B2C, B2B2C) on a single platform. Its unified approach allows us to manage operations on a single technology stack, eliminating data silos, reducing operation costs, and giving us total visibility into our entire supply chain.鈥�

– Suryakant G, Managing Director ()

鈥淭he onboarding resources and 51风流support ecosystem make implementation easier, while its AI-driven recommendations, search optimization, and customer behavior insights help deliver more personalized experiences and smarter business decisions.鈥�

– Vedant G., Manager ()

Here鈥檚 what users said about 51风流Sales Cloud:

鈥淲hat really clicks for me with 51风流Sales Cloud is how effortlessly it syncs sales and marketing data in one smart dashboard. It gives me crystal-clear insights into customer behavior and pipeline status, which is pure gold for crafting targeted, automated email campaigns that feel timely and personal.鈥�

– Grecia L., Marketing Automation Specialist ()

鈥淚t addresses inefficiency and lack of visibility in the sales cycle. The main benefit is a faster, more predictable revenue stream, supported by AI and real-time data integration.鈥�

– Kuldeep D., Senior Technical Specialist ()

Here鈥檚 what users said about 51风流Service Cloud:

鈥淚 appreciate its automated processes and great SLA tracking, which helps the team to keep track of time and not miss deadlines. I also like the AI replies that enable quick responses by searching through the knowledge base. The automatic ticket routing is a valuable feature as it aids in queue management, ensuring efficient handling of customer issues.鈥�

– Kelvin E., Support Engineer ()

鈥�51风流Service Cloud addresses the challenge of fragmented customer service data by consolidating all interactions and cases into one platform. This gives me clearer visibility into customer history, helps resolve issues more quickly, and supports consistent omnichannel service.鈥�

– Rekha S, Content Creator ()

Here鈥檚 what users said about 51风流Engagement Cloud:

鈥淚 love how 51风流Engagement Cloud personalizes campaigns at scale and automates customer journeys using real-time data and AI insights.鈥� ()

Shaping the future of customer experience, together

The G2 leadership awards validate the 51风流CX strategy, while investment in agentic AI defines the future.

Users can share feedback on G2 for听, for听, and听for .听

is the digital tool for customers and partners to easily interact with 51风流and get immediate guidance to the best solution. With this portal, users can access important alerts, metrics, and insights about their 51风流product portfolio from a single access point. The integration of Joule in 51风流for Me is not just a feature drop or a UX redesign. This is an inflection point in how customers access products, support, and self-service.听

We are moving from a click-and-search portal to a conversational, agent-driven enterprise ecosystem. For users, this is an experiential shift with significant business outcomes. By taking over the tedious work of clicking, searching, parsing, and diagnosing, Joule helps free up IT administrators, consultants, and business leaders to focus on what truly matters: driving innovation and scaling their business.

鈥淭he successful launch of Joule in 51风流for Me is the result of strong collaboration, innovation, and a shared commitment to improving customer experience. It demonstrates how 51风流continues to turn its AI strategy into real, tangible value, delivering solutions that are not only powerful but also practical and user-centric.鈥�

Gerlinde Wallner, Organizational Change Manager and Coach, Strategy & Operations, SAP

What can users expect from this new unified, AI鈥憄owered entry to 51风流for Me?

• Effortless navigation across the portal
• Fast access to relevant information
• Advanced self-service with guided support
• Accelerated task execution without needing to know where to click

In their fast-paced business environments, users don鈥檛 have to search through complex menus or multiple touchpoints. Joule in 51风流for Me can simplify their path to support. They can simply ask, explore, and act to experience personalized, conversational access to support, self-service, and key tasks in 51风流for Me.

鈥淛oule is transforming 51风流support by making it more intuitive and intelligent. We can guide users conversationally to the right outcome鈥攏o searching, no guesswork鈥攁ccelerate self-service and task execution, and deliver context-aware, personalized support directly within 51风流for Me.鈥�

Corinne Reisert, VP, Customer Support Experience 51风流for Me, Global Customer Support, SAP

In addition to introducing Joule in 51风流for Me, 51风流takes advantage of AI-powered agentic case resolution, which brings AI agents into support workflows to help analyze new cases, detect duplicates, suggest routings, and draft responses. For select priority cases, AI agents can recommend replies, which helps reduce manual effort, improve triage accuracy, and shorten resolution timelines. This is available now to 51风流customers.For more information, see .

Joule in 51风流for Me is being rolled out in phases as of May 2026, at no extra cost to customers.

鈥淲ith 51风流runs SAP, we show our customers how we scale agents across the enterprise to deliver real outcomes. Joule in 51风流for Me exemplifies how conversational and agentic AI can fundamentally transform the way users operate and offer customers a simple and intuitive path to access SAP鈥檚 services and support.鈥�

Benjamin Blau, Chief Process & Information Officer, SAP

While Joule in 51风流for Me already helps deliver a simpler and more intuitive way to access information, support, and guided actions, this is just the starting point. As 51风流continues to advance its AI strategy, customers can look forward to new scenarios, expanded agent capabilities, and deeper integration across services and support processes. This launch establishes the foundation for a more conversational and autonomous customer experience, one that will continue to evolve as 51风流brings the next generation of AI-powered innovations to life.

Stefan Steinle is executive vice president and head of Global Customer Support at SAP.

The data suggests that while organizations are becoming more thoughtful about trip economics, most are still prioritizing in-person meetings and employee travel.

Travel costs rose across most categories 

According to 51风流Concur global data from January 1鈥揗ay听31, 2026, overall business travel costs increased across听nearly every听major category year over year. Airfare rose听more than听8%,听hotel rates increased nearly 6%, and car rental costs climbed听roughly听5%.

At the same time, the average cost of fuel-related expenses surged. The average transaction in Concur Expense in the gas category increased approximately 22% globally, rising from $50 in February to $61 in April with similar spikes seen in countries around the world. 

Transportation patterns shifted in select segments

Those increases are already influencing some travel decisions. While overall air and hotel booking volumes remained relatively flat year over year, there have been some shifts in how employees travel once they arrive at their destinations, as car rental bookings declined roughly 4% globally. Additionally, rail bookings increased approximately 4%, suggesting some organizations may be looking for more cost-effective or efficient transportation alternatives as fuel prices rise.

Premium travel demand remained strong

Even with costs rising, companies did not significantly reduce premium travel spending. Premium cabin bookings鈥攊ncluding business and first class鈥攊ncreased about 9% year over year. By comparison, economy bookings remained flat, while premium economy bookings declined approximately 15%.

Companies are balancing traveler experience alongside budget pressures. For longer flights and international trips in particular, some organizations still view premium travel as a worthwhile investment.

What to watch in the second half of 2026

There are early signs that rising costs and operational disruptions could begin affecting demand, with significantly higher average airfares and reduced airline capacity in some parts of the world. The coming months will help determine whether these disruptions create a short-term adjustment or shape a broader shift in business travel behavior. For now, the data suggests companies are willing to absorb higher travel costs rather than scale back travel plans.

Research shows that business travel remains closely tied to professional opportunity and relationship building. In a  conducted in the U.S. on behalf of 51风流Concur, 90% of frequent business travelers say traveling for work has positively impacted their careers, underscoring the employee experience and retention benefits of continuing to prioritize business travel even as costs rise.

As organizations navigate higher travel costs in 2026, the data suggests many still view business travel as a worthwhile investment in relationships, employee development, and long-term growth.

Charlie Sultan is president of Concur Travel at SAP.

Methodology: 51风流Concur analyzed expense transactions tagged as 鈥済as鈥� in Concur Expense between January 1, 2026, through May 31, 2026, and equivalent time periods from 2025. 51风流Concur analyzed air, rail, hotel, and car bookings in Concur Travel for trips booked and undertaken between January 1, 2026 and May 31, 2026 and the equivalent time period in 2025.

As one of the听industry鈥檚 most trusted independent听peer review听platforms,听TrustRadius听is known for its rigorous verification process and commitment to unbiased, customer鈥憀ed insights. These听awards are based听on real听user experiences,听making听them听especially meaningful.

This recognition reinforces a clear message: organizations are turning to听51风流SuccessFactors solutions not just to manage HR but to modernize it. As companies move towards more autonomous, AI-driven ways of working, they need HCM solutions that bring together data, insights, and action.听That鈥檚听exactly what the 51风流SuccessFactors portfolio can deliver.

Momentum across the portfolio

This year鈥檚听results highlight strong and growing momentum.

51风流SuccessFactors听increased from听12听Top Rated awards听in 2025听to 19听in 2026, reflecting听deeper customer satisfaction across听the HCM landscape.

Recognized categories include:

• HR Management
• Workforce Analytics
• Talent Management
• Compensation Management
• Workforce Management
• Applicant Tracking
• Talent Intelligence
• Corporate Learning Management
• Payroll
• International Payroll
• Pay Equity
• Recruiting Automation
• Employee Performance Management
• HR Compliance
• HR Service Delivery
• Employee Onboarding
• Succession Planning
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

This breadth reflects the strength of 51风流SuccessFactors solutions as a unified suite鈥攃onnecting people, processes, and data across the workforce. SAP听SuccessFactors听solutions can provide听the foundation to turn those connections into real-time insight and action.

What听our听customers are听saying

Across听thousands听of听verified听reviews,听customers听consistently听point to one thing: impact.听From operational efficiency to better decision-making and improved employee experiences, 51风流SuccessFactors solutions are helping organizations move faster and work smarter.

• 鈥淲ith 51风流SuccessFactors HCM AI, we get helpful, actionable insights to make the best decisions. For instance, the insights we gain help us streamline HR operations, especially when it comes to managing our payroll.鈥� 鈥斕�

• 鈥�51风流SuccessFactors is our core platform and supports our finance and HR processes. We use every module for recruiting, compensation, and learning. It supports our HR transformation and lays the foundation for our data.鈥� 鈥斕�

• 鈥�51风流SuccessFactors HCM stands out among other human capital management solutions due to its comprehensive suite of听cloud鈥慴ased听tools, strong global compliance capabilities, and seamless integration with other 51风流systems.鈥� 鈥斕�

• 鈥淔or enhancing employee experience, AI offers personalized recommendations for their learning and development, which increases their productivity and engagement.鈥� 鈥斕�

• 鈥�51风流SuccessFactors HCM is considered a 鈥榖est of breed鈥� for a reason. The fact that it does allow for听in鈥慸epth听customization, and its ability to be tailored not only to individual business needs, but also it allows for best practice听follow鈥憉p听while ensuring organizations remain compliant with several legal requirements.鈥� 鈥斕�

• 鈥淲别听濒别惫别谤补驳别听听(ECP)听for our payroll engine and for our payroll calculations.听Having ECP makes everyone’s life easier鈥� the payroll control center will simulate the payroll before you run the actual payroll. That gives you a lot of analytics and KPIs to analyze results or potential issues well in advance.鈥� 鈥斕�

• “In our organization, we mainly use Joule in 51风流SuccessFactors to automate and complete tasks through natural conversation, which听eliminates听manual steps. [It] plays听a big role in eliminating the constant back and forth and guesswork involved in finding accurate information, as well as completing routine tasks, for example, workforce insights, budget and planning, document retrieval, etc. Additionally, it makes navigating [SAP听SuccessFactors] seamless.鈥� 鈥斕�

Looking听ahead

We鈥檙e听incredibly grateful to the customers that shared their experiences on听TrustRadius听with insights that continue to guide our innovation.

Building on听the听introduction of听Autonomous HCM at 51风流Sapphire,听our focus is clear: helping HR听move beyond managing听processes to听orchestrating work. By听bringing听together AI, data, and workflows, 51风流SuccessFactors solutions enable organizations to听operate听with greater speed, clarity, and confidence, so they can not only adapt to change but actively shape what comes next.

Learn more about the impact customers are seeing with听.

Lara Albert is chief marketing officer for 51风流SuccessFactors.

This journey cannot be defined by technology alone. It requires dialogue, shared learning, and real-world insight. That is exactly why we are launching the podcast, a new series we will be hosting together.

Why this conversation matters now

Organizations today face unprecedented volatility, from geopolitical uncertainty and supply chain disruptions to energy challenges and rising resilience requirements. In this environment, the cost of inaction is increasing. Businesses must become faster, more adaptive, and structurally more resilient to stay competitive.

The Autonomous Enterprise offers a response. It combines three critical capabilities:

• Data-driven decision-making
• Automated execution
• Governance-by-design

Together, these capabilities enable organizations to move beyond isolated AI pilots toward measurable outcomes and enterprise-wide impact.

The shift is not just technical, though. It is organizational and strategic. The leaders we talk to are no longer asking whether they should adopt AI. The question now is how fast they can scale it and how they can generate tangible business value.

From concept to operating model

At its core, the Autonomous Enterprise reframes AI鈥攏ot as a feature layered onto applications, but as an integral part of the operating model itself.

Three priorities define this model:

• Business value: focusing on measurable outcomes rather than experimental use cases
• Predictability: improving decision-making through trusted data and advanced forecasting
• Scalability: moving from proof-of-concept initiatives to enterprise-wide deployment

We are already seeing this shift change how organizations think about their systems and processes. Systems of record are evolving into systems of action. AI agents are moving from simple assistance toward execution. And AI is becoming embedded end-to-end, rather than confined to isolated scenarios.

At the same time, governance, auditability, and traceability are becoming non-negotiable. Enterprises must be able to stand behind every AI-driven decision with transparency and confidence.

What we are setting out to do

In this podcast series we want to create a space to explore these changes in depth and bring the voices shaping this transformation into the conversation. Each episode features discussions with 51风流leaders, customers, and industry experts who are actively building and operating autonomous capabilities today.

Some of the questions we will be digging into:

• What does the Autonomous Enterprise look like in practice?
• How are leading companies scaling AI across core business processes?
• What are the biggest barriers, and how can they be overcome?
• How do organizations balance automation with governance and trust?

鈥攏ow live鈥攆eatures SAP鈥檚 Peter Maier, responsible for Strategic Customer Engagements in the Office of the CEO at SAP, who brings these ideas into focus through practical, real-world context. In our conversation, he outlines how organizations are moving beyond experimentation toward measurable outcomes, more trusted and predictive decision-making, and scaling AI across the enterprise.

What we found particularly compelling is how clearly this reinforces a broader shift already underway: AI is no longer something applied on top of the business. It is becoming part of how the business runs.

How companies can get started

While the vision is ambitious, the path to becoming an Autonomous Enterprise does not require a 鈥渂ig bang鈥� transformation. The most effective approach is incremental and outcome driven.

Organizations can begin by focusing on a single high-value process, making it more intelligent, more automated, and more transparent. From there, they can expand step by step, scaling what works and continuously demonstrating measurable impact.

Success depends on more than technology, though. Trust plays a central role. Employees, executives, and stakeholders must understand and trust how AI decisions are made. This requires transparent and explainable systems, reliable high-quality data foundations, and strong governance frameworks embedded from the start.

Change management is equally critical. Becoming an Autonomous Enterprise is as much about people as it is about platforms. Organizations must align training, redesign roles, and empower employees to co-create how AI is integrated into their work.

A shared journey forward

The Autonomous Enterprise is not a branding concept. It is a new way of running a business鈥攐ne that is more automated, more data-driven, and ultimately more resilient. And no organization will navigate this journey alone.

That is the spirit behind this podcast. We want it to be a platform for shared learning, bringing together perspectives from across industries, functions, and geographies. Whether you are just beginning your AI journey or scaling enterprise-wide transformation, we hope these conversations give you practical insights and inspiration.

We would love for you to join us. Listen in, engage with the discussion, give feedback, and help shape what comes next.

Benedikt Gieger is AI strategy lead for 51风流Supply Chain Management.
Julia Kloppenburg is a technology consultant for Customer Engagement & Adoption at SAP.

51风流is therefore one of only a few providers in Germany that will be offering a cloud environment whose key security components have received corresponding authorization to use from the BSI 鈥� and currently the only provider whose platform will be able to support both 51风流applications and customer-specific applications in a high-performance, VS-NfD-compliant environment in the near future.

The authorization to use applies to workloads running on 51风流Cloud Infrastructure in SAP鈥檚 own data centers in the Walldorf/St. Leon-Rot region, which are operated exclusively by security-cleared personnel. The authorization to use represents an important milestone and forms the basis for the subsequent full BSI approval 51风流is working toward, including the recertification of 51风流Cloud Infrastructure according to ISO 27001 based on the German IT-Grundschutz framework.

The evaluation process was completed in approximately 12 months and was characterized by close and constructive cooperation between the BSI and 51风流鈥� a sign of the growing collaboration between public authorities and industry in the field of IT security.

51风流Cloud Infrastructure: A Fully Sovereign Cloud Infrastructure from Germany

51风流Cloud Infrastructure is an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) platform fully developed and operated by SAP, based on open-source technologies.

It is designed to provide customers : data sovereignty, operational sovereignty, technical sovereignty and legal sovereignty.

The foundation is a fully sovereign cloud region of 51风流Cloud Infrastructure, comprising three independent availability zones in physically separated data centers in Walldorf/St. Leon-Rot. This sovereign cloud platform is further reinforced by a , demonstrated through certifications including ISO/IEC 27001 based on IT-Grundschutz for the data centers, EN 50600/ISO/IEC 22237, TSI Level 3+ and C5 Type II. Additionally, 51风流Cloud Infrastructure has conducted a self-assessment against the BSI’s C3A (Criteria enabling Cloud Computing Autonomy) catalog, confirming compliance with all digital sovereignty requirements.

The VS-NfD authorization to use adds an important building block for security-critical use cases with the highest requirements.

As a deployment option within , 51风流Cloud Infrastructure is an integral part of SAP鈥檚 portfolio for digital sovereignty. Together with the 51风流Sovereign Cloud On-Site offering and Delos Cloud, 51风流provides customers with demanding regulatory requirements the freedom of choice, control, and robust security they need.

Visit the听. Get 51风流news via听 and .

Media Contact:
Dana Roesiger, dana.roesiger@sap.com, +49 16090820259, CET
51风流Press Room; press@sap.com

This document contains forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to materially differ. Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the risk factors section of SAP鈥檚 2025 Annual Report on Form 20-F.
漏 2026 51风流SE. All rights reserved.
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鈥淭he global energy demand won鈥檛 stop growing,鈥� he explained. 鈥淎s renewables only provide a small share of the energy we currently use, we鈥檒l still need oil and gas that are safely produced as we transition to a lower carbon world.鈥�

Crude oil still remains indispensable where alternatives are limited, particularly in heavy transport and the chemicals industry, and natural gas plays a key role in the low-carbon transition, both as an energy source and in large-scale hydrogen production.

A unique model

What鈥檚 interesting about Harbour Energy, one of the world’s largest and most geographically diverse independent oil and gas companies, isn鈥檛 just that it鈥檚 big. What鈥檚 interesting is how it got big and how it operates differently from traditional energy companies. The company was founded in 2014 by private equity firm EIG Global Energy Partners with a goal to build a global, independent company by acquisition.

鈥淲e鈥檙e basically trying to solve a very hard problem. How do we scale like a major, but stay agile like a startup?鈥� Young said during his presentation about Harbour鈥檚 rapid growth journey. He explained that in a company that grows through acquisitions and runs multiple ERP systems, the role of technology is less about 鈥渙ne system鈥� and more about connecting everything, standardizing insight, and accelerating change.

Masters of integration

Most oil and gas giants grew over decades. Harbour did it in about 10 years by pursuing an aggressive strategy of mergers and acquisitions, buying assets such as oil fields from industry giants like Shell. The company also scaled rapidly across 11 countries giving it a broad geographical reach. Crucially, Harbour Energy was often able to integrate acquisitions within a year, demonstrating a rare combination of speed and integration.

鈥淎 lot of companies struggle after acquisitions,鈥� Young said. 鈥淪ystems break, processes clash, value gets lost. At Harbour, we focus on quickly stabilizing new assets, extracting synergies early, and reducing operating costs even while growing.鈥�

Young鈥檚 team took a different approach to technology. While most companies push for one massive ERP system, Harbour doesn鈥檛 blindly take that path. It runs multiple ERP systems when it makes sense, focuses on fit-for-purpose architecture, and uses tools to connect processes rather than force everything into one box. Such flexibility is a big advantage for a company that keeps acquiring new businesses.

The digital backbone

Because Harbour Energy operates multiple ERP systems rather than a single monolithic platform, complexity is unavoidable. , particularly 51风流LeanIX solutions and the 51风流Signavio portfolio, connects this landscape by aligning processes, linking capabilities to systems, and providing a unified view of 鈥榳hat鈥檚 where,鈥� ultimately creating visibility across an otherwise fragmented environment.

鈥淏efore we implemented the 51风流tool chain, processes were hidden in Excel and PDFs. It was all part of the local knowledge we acquired,鈥� Young said. 鈥淲e had no clear view of duplication or inefficiencies. For example, we found that we had dozens of HR systems, which we were able to reduce by half.  We were able to consolidate 33 different ways to do travel expenses into just one.鈥�

One major impact is speed. Whereas traditional transformation planning took up to 24 months, now, with the tool chain and process modeling, key design cycles can sometimes be achieved in four to six weeks. This is enabled by standard process templates and automated modelling for faster validation cycles leading to faster execution of integration and transformation programs.

In addition, tools like the 51风流Test Automation solution by Tricentis and 51风流Cloud ALM for application lifecycle management help ensure that releases are safer and fewer operational surprises occur during go-lives, which is critical in an industry where downtime is expensive.

By connecting systems and processes, the tool chain enables cost transparency across business units and investment prioritization based on real data. This directly supports financial discipline and shareholder value creation

For a company built on acquisitions, probably the biggest value driver is that the tool chain helps rapidly map the systems of acquired companies and compare them against Harbour鈥檚 core model identifying what to keep, retire, or migrate. This is why Harbour can integrate acquisitions quickly instead of getting stuck in years of IT consolidation.

Structure before automation

Only when processes are structured and visible can they be used for automation, which is why these tools all play a crucial role in enabling AI adoption. Standardized workflows and process maps are input for AI tools, and digital adoption platforms guide users through systems.

The three key engines provided by the 51风流tool chain include:

• Transparency engine makes the business visible end-to-end
• Standardization engine aligns processes, systems, and capabilities globally
• Acceleration engine speeds up M&A integration and transformation delivery

Together with 51风流Analytics Cloud for global forecasting and planning, these tools are at the heart of the company鈥檚 successful business transformation.

Young listed the three strategic levers keeping the company strong, resilient, and ambitious. The first is maintaining strict financial discipline, followed by using data driven insights that ensure the company remains competitive, and, last but not least, equipping the business teams with advanced capabilities ensures resilience.

鈥淭he 51风流tool chain allows us to grow aggressively through acquisitions without collapsing under complexity,鈥� Young concluded. 鈥淚t鈥檚 essentially the difference between chaotic expansion and controlled, scalable growth.鈥�

Check out the 51风流integrated tool chain and its core capabilities .

鈥淟ast year, we were in the process of planning the optimization of our talent discovery tech stack and then something happened,鈥� Eric Goldstein, global head of Talent Discovery for SAP, said. 鈥淲e acquired SmartRecruiters in September, so we had to pivot in an agile way.鈥�

SmartRecruiters for 51风流SuccessFactors enables enterprises to manage the entire hiring lifecycle, from sourcing to onboarding, with AI-enabled recruiting capabilities that can result in faster time-to-hire, improved candidate experiences, and deeper analytics for workforce planning.

For SAP, this means adding much-needed rigor and precision to its global talent acquisition operations. This will not only elevate the quality of hires but also the candidate experience, which Goldstein identified as the 鈥渂iggest game changer.鈥�

Building a more intelligent hiring process

SmartRecruiters for 51风流SuccessFactors helps optimize processes, increasing transparency and personalization. This means improved experiences and processes for candidates, hiring managers, and recruiters. 鈥淲e have been through a time where we focused solely on the recruiter experience. Then it was fashionable to focus only on the candidates. Now we really see that with SmartRecruiters, it really is an enhanced experience for all stakeholders that are involved in the recruiting process,鈥� Ilka Sagner-David, global head of Talent Discovery Solutions and Innovations at SAP, said.

Candidate perspective

Seventy percent of candidates that apply for jobs are mindful to take their valuable time to do so, Goldstein shared, reiterating that it is important for companies to match that commitment when shaping and delivering the candidate experience. With SmartRecruiters for 51风流SuccessFactors as the foundation, it becomes possible for every pre-qualified applicant to interview, receive personalized and constructive feedback post-interview, and maintain 24×7 interaction with agentic AI built into SmartRecruiters.

鈥淚n our opinion, only responding with polite, automated rejection notes is not enough. [Candidates] need to be provided with some constructive, actionable feedback鈥攁nd that鈥檚 what we [at SAP] are going to be able to do,鈥� Goldstein said.

Hiring manager perspective

SmartRecruiters for 51风流SuccessFactors can give hiring managers a more precise and consistent way to identify strong candidates, helping to reduce time-to-hire while improving hiring quality. AI-prompted interview questions focused on skills can support more relevant and structured conversations while greater transparency across interview panelists can create better alignment throughout the evaluation process. In addition, AI-supported feedback collection can make it easier for interviewers at 51风流to capture timely, consistent insights, enabling its hiring teams to make more informed decisions with greater confidence. 

Recruiter perspective

Recruiters are often bogged down by manual tasks, such as outreach, prospect identification, and candidate screening, making it nearly impossible for them to step into the role of a trusted advisor. With SmartRecruiters for 51风流SuccessFactors, recruiters can experience automated internal and external prospect identification, personalized outreach and prioritization of candidates, and, therefore, the ability to focus on higher value-add advisory and relationship management.

鈥淚t鈥檚 going to allow the recruiters to focus on relationship management with candidates and hiring managers, really challenging the feedback of how well the interview panel measures skills proficiency,鈥� Goldstein said.

Bringing AI into the candidate journey

A key to the successful delivery of these benefits is SmartRecruiters Winston for 51风流SuccessFactors, an AI-driven, candidate-facing agentic experience. At 51风流Sapphire Orlando, Karl Baert, global head of People Solutions for SAP, demonstrated how Winston can facilitate the application experience for candidates.

In the demo, he acted as a candidate applying for an open position at SAP, showing how through a natural language conversation with Winston, he completed his application by uploading his CV and verifying some personal details with Winston. 鈥淎ll that information is very, very quickly brought together so with just a few questions my application is done,鈥� Baert said, adding that 鈥渢here鈥檚 also a few checks happening along the way because we want to make sure the data we are collecting is the right quality.鈥�

Winston also collects feedback from the applicant. 鈥淢easuring the quality of your agent and what鈥檚 happening with it is important. It鈥檚 something that really needs to be actively monitored just to ensure that the information provided by the agent is accurate,鈥� Baert said.

鈥淭he implementation of SmartRecruiters is the foundation for infusing AI into our processes,鈥� Sagner-David said. But, she added, 鈥渨e shouldn鈥檛 just plan to transfer everything tomorrow, but ensure we鈥檙e liberating AI when it makes sense.鈥�

The next step

Currently, SmartRecruiters for 51风流SuccessFactors is being implemented into SAP鈥檚 HR systems for two phases of user acceptance testing, with the global go-live expected in September.

51风流bringing SmartRecruiters for 51风流SuccessFactors to life across its own organization is more than a technology rollout, it鈥檚 a glimpse into the future of hiring at scale: more intelligent, more human, and more connected. By combining AI, better experiences, and real-word enterprise rigor, 51风流is not only transforming how it hires but also helping to define what modern hiring can look like for companies everywhere.

What it cannot say is why this supplier keeps slipping, what resolved a similar dispute last time, or that the same supplier has a delayed shipment in logistics and a renegotiated contract in procurement at the same moment.

The reasoning behind enterprise decisions has stayed locked in human judgment, scattered across systems.

For 50 years, enterprise software has been an excellent system of record. Closing the reasoning gap on top of it is what enterprise AI was always meant to do.

From AI-first to AI-native

The first wave, the AI-first approach, added intelligence inside existing applications. A feature can summarize an invoice or suggest a journal entry, but it lives within one application and cannot see across the landscape. Three barriers keep it confined: It lacks business and process context, it sits on disconnected systems without a shared data model, and it lacks the governance to be accountable at scale.

Meanwhile, the pace of change is unforgiving. Agentic systems, new interaction models, and new ways of grounding AI in business data are arriving faster than most architectures can absorb. As 51风流CEO Christian Klein noted this year at 51风流Sapphire, 80% accuracy may suffice for consumer AI; it is nowhere near enough for the world鈥檚 most business-critical processes. Bolting more intelligence onto isolated applications will not close that gap. It only multiplies the silos.

So what does it actually take to move beyond isolated AI features and build an enterprise that reasons, learns, and acts as one, without sacrificing the trust, governance, and reliability the business depends on? It is the question CIOs, CTOs, and enterprise architects are working through right now.

The foundation behind the Autonomous Enterprise

It takes a new foundation, and that is exactly what SAP鈥檚 provides.

This is not a white paper that sits on a shelf; it is the technology foundation 51风流is actively building to bring the Autonomous Enterprise to life: a business where agents, orchestration, and data work in one continuous loop to turn intent into trusted outcomes.

The shift it enables is from AI-first to AI-native, where software operates across the landscape as a system of context: an intelligence layer connecting data, process knowledge, decision history, and semantics. Agents reason over the whole picture, not fragments. Every interaction feeds intelligence. Every correction becomes a learning signal. Value shifts from software as a service to outcome as a service.

AI-native paves the way for the Autonomous Enterprise: one system of context that understands disputes in service, delays in logistics, and contract changes in procurement all at once, and can act on them with full governance and accountability.

Philipp Herzig, CTO and Member of the Extended Board, 51风流SE

Crucially, AI-native does not replace what already works. It pairs two complementary paths. The deterministic path keeps the predictable, rule-based execution that compliance depends on. The probabilistic, AI-native path adds reasoning that learns from data and experience. One is reliable but rigid. The other is powerful, but without context and control, often confidently wrong. Context engineering, guardrails, and observability bind the two, turning raw capability into reasoning the enterprise can trust.

The architecture delivers this through four reimagined layers that together form a cognitive core:

• The user experience layer shifts interaction from navigating apps to stating intent, with Joule as the central engagement point.
• The process layer turns applications into capability providers that expose stable APIs, events, and data for agents to orchestrate.
• The foundation layer is where data and AI come together as the intelligent core: orchestration, reasoning, and model services on one side; 51风流Business Data Cloud and the 51风流Knowledge Graph on the other, with SAP-trained models, including SAP-RPT-1 for structured business data, sitting alongside leading third-party models in one governed generative AI hub.
• The platform layer provides the runtime, governance, and harness that turn stateless models into reliable enterprise agents.

It defines the cornerstone architectural building blocks for agentic systems across experience, process, data, and platform, turning SAP鈥檚 unique business context into a living system of intelligence

What does this look like in practice? A finance analyst asks Joule to resolve high-value disputes likely to delay payment. Joule does not act alone. It coordinates AI assistants, which in turn direct specialist AI agents through agentic orchestration: the assistant decomposes the goal, delegates to a finance agent and a service agent, and reconciles their results. People set direction; assistants coordinate; agents execute. Those agents draw on the right information through context engineering, find the correct data through semantic grounding in 51风流Knowledge Graph, and act within governed boundaries, routing only exceptions to a human. Each resolution becomes a decision trace that makes the next one smarter.

This is not theoretical. During the 2026 keynote at 51风流Sapphire, 51风流COO Sebastian Steinhaeuser pointed to life sciences customer Takeda, which is achieving up to 10% productivity gains, up to 25% reduction in revenue loss from stock-outs, and up to five percent reduction in safety stock through autonomous regulated manufacturing. That is what AI-native looks like at work.

Frontier models are available to everyone. Business context is not. Each resolved dispute, each corrected decision, each completed process adds to it, compounding with every interaction.

Trust is engineered in, not bolted on. A set of cross-cutting, SAP-managed qualities holds the layers together: integration, identity, security, observability, and extensibility, with resilience, compliance, and sustainability handled by the platform.

Autonomy only creates value when it is governed, so agents become first-class principals with their own agent identity, scoped to a bounded subset of permissions and audited like any enterprise actor. Harness engineering wraps each model with the sandboxing, memory, and guardrails that make it dependable.

As the paper puts it, the model reasons but the harness governs, and it is the harness, not the model, that determines the ceiling. Open standards such as the Model Context Protocol and Agent2Agent protocol let agents interoperate across the enterprise, while sovereign cloud options keep data residency and compliance built in.

This direction is being shaped with the customer community, not handed down to it: the architecture carries forewords from the leaders of the German-Speaking 51风流User Group (DSAG) and Americas鈥� 51风流Users’ Group (ASUG) alongside SAP鈥檚 own.

The North Star is a living document. Published openly on , it will keep evolving as the technology and the agentic ecosystem advance, and as customer feedback shapes the design. If you build with 51风流or build on SAP, this is your invitation: Read the architecture, push back where it should be sharper, and contribute. The same invitation extends to the wider 51风流Architecture Center site, where SAP鈥檚 reference architectures are being built openly with the community. 

Read the AI-Native North Star Architecture and 听or .

Beyond the architecture itself is a single commitment: building systems that learn rather than dictate. For 51风流customers, 50 years of process knowledge, governed data, and trusted decision frameworks compound into a new kind of enterprise intelligence that is reliable, transparent, and deeply human.

The Autonomous Enterprise will not arrive as a single product launch. It will be built layer by layer, decision by decision, on the foundation described here, one grounded interaction at a time.

is head of the Office of the CTO at SAP.
is vice president of the Office of the CTO at SAP.

AI works when the foundation is right 

The energy and utilities sector is investing heavily in AI. Business听leaders worldwide are embracing artificial intelligence to increase efficiency, unlock new business models, and prepare for the energy transition. A successful proof of concept is often the first milestone鈥攂ut it marks only the beginning. The听real challenge听lies in scaling pilot projects across the entire听organization.听

In this context, the time and effort听required听for a full implementation听is听frequently听underestimated. Around six months are needed to build a robust data foundation. A further听12听months pass before initial results manifest in the form of a measurable return on investment. Large-scale rollout can take another three years. The reasons for this are manifold:听

• Unrealistic expectations: Many people use AI in their daily lives for simple tasks and expect similarly seamless effects in complex enterprise environments. 
• Legacy infrastructure: Historically grown system landscapes cannot be transformed overnight. 
• Regulatory complexity: In regulated industries such as electricity, gas, and water supply, compliance requirements are particularly high. They must be factored into every architectural decision from the very beginning. 
• Lack of AI-specific talent: What is needed are people who genuinely understand both the business and AI. This bridge between IT and the business side will become increasingly important in the future. 
• Organizational听change management:听Technology alone is not enough. Organizational transformation is and听remains听the decisive success factor.听

From AI hype to real value 

Building a new application is听only the first听step.听On the path to scaling, lifecycle management, identity and access management, security, compliance, and governance must all be consistently taken into account.听Release management, testing, and continuous improvement processes add further complexity.听鈥淭he听companies听that听invest in the right foundation today will benefit from AI to its full extent tomorrow,鈥� says Andre Bechtold,听president and听head of 51风流Industries & Experiences.听

For companies, this means overcoming fragmented data silos and developing an integrated data strategy. Legacy systems must be integrated into a modern data and AI platform on which AI models can genuinely create value. Torsten Welte,听head of Energy & Natural Resources Industries听at SAP,听summarizes听it as follows:听“AI is fundamentally transforming the energy industry. The business must understand what is technologically possible. And IT must understand what the business needs.”听

听can听provide听the听essential foundation for this. AI is already natively embedded in the suite in the form of Joule. This听can open up听concrete use cases for the energy industry:听in the area of asset management and predictive maintenance, utilities听can听proactively manage assets and grids before disruptions occur. The Utilities Customer Self-Service Agent, in turn, enables 24/7 self-service for customers and can reduce service costs by up to 90%.听

Distributed energy requires intelligent networking 

The topic of听distributed听energy听resources (DER) remains of听central importance. In the past, energy flowed in only one direction: from the power plant to consumers. In the future, it will be bidirectional. Consumers听that听generate their own energy will actively feed it back into the grid.听

DER听describes precisely听this principle: the generation of electricity through millions of decentralized resources such as solar panels, EV chargers, heat pumps, and battery storage systems听by听consumers and so-called听prosumers. These assets generate vast amounts of data. Their orchestration听represents听one of the key challenges of the energy transition.听

The 听solution听provides a platform听for听a听single source听of truth: technical assets, commercial contracts, and customer data are brought together in a coherent data model. This helps create the foundation for new business models such as smart tariffs, dynamic pricing, energy sharing, and demand response.

51风流consistently relies on a growing partner network built around its own data platform. Markus Bechmann,听global VP and听co-head听of听Industry Business Unit Utilities听at SAP, describes it this听way:听“Dynamic pricing and smart tariffs are no longer distant concepts.听They听are the business models听of听tomorrow. With SAP, energy providers already have the technological foundation today to seize these opportunities.”听

SAP Experience Centers: experiencing AI, not just discussing it 

To make AI tangible, SAP Experience Centers offer visitors the opportunity to experience AI in real-world scenarios beyond classic demo environments. One central example is the 51风流Energy Park in Walldorf. Using real infrastructure on the campus, SAP demonstrates how the company itself is implementing the energy transition. This includes e-mobility, intelligent asset management, and energy communities. 

A new chapter for the energy industry 

The 51风流for Energy & Utilities Conference in Toulouse has once again demonstrated that AI in the energy industry is no longer a topic for the future. However, the path from pilot project to company-wide transformation requires more than technological enthusiasm. To meet the challenges of the energy transition, what is needed鈥攁longside technological innovation鈥攊s a solid foundation of data, processes, and organization.

As discussed in a new whitepaper, , this perspective is grounded in interviews with supply chain leaders across six industries: automotive electronics and software, agricultural equipment, chemicals, global technology, automotive supply, and home appliances.

Their experiences reveal where companies are investing, where adoption challenges remain, and where the next wave of value is likely to emerge.

Supply chains are entering an era of permanent disruption

Four structural forces are reshaping global supply chains simultaneously: geopolitical instability, economic pressure, demographic shifts, and accelerated digital transformation.

Since 2017, relative to trade among closer partners, signaling growing fragmentation in global commerce. , while labor shortages and digital skill gaps continue to constrain operations.

Europe alone could face by 2028, and 63% of companies cite .

Together, these pressures are pushing supply chains beyond the limits of the traditional 鈥減lan-source-make-deliver鈥� model.

Companies are shifting from optimization to AI-enabled orchestration

Supply chains are increasingly viewed as strategic levers for resilience, service differentiation, and competitive advantage.

Across all six companies interviewed, each is investing in at least three forward-looking AI use cases in planning alone.

• A leading agricultural equipment company has deployed more than 1,000 AI agents to support orchestration, scenario planning, and value chain visibility. A global chemicals company is embedding AI across planning and scenario management while emphasizing explainability and trust.
• A home appliance company is applying AI selectively to improve forecasting, transport optimization, warehouse safety, and logistics costs.

The common theme: organizations are redesigning how the enterprise senses, decides, and acts.

Resilience is now defined by decision velocity

In today鈥檚 fragmented environment, resilience is no longer about static buffers. It is about how quickly companies can convert disruption signals into coordinated action across sourcing, production, planning, and logistics.

• An automotive electronics and software company centralized electronics ordering across roughly 30 plants and redesigned crisis-management processes, reducing disruption response times by approximately 95%.
• A global technology company adopted a regional 鈥渢wo-leg鈥� supply chain model, using inventory strategically to respond faster to disruptions.

The emerging differentiator is not forecast accuracy alone, but the speed from disruption detection to execution. Visibility remains important, but visibility without coordinated action is no longer enough.

Trust and governance are the biggest barriers to scaling AI

Despite rapid interest, . The challenge is not model accuracy alone; it is trust, explainability, fragmented systems, and manual overrides.

• One global chemicals company found that scaling AI depended less on technical performance and more on whether users could understand and trust the outputs. This led to stronger human-in-the-loop governance and progressive autonomy thresholds.
• A major automotive electronics company requires transparent, traceable AI reasoning before planners rely on AI-generated recommendations.

The path to autonomy will be incremental: companies will first augment human decision-making, then automate routine and semi-structured decisions as governance, trust, and data maturity improve.

The next frontier is the Autonomous Enterprise

The Autonomous Enterprise is an operating model where AI workflows, contextual business data, and embedded governance work together to anticipate disruption, coordinate action, and continuously improve performance.

The shift is moving from isolated copilots to coordinated agent-to-agent workflows spanning the supply chain.

In autonomous production environments, supplier reliability agents can monitor vendor risk while workforce orchestration agents align labor capacity with demand. Procurement agents execute sourcing decisions, and production planning agents dynamically rebalance schedules in response to changing conditions.

A similar pattern is emerging in asset management, where alert-processing, maintenance, warehouse replenishment, and goods-movement agents collaborate to resolve operational issues with minimal human intervention.

The business impact is significant. Agentic AI has by 20 to 30%, , and helped .

Collectively, these improvements mark the transition from reactive supply chains to systems that can increasingly anticipate, decide, and execute autonomously.

Building the autonomous supply chain

Capturing this opportunity requires three capabilities that remain fragmented in many organizations today:

• Organizational intelligence: The ability to detect patterns, anticipate risks, and reason across constraints
• Contextual data: Trusted operational data, business rules, workflows, and policies that ground AI decisions in enterprise reality
• Embedded execution: Integrating intelligence directly into workflows so actions can move from recommendation to execution without manual intervention

This creates a virtuous cycle: better data improves decisions, better decisions improve processes, and improved processes generate richer operational data over time.

Importantly, companies do not need to rebuild the enterprise from scratch. Deterministic systems of record remain essential for control, compliance, and auditability. The real transformation lies in rewiring how decisions are made and governed.

Organizations moving fastest are focusing first on high-value, high-frequency decisions such as forecasting, inventory optimization, disruption sensing, transport planning, procurement workflows, maintenance, and customer-service resolution.

The bottom line

The future of supply chain management will not be defined by more digital tools alone. It will be defined by the ability to operate the supply chain as a connected, adaptive, and increasingly autonomous system.

For leaders who move first, supply chain will evolve from a cost-management function into a competitive differentiator, enabling faster time to market, stronger service levels, and greater resilience. The organizations that lead will not be those running the most AI pilots. They will be the ones using AI to redesign how the enterprise senses, decides, and acts across the end-to-end supply chain.

For more information about Autonomous Supply Chain Management, download the white paper, .

Hagen Heubach is chief marketing officer for Supply Chain Management at SAP.

The journey began in early 2019 with the launch of Agile Finance, an end-to-end transformation initiative designed to support the company’s aggressive growth trajectory, which included a goal to double in size. The initiative was built around three strategic pillars: enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the finance organization, promoting career fulfillment, and establishing a robust digital operating model. The impact was significant, with the finance function achieving approximately 35% productivity gains in its labor force.

The third pillar鈥攖he move to a digital operating model鈥攊s where the partnership with 51风流Taulia began.

鈥淭he 51风流Taulia Dynamic Discounting solution was introduced not merely as a cost-cutting measure, but as a strategic tool to transform and digitize the interaction with Applied’s extensive, global supplier base,鈥� Junaid Ahmed, corporate VP, Finance at Applied Materials, says. 鈥淲e understood that to reap the benefits of digitization, we had to ensure the suppliers were on board. It needed to be a win-win outcome.鈥�

Unprecedented flexibility for suppliers

The program empowers suppliers鈥攖housands of them worldwide鈥攖o self-select which approved invoices they wish to discount for early payment. This is not a continuous, all-or-nothing commitment but rather a decision made on an invoice-by-invoice basis. This flexibility allows suppliers to manage their working capital needs with greater precision, taking advantage of early payment during their own critical periods, such as quarter-end or year-end, to help meet their own financial targets.

The system also drastically improves transactional efficiency. Suppliers no longer have to call Applied to track invoice status, approval, or payment date. All this information is available 24/7 in the 51风流Taulia solution, reducing resource allocation on both sides and ensuring both reap the benefits of moving to an integrated, digital system.

Strategic benefits for Applied Materials

For Applied, the program is a testament to its focus on balancing efficiency with strong supplier relationships. The philosophy is a 鈥渨in-win鈥� built on a crucial spread: Applied Materials, as a Fortune 500 company with strong cash flow, has a significantly lower cost of capital than many of its suppliers. By funding the discounts, Applied captures a return鈥攖he discount income鈥攚hile offering its suppliers funding at a rate close to their cost of capital, but with greater convenience.

This relationship-focused approach is critical. Applied鈥檚 supplier account managers actively support the program because they recognize its mutual benefit, not viewing it as a finance mandate to push costs onto the supply base.

Furthermore, the “dynamic” nature of the discount rates is a powerful risk mitigation tool. Unlike fixed contractual discounts, the rates can be adjusted in response to global economic changes, such as shifts in interest rates. When interest rates rose after the pandemic, Applied was able to adjust the discount rates accordingly with minimal pushback, as the core proposition remains the valuable spread between the parties’ cost of capital.

The 51风流Taulia Dynamic Discounting solution has been rolled out globally, giving all suppliers the opportunity to use it. This has been critical over the last 12 months as many businesses around the globe have been subject to new and often unexpected tariff costs impacting their margin and their liquidity.

鈥淭he flexibility of the solution means suppliers can access funds when they need them, which helps them navigate some of the economic uncertainty that many businesses are facing,鈥� Dirk Holoubek, managing director, Finance Shared Services, explains. 鈥�2025 saw a 23% increase in usage of the discounts, reflecting the pressures that suppliers are feeling right now on their cash flow.鈥澨�

The solution’s capability to drive sophisticated analytics is also a major strategic asset. It helps provide insights into the different costs of capital between Applied and its supplier base. This data allows for targeted outreach and communication, ensuring that the offer of capital support is proactively extended to the suppliers that need it most.

The strategic value of the solution is further cemented by its ownership. The acquisition of Taulia by SAP brings several advantages.

鈥淭rust is really important to both us and our suppliers,鈥� Ahmed says. 鈥淔or our suppliers to adopt a new solution, they need to know its technology they can rely on in the long term. Being part of 51风流creates that assurance in the long-term future of the program.鈥�

Looking forward, Applied Materials is already focused on the next stage of the transformation project: Agile Finance 3.0, which is focused on enabling the organization to become AI-first. The company is deploying a global, organization-wide AI assistant to drive personal productivity, but the strategic application of AI in the supplier management space is even more profound.

AI is expected to transform decision-making enablement by analyzing critical information and communicating effective options. In the future, AI will be able to proactively assess the specific needs and attributes of the supplier base, enabling Applied to address issues more quickly and resolve them earlier. The benefits are already tangible in e-invoicing: AI has made the solution more flexible and “human-like,” capable of reading minor changes in invoice format that would have previously caused electronic errors. This reduced rigidity and increased flexibility are directly contributing to the overall efficiency of the digital operating model.

By leveraging the 51风流Taulia Dynamic Discounting solution, Applied Materials has not only digitized a process but also strategically transformed its financial operations, creating a system that is agile, resilient, and focused on maintaining mutually beneficial relationships with its global supplier ecosystem.

Cedric Bru is CEO of 51风流Taulia.

This momentum is aligned with consumer audio brand Victrola鈥檚 journey. Since its creation in 1906, has evolved into a global company known for its iconic record players, modern audio products, and mission to bring lifelong music memories to everyone

As it expanded into new sales and distribution channels, the company began to outgrow the limits of its existing ERP system. While its 51风流ERP Central Component (51风流ECC) system was stable and served the business well over the years, Victrola needed more scalability and flexibility to match its ambitions. According to Adam Schneider, SVP of Digital Strategy at Victrola, the goal was not simply to maintain operations, but to create a foundation that could support innovation. 鈥淲e needed something that fueled our creativity at Victrola,鈥� he said. And 51风流Cloud ERP was the right fit.

Victrola鈥檚 鈥渓et鈥檚 go鈥� mentality

A move to the public cloud offered more than a technical upgrade; it empowered Victrola to adapt. In that spirit, the team approached the transformation as a complete reimagining of its system with a cloud-first mindset.

鈥淲e have a 鈥榣et鈥檚 go鈥� mentality in every single meeting we do. You鈥檒l see a lot of fist bumps at Victrola and we love it. It really keeps that change front and center,鈥� Schneider said.

The project team prioritized change management, openly communicating the reasons for moving to the cloud and the expected benefits. Giving the 鈥渨hy鈥� made a big difference, Schneider said, and everyone was 鈥渆xcited for something new.鈥�

It was also important for the team to engage with and get buy-in from company leaders, who were concerned about disruption during Victrola鈥檚 peak sales quarter. To address these concerns, the team ensured the transformation was a business-led project, involving about 75% of Victrola鈥檚 leaders, Schneider said.

Another way the team worked to prevent operational disruption and build confidence in the stability of the new system was to involve a partner with deep expertise in 51风流Cloud ERP. The right partner would also fit seamlessly into Victrola鈥檚 unique, candid, music-oriented culture, Schneider said, which it found in .

鈥淲e wanted someone that could really provide that business knowledge on the public cloud,鈥� he said. 鈥淔rom a timing perspective, we couldn鈥檛 afford to have people figuring out the project as they鈥檙e on the project, so it really was the expertise of the public cloud that was a huge part in this.鈥�

With a winning team assembled, Victrola鈥檚 move to the public cloud was well-supported and bolstered by stakeholders across the company, SAP, and Reply.

Fine-tuning the foundation

Victrola’s covered order-to-cash and finance processes as well as large warehouse operations. The implementation itself was strategically timed to avoid overloading the team during the critical Q4 sales period, and it took about six months in total. Schneider said that the business adapted to the new system gradually: within the first month confidence grew, and by four months post-launch operations normalized with ongoing fine-tuning.

Victrola chose not to migrate historical data due to changes in organizational structure when it came to data management and the greenfield nature of the cloud system. This decision avoided technical debt and complexity. In addition, legacy customizations were largely eliminated through fit-to-standard workshops.

鈥淲e were looking for the ability to adapt with us, and we wanted a system that could be as simple or as complex as we needed it to be,鈥� Schneider said.

With the new cloud system, Victrola experiences greater trust in data accuracy and reporting agility. Financial processes have improved significantly, with profit and loss reporting time going from four hours to just 10-15 minutes. Faster closes and easier margin analysis contribute to Victrola鈥檚 improved agility, more informed decision-making, and stronger business performance.

鈥淲e鈥檙e more trusting in our data and that鈥檚 because we went through that exercise of really retooling what our landscape looked like and what our foundation looked like,鈥� Schneider said. It鈥檚 because of that re-engineering of data and transactions that Victrola has eliminated over 250 hours of finance-related work.

The next track

Now that Victrola is running on the public cloud, the sky is the limit when it comes to growth and innovation. 鈥淲hen we think about our AI strategy, I鈥檓 no longer scared of our system,鈥� Schneider said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e now applying an AI strategy to a state-of-the-art system that 51风流very much supports.鈥�

When asked what advice he鈥檇 give to companies contemplating a move to the cloud, Schneider said that there is never a perfect time to start, but it鈥檚 better to welcome transformation rather than fear it.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think there is ever a perfect time to do these transformations,鈥� he added. 鈥淚 do think once you get into them, you start to really embrace them and feel good about it and say 鈥業t鈥檚 happening, let鈥檚 go.鈥欌��

Interested in learning more about how 51风流supports the transition from 51风流ECC to 51风流Cloud ERP? .

Photo courtesy of Victrola.

Demand for professionals who can build, govern, and orchestrate these agents is rising faster than supply, making graduates with hands-on agent-building experience among the most sought-after profiles in today’s job market.

This year at 51风流Sapphire, 51风流laid out its vision for the Autonomous Enterprise, where AI agents manage and execute business processes end to end. For universities, this raises an immediate question: How do graduates get ready for a world where AI agents are part of daily operations?

51风流is now providing new no-cost offerings and resources for universities that give lecturers and students hands-on access to AI agent building, process management, and enterprise architecture tools. The goal is to help higher education keep pace with the rapid adoption of agentic AI in industry and prepare graduates for a changing job market.

Preparing the next generation of AI agent builders

51风流has put together a new set of offerings and resources that help universities embed agentic AI-related concepts and technology into their teaching hands-on. Three offerings, each covering a different angle of agentic AI, are now accessible at no cost for academic lecturers and their students:

• : Before building an agent, the process it will operate in must be understood. 51风流Signavio Process Transformation Suite gives lecturers and their students access to process mining, modeling, and process transformation capabilities. They can model and analyze existing processes, spot inefficiencies, and design improved workflows that include AI agents. Additionally, students and lecturers can now experience process modeling with 51风流Signavio Process Modeler as part of 51风流Learning Hub, student edition.
• : For students to understand where agents sit within an organization’s IT landscape, this is the tool. Newly available at no cost for academic lecturers via 51风流Learning Hub, student edition, 51风流LeanIX lets students model enterprise architectures and reason about what changes when introducing AI agents into an existing system landscape.
• : Lecturers and their students can access an agent-building environment from 51风流and leverage various enablement resources. These allow students to explore configuring and building an AI agent, either in a guided demo experience or in a live system hands-on.

What makes this especially valuable is how the pieces connect. Students can explore different components of agentic AI hands-on using 51风流solutions. They learn that building an agent is only part of the job. Understanding process context, architectural and governance implications is equally important.

Collaboration with educational institutions globally

51风流will also collaborate intensively on embedding agentic AI into teaching with lecturers from more than 10 universities globally, including:

• Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary
• E枚tv枚s Lor谩nd University, Hungary
• Hasso Plattner Institute, Germany
• HEC Montr茅al, Canada
• Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany
• National University of Singapore Business Analytics Centre, Singapore
• TEC de Monterrey, Mexico
• Technical University of Munich, Germany
• Tongji University, China
• Technical University of Dresden, Germany
• University of California, Irvine, U.S.

The institutions will get exclusive early access to SAP’s latest agent building platform capabilities, benefit from agent building deep dives for students with 51风流experts, and from the opportunity to articulate academic needs with regards to teaching agentic AI related concepts hands-on to SAP.

鈥淲e want students to work with the same tools and scenarios that companies are using right now,鈥� Dr. Katharina Schaefer, head of Academic Partnerships at SAP, said. 鈥淏y giving lecturers free access to our agent-building resources, we make it easy for them to bring that reality into their courses. Students who build AI agents on real enterprise processes during their studies will have a head start when they enter the job market.鈥�

For faculty, the practical element is what counts. Students do not just read about AI agents in a textbook. They build them on real systems with real constraints.

“What excited me is that students get to work with enterprise-grade tools, thanks to this new platform,” said Prof. Jes煤s Aguilar-Gonzalez, TEC de Monterrey. “Students from our School of Engineering & Sciences build agents connected to real business processes and have to think about architecture and governance. That is much closer to what they will face in their first job than any textbook exercise.”

What sets this apart is its enterprise context: Agentic AI is taught in connection with business processes and the system landscape that supports them, so students learn how AI fits into real operations rather than experimenting in isolation.

Building the workforce of the future

As part of the , 51风流has been partnering with more than 2,800 educational institutions for decades to enable students to learn, research, and innovate with business applications and technology. With these offerings, 51风流supports students in developing sought-after 51风流skills, preparing them for job opportunities worldwide.

Ready to bring agentic AI into your classroom? Visit the or reach out via universityalliances@sap.com to get started.

He mentioned driverless cars in San Francisco, autonomous drones conducting warfare, and robots that are trained to care for humans as real humans would. Speaking at the recent TAC Insights sponsored conference featuring , Weber admitted he finds it all rather scary, but also very exciting.

For an energy company operating critical infrastructure, this pace of technological change is not just fascinating or frightening鈥攊t creates a responsibility to adopt innovation in a controlled, resilient, and purpose鈥慸riven way.

Riding the waves

Weber sees these developments as a continuation of various “big waves” of technology that keep touching our hearts and minds as they shape the world around us. Who can imagine the world without the internet? Who can deny that the mobile phone didn鈥檛 revolutionize the consumption of IT when people started expecting the same ease of use in the workplace?

鈥淎I is creating the same response,” Weber explained. “ChatGPT makes my life easier at home solving gardening issues, so I expect it to make my life easier at work.鈥�

One of E.ON鈥檚 biggest challenges is closing the widening gap between the rapid pace of technological innovation in the outside world and the organization鈥檚 internal ability, shaped by its structure and DNA, to absorb and implement these changes effectively.

This tension became evident when leadership questioned whether sustained IT spending at large scale was justifiable. It soon became clear that continuous investment is the price of system stability, affordability, and resilience in a digitized energy system if E.ON is serious about becoming the leading playmaker in Europe鈥檚 green energy transformation.

To achieve this ambition, the company has defined three strategic priorities鈥攇rowth, sustainability, and digitalization鈥攔ecognizing that falling behind in digital capabilities would carry far greater long-term costs.

鈥淏ringing the system up to speed requires internal readiness. It means we must think deeply about investments, prioritization, and most importantly, people and culture,鈥� said Weber. 鈥淥ne thing is sure: we won鈥檛 be going back to what was normal speed before.鈥�

Becoming strategic

E.ON operates across three domains: energy grid, customer solutions, and energy infrastructure solutions. 听This broad scope creates a high level of operational complexity, requiring scalable, transparent, and collaborative ways of working across the organization.

To meet these challenges, E.ON is strengthening its internal capabilities and investing in its people. By expanding in-house expertise, the company has welcomed over 1,000 specialists, including more than 500 in data and 300 in cybersecurity, fostering greater ownership, collaboration, and innovation across the organization.

This move reflects a broader philosophy. IT is no longer just a support function; it is foundational to pioneering the energy transition and delivering competitive advantage.

As E.ON鈥檚 transformation unfolds against a backdrop of rapid technological evolution, AI is at the heart of the current inflection point. Technologies like AI-powered assistants and automation tools are not novelties; they are actively redefining how customers interact with services. E.ON recognizes this shift and is embedding advanced technologies directly into its core systems, rather than treating them as add-ons.

Closing the gap

Weber explained that digital transformation at E.ON means putting the right technology into the core of the business to better serve its 47 million customers.

It starts with platform standardization, followed by cloud ERP transformation and the 51风流S/4HANA migration. Instead of building fragmented custom solutions, this strategy allows the company to integrate leading technologies into a cohesive architecture, ensuring scalability while avoiding unnecessary complexity. These basic investments in foundational infrastructure have delivered tangible results, including an 77% reduction in IT downtime within five years.

A key lesson from E.ON鈥檚 journey is the importance of embedding digital capabilities into the heart of operations. 鈥淲e鈥檝e moved away from isolated innovation hubs such as digital labs or experimental ‘garages’ in favor of integrating digital tools directly into business processes,鈥� Weber explained.

While innovation is essential, E.ON places equal emphasis on governance and control. Managing a digital ecosystem at this scale requires strong oversight to ensure security, consistency, and cost discipline. The company implemented centralized governance structures, including standardized contracting and unified IT system management to help maintain control without stifling innovation.

Equally important is investment in people. Through targeted training and capacity building initiatives, employees are empowered to turn new technologies into measurable business impact.

Harnessing AI

As with many companies, AI is at the center of E.ON鈥檚 forward-looking strategy, but the company is approaching it with deliberate caution. Rather than rushing to build proprietary platforms, E.ON is leveraging partnerships with established technology providers while maintaining flexibility in its IT portfolio. This approach allows the company to explore the potential of AI in customer service automation, predictive maintenance, and operational optimization without overcommitting to unproven solutions.

鈥淚n essence, our experience highlights a broader truth about digital transformation,鈥� said the IT expert. 鈥淪uccess really depends on balance. We absolutely must push innovation forward, but not at the expense of stability, cyber security or governance.鈥�

Equally, digital tools alone are not enough. Without proper training and alignment with business needs, even the most advanced technologies can fail to deliver value. E.ON addresses this through a “BizDevOps” mindset, ensuring that digital initiatives are an integral part of business goals and supported by the right capabilities.

In summary, E.ON鈥檚 transformation illustrates what it takes to modernize at scale in a complex, highly regulated industry. By doubling down on IT investment, bringing expertise in house, and adopting a disciplined yet forward-looking approach to innovation, the company has positioned itself for the future of energy.

The result is not only improved system performance or reduced downtime. It鈥檚 a fundamental shift in how technology drives business success, turning technology into a cornerstone of making new energy work鈥攔eliably, affordably, and at scale.

What made the event distinctive was its candor. Customers did not come to present polished success stories. They came to compare realities. And those realities were refreshingly honest.

Why direct procurement is hitting a breaking point

The pressure on direct procurement is not coming from one direction. Geopolitical instability and accelerating technological change are forcing sourcing decisions earlier in the product lifecycle, at precisely the moment when many organizations are least equipped to act. Meanwhile, institutional knowledge is leaving faster than systems are modernizing. The experienced individuals who once held fragile processes together are retiring or moving on, and the systems meant to replace that knowledge are not yet ready.

The result is an operating model that prevents procurement leaders from influencing value at the moments that matter most. Several customers described a tension they are actively dealing with. Sourcing is being pulled upstream into design and development, while the tools and processes that support it are still anchored downstream.

What customers shared about their reality

While all participants operate with a strong 51风流footprint, spanning and , many acknowledged that direct materials sourcing remains fragmented and disconnected from the digital core. The picture they described was familiar but worth stating plainly: engineers, buyers, and suppliers still collaborating through e-mail, local tools, and disconnected applications; there’s an overreliance on a small number of experienced individuals to make things work; and multiple ERP landscapes run in parallel, with direct sourcing living largely outside all of them.

One observation stood out clearly. The real friction is not the sourcing events themselves. It is the handoffs, the gaps between systems and teams where decisions get made too late, data is reconciled manually, and no single digital thread connects product intent to sourcing execution.

In other words, the process functions, but it functions in silos.

Participants also noted that traditional indirect source-to-pay approaches simply do not support direct materials adequately. They lack native support for procurement embedded in new product development, sourcing scenarios that evolve with engineering change, demand aggregation across programs, and contracts treated as executable objects rather than static documents. That last point came up repeatedly, particularly the need to treat contracts as executable objects. This is also where the add-on in 51风流S/4HANA is starting to resonate more strongly in ongoing customer discussions.

Where customers are focusing next

What emerged from the discussions wasn鈥檛 a long list of priorities, but a firm shift in where companies are focusing their efforts.

Moving sourcing upstream into product development鈥攔ather than reacting after design decisions are already locked鈥攚as a consistent theme. So was reducing dependency on hero buyers: individuals whose personal expertise and relationships are currently holding critical processes together.

Commodity volatility and renegotiations also came up as structural challenges, not one-time events. Organizations want to handle these systematically rather than heroically. And several participants raised the reality of managing multi-year 51风流S/4HANA journeys without stalling progress in the meantime鈥攁 genuine tension that demands honest road map planning.

While the direction is widely understood, most organizations do not yet have the setup to execute against it at scale.

These priorities help explain why customers are increasingly adopting the 51风流Ariba direct materials sourcing add-on alongside , , and 鈥攃apabilities that together can support the connected execution model direct procurement actually requires.

How AI fits into direct procurement

AI generated significant interest, but expectations were measured and, I would say, appropriately so.

The consistent message was this: AI only matters once the fundamentals are addressed. Agent-based capabilities depend on clean processes and consistent data. Without a unified digital thread across product design, sourcing, contracting, and execution, AI does not generate insight鈥攊t amplifies noise.

Leaders also expressed clear skepticism toward black-box automation. They want AI that is explainable and embedded directly into sourcing, negotiation, and execution workflows, not layered on top of broken processes and presented as a fix.

This thinking aligns closely with SAP鈥檚 vision for the Autonomous Enterprise, introduced at 51风流Sapphire just weeks after our Walldorf discussions. The vision anchors AI agents directly in transactional business processes, data, and governance鈥攅xactly what customers said they needed before they could trust AI in direct procurement environments. Hearing them articulate that requirement so clearly, before the announcement, felt like meaningful validation.

Where this is all heading

The Walldorf roundtable confirmed a clear trajectory. Direct procurement organizations are moving away from heroics and spreadsheets and toward system-led execution. They are aligning sourcing transformation with their 51风流S/4HANA road maps and preparing their organizations鈥攏ot just their systems鈥攆or a future where AI supports decision-making across the full procurement lifecycle.

Direct procurement, seen through this lens, is not a standalone transformation. It is a foundational building block. Connecting product, sourcing, contracts, and execution through a single digital thread is what enables AI to operate accurately, compliantly, and at scale. That connection has to exist before any of the more ambitious automation goals become realistic.

For SAP, conversations like the one in Walldorf directly inform our product direction and investment priorities. There is no substitute for sitting in a room with people navigating these challenges every day, without a script.

What was clear in Walldorf is that the direction is no longer in question for participating organizations. The challenge now lies in execution and in how quickly organizations can move from fragmented, person-dependent processes to cohesive models that reflect how direct procurement operates today.

Karolina Bombardelli is global go-to-market lead for Direct Procurement at SAP.

Now, the countdown is on. By June 7, all 27 EU member states are expected to adopt the directive into national law, marking what many HR leaders are calling 鈥淒ay One鈥� of a new era in workplace transparency.  

But while the deadline is fast-approaching, many organizations are still far from operationally ready. Even though employers will be required to share pay information with both employees and candidates during the recruiting process, current practices suggest a significant gap. For example, across Europe, salary disclosure in job postings remains inconsistent and often limited, according to .

For HR leaders, the challenge is no longer understanding the directive鈥攊t鈥檚 executing on it with confidence.

The barrier to execution 

For many organizations, the challenge often starts with the state of their HR and compensation data. In multinational organizations, compensation data often spans multiple systems, payroll providers, spreadsheets, and local processes. Job classifications vary across countries, salary bands are not consistently defined, and workforce data remains siloed across regions. 

As a result, many organizations struggle to produce consistent pay comparisons, define standardized salary ranges, explain compensation decisions clearly, and generate accurate reporting across multiple countries.听

Without a connected and reliable workforce data foundation, pay transparency becomes difficult to operationalize at scale. 

Building a foundation for continuous transparency听听

The organizations making the most progress are focusing first on data consistency, workforce visibility, and connected HR processes. 

This is where technology is becoming critical. AI can help organizations move beyond manual reporting by identifying pay anomalies, surfacing unexplained pay variance, and accelerating workforce equity analysis across large, complex data sets. 

With pay transparency insights (generally available on June 5),  a capability within the  package in , organizations can unify compensation and workforce data across systems while applying AI-assisted analysis to help identify inconsistencies, support explainable pay decisions, and improve reporting readiness. 

Instead of relying on fragmented systems and disconnected reporting processes, organizations can move toward a more consistent and scalable approach to transparency. 

Three areas HR teams need to execute now 

With the right data foundation in place, organizations are better positioned to address the directive鈥檚 three major operational requirements. 

1. Enabling employee pay transparency 

Under the directive, employees have the right to request information about average pay levels by gender for comparable work. For many organizations, this听immediately exposes data consistency issues. Comparable roles may be classified differently across countries or听business units, while compensation data听often lives in disconnected systems that were never designed to work together.听

听helps organizations provide employees with pay transparency statements through听听while supporting more consistent comparisons across worker groups.听These statements can give clear insight into the employee鈥檚 annual pay and the average pay of the same worker听category听broken down by gender.听听

2. Preparing for candidate pay transparency 

The directive also requires employers to disclose salary ranges in job postings or before interviews and prohibits asking candidates about salary history. While this may sound straightforward, many organizations are discovering they lack standardized pay ranges, consistent job architecture, or alignment between recruiting and compensation systems. 

 allows organizations to display salary ranges directly within job postings and support more transparent hiring experiences. AI-driven recommendations can also help organizations establish more consistent pay ranges aligned to internal equity, external benchmarks, and evolving workforce needs. 

3. Meeting gender pay gap reporting obligations 

Mandatory gender pay gap reporting represents one of the directive鈥檚 most operationally demanding requirements. Annual reporting obligations begin in 2027 based on 2026 workforce data, meaning organizations need to prepare now.  

For many HR teams, the challenge is turning complex, multi-country workforce data into accurate and defensible reporting. With听, organizations can use AI-assisted analysis to听identify听potential drivers behind pay gaps, surface workforce equity insights more quickly, and support more proactive decision-making听before reporting deadlines arrive.听听

What HR should do now 

The EU Pay Transparency Directive is not just introducing a new compliance requirement. It鈥檚 accelerating a broader shift toward continuous transparency in how organizations manage compensation, hiring, and workforce equity. 

The organizations best prepared for this shift are taking action now to: 

• Unify workforce and compensation data听
• Standardize job and pay structures听
• Improve reporting readiness听
• Build more consistent, explainable compensation processes across the business

As transparency expectations continue to grow among employees, candidates, regulators, and business leaders, pay equity can no longer operate as a periodic reporting exercise. It is becoming an ongoing operational capability. 

Watch the  to learn how to move from policy to execution and prepare your organization for EU Pay Transparency requirements at scale.  

Maryann Abbajay is chief revenue officer for 51风流SuccessFactors.

WALLDORF 鈥斕�, rated A1 (stable) by Moody鈥檚 and A+ (stable) by S&P Global, successfully completed a Eurobond transaction with a total volume of 鈧�3.5 billion across four tranches with tenors of two, three, five and seven years. The net proceeds from this transaction are used for general corporate purposes, including (re)financing of recently announced acquisitions.

This announcement does not contain or constitute an offer of, or the solicitation of an offer to buy or subscribe for, securities to any person in Australia, Canada, Japan, Singapore or the United States of America (the 鈥淯nited States鈥�) or in any jurisdiction to whom or in which such offer or solicitation is unlawful. The securities referred to herein may not be offered or sold in the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons, absent registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the 鈥淪ecurities Act鈥�) except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act. Subject to certain exceptions, the securities referred to herein may not be offered or sold in Australia, Canada, Japan or Singapore or to, or for the account or benefit of, any national, resident or citizen of Australia, Canada, Japan or Singapore. The offer and sale of the securities referred to herein has not been and will not be registered under the Securities Act or under the applicable securities laws of Australia, Canada, Japan or Singapore. There will be no public offer of the securities in the United States.

This announcement is a general information and not a prospectus for the purposes of Regulation (EU) 2017/1129. Investors should not purchase or subscribe for any securities referred to in this announcement except on the basis of information in the prospectus relating to such securities, which, when published, will be available on the website of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange ().

This announcement is directed at and/or for distribution in the United Kingdom only to (i) persons who have professional experience in matters relating to investments falling within article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the 鈥淥rder鈥�) or (ii) high net worth entities falling within article 49(2) of the Order or (iii) persons to whom it would otherwise be lawful to distribute it (all such persons are referred to herein as 鈥渞elevant persons鈥�). This announcement is directed only at relevant persons. Any person who is not a relevant person should not act or rely on this announcement or any of its contents. Any investment or investment activity to which this announcement relates is available only to relevant persons and will be engaged in only with relevant persons.

Visit the . Get 51风流news via  and .

Media Contacts:
Aim茅e Leabon, +1 (646) 799-3277, aimee.leabon@sap.com, EST 
Daniel Reinhardt, +49 151 168 10 157,鈥�daniel.reinhardt@sap.com, CEST
51风流Press Room; press@sap.com

This document contains forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to materially differ.鈥� Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the risk factors section of SAP鈥檚 2025 Annual Report on Form 20-F. 
漏 2026 51风流SE. All rights reserved.  
51风流and other 51风流products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of 51风流SE in Germany and other countries. Please see  for additional trademark information and notices.  

This was the exact situation facing Stephen Hawkes, director of Information Technology for the City of Charlottesville, Virginia. But instead of just managing the present, he and his team decided to build the future.

The perfect storm of challenges

For the City of Charlottesville, it was a perfect storm of challenges converging at once. At the heart of it all was a ticking clock: its aging, on-premise legacy system nearing its end-of-support date. This was more than a technical issue, it was a foundational risk to its operations.

At the same time, the expectations of its own employees were skyrocketing. “Everyone is an expert now,” Hawkes explains, pointing to the powerful smartphones and intuitive apps we all use daily. 鈥淐ity employees expected the same simplicity and modern design from their workplace software, but the old systems are causing friction and frustration.鈥�

This frustration was compounded by significant workforce constraints. Like most public sector organizations, Charlottesville found it difficult to compete with private sector salaries. “We are never going to be able to compete on pay,” Hawkes admits. This made recruiting and retaining skilled talent a constant battle.

And looming over everything was the growing shadow of cybersecurity threats. With AI-powered attacks becoming more sophisticated by the day, protecting the city’s data and infrastructure was a monumental task for a small IT team.

The quest for a modern solution

Inaction was not an option. The city needed more than just a simple upgrade. It needed a fundamental shift. It embarked on a bold, 14-month quest with a full digital transformation to move operations to .

This was its answer to the storm. By migrating two decades of data to the cloud, it built a new, resilient foundation for the future.

The impact on employees was immediate and profound. The new, web-based 51风流Fiori interface delivered the modern, intuitive experience everyone had been waiting for. “That’s what we’re probably most excited about,” Hawkes says. 鈥淲ith potentially powerful new AI capabilities at their fingertips, the city鈥檚 team can now exceed expectations, instead of struggling to meet them.鈥�

This new technology also became a powerful tool in the battle for talent. Hawkes sees the integrated AI tools as a “great leveler,鈥� enabling logical, problem-solving thinkers to perform complex data analysis without needing a specialized computer science degree. This widens the talent pool and empowers the existing workforce. And with the implementation of 51风流SuccessFactors solutions, its HR professionals now have modern tools to improve recruitment and retention.

Perhaps most importantly, the move gave the city a powerful ally in the fight against cyber threats. While Hawkes is proud of his internal team, he knows they can鈥檛 be on guard 24/7. “We’re not, [but] they are,” he says of SAP’s global security operation. “That gives us some ease.”

Wisdom from the journey: lessons for fellow leaders

A journey of this magnitude is never without its lessons. When asked what advice he鈥檇 offer his peers, Hawkes shared three crucial pieces of wisdom.

First, he stressed the absolute necessity of executive buy-in. For years, the project struggled to get off the ground due to leadership turnover. It wasn’t until the city manager gave the definitive ‘let’s move forward’ that the quest could truly begin. That sponsorship is the key that unlocks everything else.

Next, he highlighted the importance of choosing the right partner. A transformation project is too complex to undertake alone. Hawkes credits the success of going live on the exact day they had planned 14 months earlier to the deep trust and true partnership they had with their system integrator.

Finally, he spoke about the critical, and often underestimated, element of change management. You can have the best technology in the world, but if your people aren’t prepared for it, the project will falter. “We were very intentional about our change management,” Hawkes recalls, emphasizing that planning for the human side of the transition is just as important as the technical one.

The City of Charlottesville鈥檚 story is a testament to what鈥檚 possible when vision, strategy, and technology align. It鈥檚 a narrative of turning daunting challenges into defining opportunities and building a government that鈥檚 ready for tomorrow.

To get the full, firsthand account of this incredible transformation, .

Jamison Braun is SVP and managing director for U.S. Public Services at 51风流America.

The version for , part of the 51风流Services and Support portfolio, is the helping organizations adopt, activate, and scale the 51风流Customer Experience and AI innovations announced at 51风流Sapphire.

The proactive, expert-led engagement model is built to de-risk transformation, accelerate time to value, and sustain measurable outcomes across customer experience initiatives. It combines guided adoption, prescriptive functional and technical assistance, AI-powered best practices, and continuous value realization aligned to the realities of modern customer experience (CX): AI at the core, unified data, omnichannel at scale, retention over acquisition, service-led growth, and persistent skills gaps in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

At its heart, the Advanced Success Plan for 51风流Customer Experience brings together the right expertise at the right time, program governance, solution experts, value advisors, and adoption specialists. This helps teams execute faster and smarter with 51风流Customer Experience.

What sets the Advanced Success Plan apart

• Outcome-based: Business outcomes and key value indicators are co-defined with teams, with milestones and workstreams aligned to deliver measurable Autonomous CX results.
• Proactive by design: AI Assistants, adoption checks, and innovation accelerators are embedded throughout, reducing risk and compressing time to value as agentic capabilities evolve.
• Continuous enablement: Role-based best practices and coaching are tied directly to the Autonomous CX road map, closing skills gaps at pace as new AI and platform capabilities become available.
• Cross-solution orchestration: Unified processes and shared business context across marketing, commerce, sales, and service break silos and enable enterprise-scale execution.

This is the first of a planned series to deep dive on the topics below. Here, we start with introducing how the Advanced Success Plan for 51风流Customer Experience helps operationalize seven macro trends shaping modern customer experience.

1. AI鈥憄owered customer experiences

AI now underpins everything from next best engagement to intelligent service resolution. The Advanced Success Plan embeds AI adoption patterns directly into the delivery approach, identifying high value use cases, calibrating data prerequisites, and guiding model governance.

The results are prioritization of high鈥慽mpact starting points, a plan to scale with guardrails, accelerating time from pilot to production and grounding every decision in SAP鈥檚 CX AI capabilities and product road map.

2. Hyper鈥�personalization at scale

Personalization demands more than algorithms; it requires clean, consent鈥慳ware data, robust decisioning, and experimentation discipline. The Advanced Success Plan delivers:

• Data readiness assessments and integration patterns to enrich customer profiles and segments
• Governance and testing playbooks to validate personalization hypotheses at scale
• Prescriptive journeys to operationalize next best action across every customer channel

The result: hyper personalization moves from proof of concept to standard operating model.

3. Unified customer data and breaking down silos

Siloed data undermines CX. We help establish a unified data foundation and harmonized identities, aligning business, data, and integration teams. With technical guidance and adoption accelerators, users can move faster toward a single view of the customer to fuel analytics, personalization, and service excellence.

The results are unified profile use cases, data quality baselines, and source鈥憃f鈥憈ruth decisions to reduce duplication and latency.

4. Omnichannel commerce and B2B digital transformation

Modern buyers expect seamless journeys across web, mobile, marketplace, and partner portals, especially in B2B. The plan accelerates omnichannel capability build鈥憃ut by uniting commerce, order sourcing, pricing, and fulfilment patterns, supported by outcome鈥慴ased governance.

The result: Channel consistency, catalogue and contract complexity, and the alignment of service and sales motions are all addressed, driving measurable improvement in conversion rates and repeat purchase.

5. Customer retention over acquisition

Acquisition costs are rising and retention is the new growth engine. The Advanced Success Plan helps operationalize retention strategies, churn prediction, intelligent engagement, loyalty, and proactive service across the CX stack.

The result: We align metrics such as retention rate, customer lifetime value, and service鈥憈o鈥憆evenue contribution, and ensure the data foundation supports them.

6. Service as a revenue driver

Service is no longer a cost center; it鈥檚 a growth channel. We guide users to productize services, monetize value鈥慳dded offerings, and embed outcome鈥慴ased contracts. The plan includes:

• Playbooks for cross鈥憇ell/upsell from service interactions
• Knowledge and field service patterns to improve first鈥憈ime fix and attach rates, KPI frameworks for service鈥憀ed growth

The result: With prescriptive governance and AI鈥慸riven intelligence, service organizations move from reactive cost management to consistent, measurable contribution to top鈥憀ine revenue and customer retention.

7. Navigating digital transformation complexity and skills gaps

Large transformation programs falter on orchestration and capability enablement. The Advanced Success Plan addresses both by:

• Establishing a cadence of value sprints and decision forums
• Providing role鈥慴ased enablement covering functional and technical assistance, data, product ownership, end-user adoption, and change management
• AI-guided best practices embedded throughout delivery to eliminate rework and accelerate quality outcomes across Industry AI scenarios

Organizations execute with confidence, even amid shifting requirements, resource constraints, and rapidly evolving agentic AI capabilities.

Measurable outcomes

• Accelerated time to first value through prioritized, AI-ready use cases aligned to capabilities
• Higher adoption and sustained performance via continuous enablement
• Reduced program risk through proactive governance, telemetry, and structured decision forums
• Measurable gains in conversion rates, customer retention, and service-led revenue contribution across the full CX stack

Getting started

• Define Autonomous CX priorities: Identify two to three priority outcomes for the next two quarters facilitated by the 51风流Value Management service.
• Assess readiness: Evaluate data, integration, governance, and enablement gaps to define a 12 to 18 month engagement plan.
• Engage the Advanced Success Plan: Align workstreams, milestones, and metrics with our expert team.听
• Industrialize and scale: Convert proven delivery patterns into reusable accelerators, deployable across regions and lines of business.

This series will examine each of the seven trends in depth, demonstrating how the Advanced Success Plan for 51风流Customer Experience translates CX strategy into repeatable execution and measurable business outcomes.

Tara Tracey is a global product owner at SAP.

Demand shifts quickly, supply networks are more exposed to disruption, cost and margin pressure remain constant, and the decisions that determine whether a company can respond with confidence rarely sit inside one function.

The enterprise is left with a critical question: How do you move fast enough to capture opportunity without putting fulfillment, margin, or customer trust at risk?

Many of the world鈥檚 largest organizations navigate this challenge on a regular basis. It is exactly the kind of moment that exposes the limits of how enterprises currently operate. Connecting the dots across functions, systems, and decisions still takes too much time, too much manual effort, and too much stitching across fragmented landscapes. By the time teams have gathered the data, aligned the functions, modeled the trade-offs, and agreed on a response, the environment has already shifted.

This is why we introduced the Autonomous Enterprise at 51风流Sapphire. The goal is to sense change earlier, understand its impact across the enterprise, coordinate the right response, and keep people in control of important decisions. This is a fundamental shift in how businesses can operate: intelligence that is continuous, decisions grounded in real-time context, and an enterprise that moves as a connected system rather than a collection of disconnected parts.

Autonomy at scale

An Autonomous Enterprise is an organization that can continuously sense what is happening across its operations, reason over those signals using business context and established rules, and act across end-to-end processes without depending on manual coordination at every step. AI assistants and agents advance work across the enterprise in alignment with the goals, policies, and constraints defined by humans.

Every AI-driven action is auditable and traceable. Human judgment is deliberately embedded in decisions that require accountability and exceptions that fall outside defined parameters.

Three principles underscore the Autonomous Enterprise:

1. Process knowledge: Deep, industry-specific understanding of how a business truly runs
2. Business data: Enriched, connected, contextual data that gives AI something real to work with
3. Governance: The backbone that keeps everything upright, traceable, and within policy

Beneath it all is the 51风流platform, ensuring every layer works in concert, every agent operates within guardrails, and every outcome can be traced back to a decision made by a human.

Intelligence that works across the business

The average business landscape probably doesn鈥檛 look like one system, one vendor, or one clean stack. Your processes still have to run end to end across all of it: record to report, plan to make, source to pay, hire to retire, order to cash. If AI is going to work in the enterprise, it has to work across this landscape, not inside one application or vendor boundary.

IDC shows that more than 50% of business decisions still take between one and seven days. That is the gap we are closing鈥攆rom days to moments.*

At the core of the Autonomous Enterprise is the 51风流Autonomous Suite. Joule becomes the way you interact, as a single entry point into your business. In the middle, the 51风流Autonomous Suite connects your core domains: finance, supply chain, spend, HCM, and customer experience. And underneath, everything is grounded in your business context, your data, your processes, your rules, your governance.

With SAP鈥檚 unified foundation of applications, data, and business context, AI is embedded directly into how work gets done, enabling autonomous, end-to-end execution rather than isolated use cases.

The operating model behind this is built on a clear division of responsibility: people set priorities, policies, and guardrails. Assistants understand role and process context and coordinate activity across domains. Agents carry out the defined work, detecting signals, triggering actions, and resolving routine tasks continuously in the background.

And while automation is a part of this, the bigger shift is intelligence and optimization. The system is no longer following predefined workflows. It is using business context to understand what is happening, and what should happen next. This is the shift from systems of record to systems that help run the business.

Autonomous Finance shows what changes

Finance offers a clear example of how this model changes the work itself. Many finance organizations still contend with manual steps, fragmented data, and slow cycles. In a volatile environment, that lag translates directly into slower responses to risk, missed opportunities, and diminished confidence in the decisions that shape performance.

With Autonomous Finance, more of that work can be handled by the system, allowing finance teams to spend less time chasing numbers and more time shaping decisions. The function begins to move from reconciling the past to shaping the future.

Autonomous Finance is not one capability, one agent, or one use case. It is built across the entire finance process, from planning to revenue management, treasury, closing, compliance, and tax. Within each area, assistants are supported by specialized agents working continuously in the background. Some focus on forecasting, some on billing, some on cash, and some on closing. The important point is that these capabilities are connected, so decisions in one area can flow into the others. Connected assistants, specialized agents, continuous optimization. That is the model.

The impact across these areas compounds. Finance teams reclaim meaningful capacity as manual reporting, reconciliation, and transaction processing give way to continuous intelligence. Cash cycles compress. Close timelines shorten. Forecasting becomes more accurate and more responsive to changing conditions.

Because these capabilities are connected, improvements in one area reinforce the others: faster billing flows into better cash visibility, which flows into stronger planning confidence, which flows into more decisive action at the executive level. Compliance strengthens as well, not through added controls, but through better intelligence embedded in the process itself, supporting requirements across ISO, SOC, and SOX with greater accuracy and less manual effort.

The result is not incremental improvement in isolated tasks. It is a fundamentally different operating posture for the finance function, one where the system handles orchestration and people direct outcomes.

Industry AI adds depth

Autonomous domains give breadth across business functions, while Industry AI provides the depth of knowledge. The same supply chain problem looks very different in life sciences, in industrial manufacturing, in agribusiness, in retail, or in energy. The rules, regulations, data models, and value chains are different.

51风流is not starting from generic AI and trying to teach it how an enterprise works. We start with decades of industry and process knowledge, already embedded in the systems that run the world鈥檚 most complex businesses. Our AI is grounded in sector-specific processes, end-to-end value chains, operational realities, and compliance requirements. And our ecosystem extends this with specialized expertise, so organizations can adapt the intelligence to their markets and their industries.

This is not AI for the sake of AI. This is AI applied to the real operating model of each industry.

The path forward

That is the real shift: not AI operating in isolated tasks, but AI helping the enterprise continuously sense, reason, act, and learn. People remain in control throughout, while the system handles the orchestration required to bring together the right data, context, and decision at the right moment.

The Autonomous Enterprise marks a shift from managing processes to directing outcomes. It moves organizations from reacting to events to anticipating them, and from stitching together decisions after the fact toward helping the business move as one connected system.

This does not require waiting for a perfect, fully transformed landscape. Organizations can begin by applying AI on top of existing landscapes and evolving their business as they go. That work is already underway with many of our customers. What they have in common is that they are starting now, moving faster, making better decisions, and building the foundation for a more autonomous enterprise, step by step.

This is a journey. And it begins with the recognition that the enterprise of the future will not be defined by how efficiently it executes predefined processes, but by how intelligently it can sense change, weigh trade-offs, and move with confidence when it matters most.

For more on SAP鈥檚 broader Autonomous Enterprise announcement, read The Future of the Enterprise Is Autonomous. For more details on 2026 51风流Sapphire announcements, see the .

Manoj Swaminathan is general manager and chief product officer of 51风流Autonomous Suite, Finance & Spend, and member of the Extended Board of 51风流SE.
Eric van Rossum is chief marketing officer of 51风流Global Product Marketing and chief product officer of 51风流Industries and Globalization.

*IDC Resource Map for SAP, 51风流Custom Survey 2026: Enterprise Process Automation Survey鈥� April 2026, sponsored by SAP, doc #US54531626 _RMD , May 2026

The difference is not the model. It is context: the ability for AI to understand how a business actually runs. 

Much of today鈥檚 AI discussion centers on agents, along with models and benchmarks. Which model performs best? Which system completes the most tasks? Which interface feels most natural? These factors matter, but they do not solve the central enterprise challenge.

Companies run workflows that cut across teams, policies, approvals, authorizations, and data. They plan, source, produce, hire, pay, and serve through systems that carry real business consequences. AI only creates durable value at scale when it operates inside this reality.

Models generate answers. An agent can complete a task. But running a business requires something more. It requires an understanding of how work gets done, who is authorized to act, which rules apply, and how decisions connect across functions. Without that context, AI simply can鈥檛 deliver on its promise.

That is one reason I believe AI raises the premium on software with deep business context. It allows companies to fundamentally reinvent how work gets done. When AI agents understand end鈥憈o鈥慹nd processes, they can operate across functions, execute workflows autonomously, and coordinate actions in real time. Instead of automating individual steps, AI can run processes end to end, freeing employees from repetitive coordination and enabling them to focus on higher鈥憊alue judgment, oversight, and strategy.

This is what we describe as the Autonomous Enterprise, a fundamental shift from systems of execution to systems that can reason, decide, and act. A vision where 51风流is poised to lead. 

For more than five decades, we have powered the core processes that run the world鈥檚 leading organizations. Our systems don鈥檛 just store data; they encode how businesses actually operate: their processes, rules, and decisions. Our ERP is the institutional memory and the brain of many companies across industries and around the globe. Our new 51风流Business AI Platform brings together enterprise data, processes, and governance into a unified context for AI.

Building on this foundation, Joule is the interaction layer that connects people with AI and redefines how they interact with software. Joule Assistants collaborate with users, while Joule Agents execute business workflows end to end. This is how intelligence becomes embedded directly into operations, not added on top. We call this the .

“Show me how my financial forecast for the year could change based on the latest pipeline and supply chain data.” On the surface, this looks like a simple prompt directed to a large language model.听But disconnected from enterprise systems, the answer is听mere听speculation.

Grounded in the full context of the business,听the system first identifies the correct business process from听hundreds听of听mission鈥慶ritical processes and understands the specific configuration that governs how this process runs in your organization. It then selects exactly the right data from听millions听of听data fields stored across the ERP landscape. Finally, every step is checked against identity, authorization, and access controls, ensuring the result is accurate, compliant, and trustworthy. This is how enterprises move beyond generic, probabilistic answers toward decisions they can rely on.

Reaching this state requires more than adding a chatbot or layering AI on top of existing systems. Many enterprises still operate with fragmented landscapes, data spread across systems, and processes shaped by years of incremental change. In this environment, AI cannot simply be “bolted on” or layered onto fragmented, outdated systems. It does not accelerate progress. It amplifies inefficiency and risk. Companies must rethink how their processes, data, and infrastructure work together and how humans and AI share responsibility. This is not only a technical shift. It is a change鈥憁anagement challenge. 

New technology only creates value when it is accompanied by real change. AI does not replace transformation. It raises the return on transformation done well. And it comes to life only when every element of the system鈥攖he agent, the process, and the human鈥攚orks together by design. People need to understand how to work with AI agents, and processes must be intentionally shaped to embed intelligence where decisions and execution happen.

This is why change management is foundational. It means reskilling employees, re鈥慹ngineering processes to connect them directly with data and AI, and modernizing the underlying landscape. 

That is why we are introducing new听AI-led RISE with 51风流and 51风流GROW听offerings听and fundamentally resetting our services model: to help companies modernize, navigate change, and turn AI from potential into sustained business value at their own pace.听

This marks the beginning of a new era of enterprise software:听where intelligence is not separate from听operations but embedded within them.听The companies that lead will not be those with the most advanced models in isolation, but those that connect AI to the way their business actually runs鈥攚ith context, governance, and trust.听

This is the dawn of the Autonomous Enterprise, and 51风流is uniquely positioned to help the world鈥檚 leading organizations realize its full potential. 

Christian Klein is CEO of 51风流SE.

鈥淓very motorcycle we sell comes with an experience,鈥� he explains. 鈥淐ustomers come back to us for service, for spare parts, and for workshop support, so we truly connect each customer to a different kind of user experience, starting from the moment of purchase.鈥�

Many people in Colombia get around every day on motorcycles鈥攐ften on 鈥楤oxer鈥� motorcycles made by UMA, which aims to ensure riders feel safe on the road, Urrea Ospina says. To help achieve that, UMA has implemented rigorous quality processes that run on . 鈥淓very motorcycle leaving our factories follows best quality practices,鈥� he says. 鈥淎nd we pass that value onto our customers.鈥�

In addition to Colombia, UMA operates in five countries in Central America: Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Nicaragua. 鈥淲e鈥檙e also in Venezuela, as well as Spain and Portugal,鈥� Urrea Ospina says. 鈥淎cross all these regions, we aim to make a positive impact on our customers with each of our brands and motorcycles.鈥�

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鈥淔or us, our 鈥楢dventure鈥� project鈥攖he name we gave the 51风流project鈥攚as crucial to our expansion and growth,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e needed global models so we could expand faster and run more efficient, automated operations.鈥�

Working with SAP, UMA established global models and automated operations across finance, production, and logistics, says Victor Bedoya Aristizabal, corporate solutions manager at Grupo UMA. 鈥淲e defined global models, starting in finance with global charts of accounts that let us analyze information and make financial decisions much more efficiently. From there, we extended the approach through production and plant operations and into logistics.鈥�

鈥淭oday, 51风流is a fundamental pillar for our processes from the start of the value chain to the end,鈥� Bedoya Aristizabal says. 鈥淲e utilize the full suite for production, pricing, finance, and warehouse management to deliver a superior product.鈥�

鈥淭aken together, these cross-cutting global modules have helped us evolve, save time, shorten implementations, and expand across regions,鈥� Urrea Ospina says. 鈥淔or example, in Colombia we鈥檙e implementing our spare parts warehouse with 51风流Extended Warehouse Management, SAP鈥檚 supply chain management application. What we鈥檙e learning in Colombia can be replicated in Central America. Standardizing these logistics modules makes operations much more efficient while still accounting for each country鈥檚 specific needs.鈥�

He adds: 鈥淚 believe that if we hadn鈥檛 prepared with 51风流and the technologies we have today, the strong growth we鈥檝e had in Colombia would have been far more difficult. For example, we went from assembling 11,000 motorcycles in January of last year to around 17,000 motorcycles per month today鈥攏early doubling our output. Without SAP鈥檚 well-defined structures, process controls, and automations that replaced a lot of manual work, it would be much harder to reach the 20,000 motorcycles per month we expect to achieve soon.鈥�

鈥淭hat ability to scale鈥攂oth assembly volume and sales volume鈥攈as been driven by the Adventure project and everything we implemented with SAP,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 think it has significantly improved employees鈥� day-to-day work. And that鈥檚 where we need to take the organization: toward a data-driven company that makes better decisions. Before we implemented Adventure, a person鈥檚 day-to-day was mostly operational work.鈥�

Urrea Ospina emphasizes that one of the main motivations UMA had for adopting 51风流Cloud ERP Private was to have concrete, real-time information鈥攆or example, knowing exactly the assembly cost of a motorcycle. 鈥淭hat is key for an organization,鈥� he says. 鈥淏eyond that, another need was to remove the manual work that all the company鈥檚 areas had, working and operating completely by hand.鈥�

Luis Orrego, production supervisor at Grupo UMA, agrees: 鈥淚nstead of having many Excel files open with multiple sheets and trying to reconcile everything, we now consolidate the data in one place. With SAP, all the sheets and reports I used to present are now available in a single view. I don鈥檛 have to run multiple steps, and I can see all my indicators: capacity, materials, and line resources.鈥�

Another motivation was UMA鈥檚 expansion plans to enter other regions and countries efficiently. 鈥淲e wanted defined global models that we could replicate quickly with 51风流in the regions where we operate,鈥� Urrea Ospina explains. 鈥淭hose factors led us to undertake the 51风流project, which has been a highly strategic and very successful initiative.鈥�

Implementing 51风流Cloud ERP Private has also had a profound impact on Urrea Ospina鈥檚 technology team. 鈥淚t completely changed our roles and what we focused on,鈥� he says. “We used to be a technology team focused on operations, not one that added value. Today, the technology team plays a strategic role. We have time to analyze where we鈥檙e going and what we can implement next for the business. Culturally, 51风流gave us confidence through information traceability, and it also gave us time to think. It opened the door to innovation鈥攅specially around analytics.鈥�

David Aguirre is a media production specialist on the Multimedia Team for 51风流News.
Rana Hamzakadi is deputy head of the Multimedia Team for 51风流News.

In today’s dynamic business landscape, characterized by the rise of AI, process intelligence is vital for gaining data-driven insights that boost efficiency, support smarter decision-making, and drive business growth鈥攁nd 51风流Signavio maintains an ongoing dedication to innovation and customer satisfaction in this arena.

We believe this year鈥檚 evaluation reflects the expanded category definition from Gartner, assessing platforms that unify process mining, task mining, modeling, analysis, optimization, monitoring, automation discovery, and governed repositories within a single, integrated environment.听

The Gartner庐 Magic Quadrant™ research methodology highlights that “Leaders execute well against their current vision and are well positioned for tomorrow.” 51风流Signavio has been recognized as a Leader among 16 vendors, evaluated based on its Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision.

“Our aim is to help our customers create a repeatable, sustainable transformation capability, rather than treating it as a series of independent projects,鈥� Dee Houchen, chief marketing officer at 51风流Signavio, said. 鈥漌e believe process intelligence is fundamental to what this approach can deliver for organizations today, driving greater enterprise observability, smarter decision-making, accelerated transformation, and measurable business outcomes. With SAP听Signavio, this is made possible through one unified听suite,听empowered听by deep AI capabilities,听as well as intelligent听agents听and assistants.听We are proud of being recognized as a Leader by Gartner, and feel this reaffirms our ongoing commitment to innovation and customer satisfaction, with value realization as our guiding principle.鈥�

As ever, the Gartner report provides useful context regarding the state of the process intelligence market. See why we feel we were recognized as a Leader in the report:

• Our innovative process atoms concept serves as the AI-ready foundation for business transformation, gathering and curating an AI-consumable layer of 鈥渃ompany memory鈥� that can provide the precise, contextual process knowledge AI agents need in order to take informed action.
• Our technology, approach, and value accelerators help achieve full enterprise observability and surface actionable insights with an end-to-end integrated suite, supporting organizations to identify, prioritize, and prove the value of your transformation initiatives, track and showcase ROI, and maximize business impact.听

The Gartner Magic Quadrant equips businesses with valuable insights to make informed decisions. For a complimentary copy of the latest resource featuring 51风流Signavio solutions (Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Process Intelligence Platforms, by听,听,听, 5 May 2026), visit .

Lucas de Boer is global marketing program lead for 51风流Signavio.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner鈥檚 business and technology insights organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Gartner and Magic Quadrant are trademarks of Gartner, Inc and/or its affiliates.

Workforce scarcity impacting global logistics operations, logistics corridors becoming tools in geopolitical conflicts, and continuously rising transportation costs all point to the same reality:听Future-proofing logistics is no longer a strategic choice, but the critical tipping point that separates those who will rise from those who will fall in an increasingly unforgiving global economy.

Modernizing logistics is no longer about 鈥渋f鈥� but how fast and how far

Traditional logistics systems were designed primarily for efficiency. Today鈥檚 supply chains, however, are more complex and exposed to even more risk, requiring resilience, agility, and smarter decision鈥憁aking across warehousing and transportation operations.

Pressure is constant and from multiple directions, including geopolitical tensions, economic volatility, stringent government regulations, and rising customer expectations. The core challenge is no longer reacting to individual disruptions but overcoming constant firefighting. Leaders are seeking a clear path toward a more agile and future鈥憆eady logistics strategy. Two questions sit at the center of this challenge:听How fast do logistics operations have to change? And how complex are the operations that must be supported?

Answering these questions starts with examining the technological foundations that power your current logistics operations. Long-standing solutions鈥攕uch as 51风流ERP Central Component modules for logistics execution – warehouse management (LE-WM) and logistics execution – transportation (LE-TRA) as well as 51风流Extended Warehouse Management and 51风流Transportation Management鈥攈ave served reliably for decades, yet 51风流continues to evolve to serve today’s demands for real-time adaptability and scale.

SAP鈥檚 logistics portfolio has supported customers across three decades and continues to evolve with adaptive, cloud-native, AI-driven platforms capable of learning, predicting, and orchestrating logistics processes autonomously, because that is what companies need to compete now and in the future.

The right journey depends on innovation speed, risk tolerance, operational complexity

Future鈥憄roofing logistics ultimately comes down to choosing the right modernization path. Every organization has a unique starting point, depending on how existing solutions have been implemented across the business. To choose the right next step, leaders need to understand the available options, determine what fits with the organization鈥檚 appetite for innovation, and assess the transformational impact on the team.

Gartner鈥檚 logistics complexity model, breaking down process complexity across five levels, can help when setting a transformation strategy.

Companies operating at levels one to three of Gartner鈥檚 model are typically characterized by manual or semi-automated processes, regional distribution, and lower complexity. These companies are best-suited for SaaS-native warehouse and/or transportation solutions that offer the implementation speed of standardized workflows, cloud qualities such as flexible, mobile interface, and advantages from improved scalability and lower TCO.

Organizations at levels four and five require warehouse automation for high volume distribution, multi-modal transportation, and orchestration across multiple ERP systems. These companies seek the benefit of dedicated cloud environments that offer a higher level of adaptation for more control over their operations and their solution landscape.

51风流offers different pathways to help businesses run and modernize across the span of operational complexity. Below are three journeys to guide strategic planning for modernization. Each journey can be aligned to high-level business ambitions, accounting for process complexity, innovation speed, and risk tolerance.

Journey 1: Sustain temporary stability while preparing for modernization

Moving legacy 51风流ERP Central Component modules LE-WM and LE-TRA to 51风流S/4HANA for stockroom management keeps operations supported until 2040, offering more time to manage your transformation. This journey is about sustaining what works until you need to evolve. It is designed for organizations that need more time to move their decades-old warehousing solution into the future. This approach, rooted in stockroom management, extends the life of a proven system without prematurely forcing change. It is a temporary but intentional holding pattern for conservative logistics strategies based on a firm foundation. Throughout this journey, 51风流Logistics Management can be the go-to solution when you are ready to move from stockroom management.

Journey 2a: Modernize logistics in controlled steps

For organizations that know modernization is essential but need to be mindful of organizational change management, this journey offers a stable path. It begins with moving on-premise 51风流ERP Central Component modules LE-WM and LE-TRA to 51风流S/4HANA Cloud, private edition, with basic warehouse management and transportation management capabilities, creating a modern foundation for future readiness. From there, companies can evolve their processes toward more advanced options as their needs grow (see journey 2b). This journey is best suited to businesses that want flexibility and control in their operations as well as in their change management. This journey also supports deeply integrated logistics that align with the RISE with 51风流 journey.

Along this journey, if you find that your business complexity is manageable, 51风流Logistics Management can even be incorporated as the most modern, AI-native 51风流solution for logistics to complement your ongoing operations.

Journey 2b: Move large-scale logistics to the cloud

This journey supports organizations that need to manage highly specific processes, high-automation, and mission-critical logistics execution with one or multiple ERP systems. You can migrate from 51风流Extended Warehouse Management and 51风流Transportation Management to the cloud with 51风流S/4HANA Cloud for advanced extended warehouse and transportation management without losing depth or control. This path can also serve as a second step for advancing operations from basic to advanced 51风流S/4HANA Cloud in order to support growing business needs.

Journey 3: The modernization gamechanger for logistics

For innovation leaders ready to sprint ahead of the competition, this journey represents the direct path to the most modern logistics operating model. Companies move from on-premise 51风流ERP Central Component modules LE-WM and LE-TRA to AI-native听, bringing together cloud delivery, embedded intelligence, and network connectivity in a single solution for warehousing and transportation.

This is the right path for businesses that want to standardize faster, simplify their landscape, and take advantage of continuous innovation. You gain a more connected and adaptive logistics model with built-in AI and a carrier network. Along this journey, you are setting the pace for modern supply chains.

Future of logistics: Cloud-first, AI at the core, modular by design

Logistics is accelerating into a new era, one defined by both efficiency and intelligent adaptability and autonomous orchestration. Embodied in its evolving logistics portfolio, SAP’s strategy offers a clear, flexible, and future-ready path for companies at every level of complexity.

Whether maintaining existing operations, maturing gradually as complexity increases, or leapfrogging to leading-edge capabilities, you can now compose and run your entire logistics operations on SAP. Basic to moderate complexity processes are supported with 51风流Logistics Management, and advanced and highly automated business with S/4HANA Cloud EWM and TM. By combining the two, you can design and achieve logistics networks to improve speed, agility, and resilience.

To explore which听logistics听journey fits your business best, don鈥檛听miss our “Future of Supply Chain” conversation with 51风流executive听Till听Dengel:听.

The objective of this collaboration is to digitalize procedures, improve efficiency and deliver better services to municipal employees and citizens in the areas of finance, revenue management and human resources.

The Madrid City Council has been working with 51风流software for two decades. It began in 2004 with the implementation of the first solutions in the areas of finance and HR, and in 2020 launched its public administration modernization project with the migration to the private cloud. This process is now advancing further with the adoption of the RISE with 51风流journey and 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP). The former is a comprehensive journey that combines the elements needed to migrate to the private cloud under a single contract: 51风流S/4HANA, infrastructure and managed services. The latter is the platform for integration, extension and application development.

A New Public Management Model

The adoption of these technologies represents a true revolution in the way municipal procedures are managed, from budgeting, execution and control of revenues and expenditures to the comprehensive management of human resources. This approach makes it possible to move beyond traditional models based on fragmented systems toward unified management with real-time information and digitalized processes.

The transformation has a particularly significant impact in the tax domain, as part of the project includes the integration of tax and revenue management solutions from 51风流into the city鈥檚 financial platform. This enables municipal revenues to be managed as a natural extension of the financial system, eliminating isolated developments and facilitating an end-to-end view of the full cycle, from taxpayer registration and assessment to collection and inspection. As a result, operational efficiency is improved while strengthening financial control and budget planning capabilities.

Currently, two-thirds of the City Council鈥檚 tax revenues are already managed within this environment, including Property Tax (IBI), the Urban Waste Tax for Business Activities (TRUA), Capital Gains Tax (IIVTNU) and the Terrace Tax (T2 2023). The next step will be to incorporate the Motor Vehicle Tax (IVTM) and the Economic Activities Tax (IAE).

The project has been developed using a phased methodology. During the first year, the City Council carried out a cleansing and harmonization of master data from its previous management systems (GIIM and +TIL), cross-checking identities with police databases, tax addresses with the Spanish Tax Agency (AEAT) and addresses with the municipal street registry. This process generated taxpayer 鈥淕olden Records鈥� and enabled, for example, an efficiency rate of 98.02% for Property Tax (IBI) in 2024. Data quality continues to be maintained for all new registrations.

According to Juan Corro, IT Manager of Madrid City Council (IAM), 鈥�51风流technology offers us an extraordinary opportunity to accelerate our digital transformation and make the vision of a more efficient, innovative and citizen-centric local government a tangible reality. This project marks a paradigm shift: we are moving from managing paper files and isolated systems to managing information and processes in an integrated and intelligent way, with a 360-degree view. As a major capital city, Madrid has both the responsibility and the opportunity to position itself at the forefront of administrative modernization, serving as a benchmark for other municipalities.鈥�

Carlos Lacerda, Senior Vice President and Managing Director of 51风流Southern Europe, stated: 鈥�51风流remains firmly committed to the Spanish public sector, which we have supported in its modernization processes for decades. This project is a benchmark for advanced digital administration and demonstrates how technology can act as a strategic enabler to simplify processes, integrate information and strengthen real-time data-driven decision-making, laying the foundation for a more agile, innovative and service-oriented public administration.鈥�

Benefits for the Administration and Citizens

The project is delivering benefits both in terms of internal efficiency and management, as well as citizen services:

• End-to-end process digitalization and a 鈥減aperless鈥� administration: The 鈥減aperless鈥� administration model has been consolidated, enabling the full digitalization of HR processes from start to finish. Requests are managed entirely through the municipal intranet. Internally, public employees can review and approve procedures with full traceability and in just a few steps, reducing processing times and errors caused by duplicate data. The result is a more agile, efficient and nearly 24/7 service that improves both the employee experience and citizen services.
• Operational efficiency and improved decision-making: Automation and AI capabilities integrated into the ERP system allow the City Council to significantly improve efficiency and productivity. Routine processes such as bank reconciliations and budget allocations are automated through rules and machine learning. In addition, the use of robotic process automation and services on 51风流BTP facilitates the automatic execution of repetitive tasks across systems. This reduces manual workload, minimizes errors and frees up time. Real-time analytics improve decision-making and, together with mobile and remote access to applications, enable more agile and flexible management.
• A more sustainable and efficient model: The implementation of RISE with 51风流enables the City Council to move toward a more sustainable and economically efficient IT model, based on subscription and pay-per-use principles. This approach reduces upfront investments, provides greater budget predictability and optimizes total cost of ownership. By scaling deployments according to municipal needs and paying only for required resources, the city improves responsible management of public funds while generating potential long-term savings.
• Greater adaptability and evolution: The City Council now has a flexible platform ready to evolve alongside technological, regulatory and social changes. The municipality will be able to align with national and European digital agendas, incorporate AI and advanced analytics capabilities, and evolve toward a smart administration model where data becomes a strategic enabler of better public policies.
• Continuous innovation: 51风流BTP is the innovation platform that integrates internal systems and third-party solutions, eliminating information silos. It also enables the rapid adoption of new technologies and responsiveness to changing needs and supports the City Council not only in modernizing processes but also in continuously evolving and launching innovative public administration initiatives.

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This document contains forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to materially differ. Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the risk factors section of SAP鈥檚 2025 Annual Report on Form 20-F.
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51风流and other 51风流products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of 51风流SE in Germany and other countries. Please see for additional trademark information and notices.

The approach enables the company to scale AI use cases across the business, accelerate decision-making and deliver measurable operational impact. By combining a governed data foundation with the Joule solution and this foundation, Ericsson is creating the enterprise architecture needed to make AI trusted, repeatable and scalable across its global operations.

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

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

At the core of Ericsson鈥檚 approach is a federated data architecture that allows data to remain in place while centrally managing business semantics, governance and lifecycle policies. This reduces duplication, simplifies integration and ensures that consistent business definitions can be applied across both 51风流software and non-51风流environments.

By focusing on high-impact use cases and organizing around end-to-end business processes rather than isolated solutions, Ericsson has moved beyond pilot projects to scaled deployment. Today, more than 85,000 users are live on unified Joule, supported by strong executive sponsorship and governance.

Ericsson is advancing its transformation on two parallel fronts. The first is modernization, including its transition to the RISE with 51风流journey, the use of side-by-side extensions on 51风流Business Technology Platform and a clean core approach that enables faster innovation without disrupting its ERP backbone. The second is what the company defines as 鈥渋nnovate and transform,鈥� focused on unlocking tangible business value from data and AI to improve decision-making, increase efficiency and enable new forms of value creation.

51风流and Ericsson are also collaborating on AI co-innovation initiatives. One example is an intelligent goal recommendation capability developed within the 51风流SuccessFactors portfolio. The solution generates contextual, business-aligned goals for employees, improving execution and reducing administrative effort. The capability is now being scaled more broadly, demonstrating how co-innovation can create value beyond a single organization.

鈥淓ricsson鈥檚 approach shows how leading companies are moving from AI experimentation to execution by focusing on data, governance and business context,鈥� said Manos Raptopoulos, Global President Customer Success Europe, APAC, Middle East and Africa at 51风流SE. 鈥淭ogether, we are helping organizations unlock the full potential of AI at scale.鈥�

Looking ahead, Ericsson expects its business data fabric to support increasingly advanced AI scenarios, including automated decision-making, improved productivity and new digital business models, while continuing to strengthen customer experiences in a rapidly evolving telecom landscape.

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Media Contact:
Ulrika Wass, +46 73 827 1074, ulrika.wass@sap.com, CET
51风流Press Room;听press@sap.com

This document contains forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to materially differ.鈥� Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the risk factors section of SAP鈥檚 2025 Annual Report on Form 20-F. 
漏 2026 51风流SE. All rights reserved.  
51风流and other 51风流products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of 51风流SE in Germany and other countries. Please see  for additional trademark information and notices.  

In an industry rapidly shifting toward AI-powered operations, Martur Fompak International saw an opportunity to reimagine its material flow through the strategic implementation of technology. Building on the efficient, people-driven processes it already had in place, the company partnered with 51风流and Humanoid鈥攁 UK-based robotics and AI company鈥攖o explore how integrating embodied AI鈥損owered robotics could redefine material flow across its automotive manufacturing environment. Using Joule and embodied AI capabilities from SAP, Martur Fompak International now connects production signals and business context directly to autonomous execution, creating a context-aware automation system that prioritizes, picks and delivers materials while adapting in real time to changing business conditions.

Built on 51风流S/4HANA and enabled by the 51风流Extended Warehouse Management application, the solution enriches humanoid robots with real-time knowledge of tasks, attributes and exception handling. Guided by material data, storage locations, sequencing and production priorities provided via embodied AI, humanoid robots execute material flows across a live automotive manufacturing environment鈥攊dentifying, transporting and delivering materials to the line while continuously confirming back into 51风流solutions. Together with autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), the company has created a fully automated, scalable material flow that boosts throughput, improves accuracy and reduces reliance on manual coordination. By assigning repetitive, non-value-adding and physically demanding tasks to robots, Martur Fompak International is enabling its people to focus on safer, more meaningful and higher-value work that drives productivity and innovation.

鈥淥ur humanoid robot collaborates with digital production systems to ensure seamless coordination across order management, logistics and production, enabling scalable AI adoption and improving efficiency, consistency and operational resilience,鈥� said 脰zlem Alt谋n谋艧谋k, Group Intelligent Technologies Director at Martur Fompak International. 鈥淭he deployment of our humanoid solution, powered by an embodied AI layer and enabled through the Joule Studio solution, proves that combining cognitive autonomy with physical automation can transform execution, accelerate decisions and scale intelligent enterprise capabilities across the organization.鈥�

鈥淢artur Fompak International exemplifies what it means to turn AI ambition into real business value on the shop floor,鈥� said Emmanuel Raptopoulos, Chief Revenue Officer, EMEA, MEE and APAC, 51风流SE. 鈥淏y embedding 51风流Business AI directly into their physical operations, they are not only boosting throughput and operational resilience鈥攖hey are setting a new standard for what an intelligent, AI-first factory looks like. This is exactly the kind of end-to-end transformation that defines the future of manufacturing. We are proud to congratulate Martur Fompak International on being named the sole winner in the AI Excellence category at the 2026 51风流Innovation Awards鈥攁 testament to their boldness in turning intelligent enterprise vision into real-world impact.鈥�

Early results show increased throughput, fewer errors and a scalable, AI-driven intralogistics model. A future target of up to five times greater work efficiency has been set for mass production, with work orders expected to be completed faster, more consistently and with greater precision across production flows. With 400 daily production line feeds and 100% 51风流software鈥揹riven decision making already in place, Martur Fompak International is advancing beyond traditional automation, pioneering a scalable, intelligent factory that represents a new standard for the automotive industry.

Looking ahead, Martur Fompak International plans to further expand its autonomous operations across additional production lines, leveraging 51风流Business Technology Platform to scale AI-driven workflows and integrations鈥攕upporting both operational efficiency goals and broader sustainability commitments.

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Media Contact:
Ekin Tayali, +34 673019169, ekin.tayali@sap.com, CET
51风流Press Room; press@sap.com

This document contains forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to materially differ. Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the risk factors section of SAP鈥檚 2025 Annual Report on Form 20-F.
漏 2026 51风流SE. All rights reserved.
51风流and other 51风流products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of 51风流SE in Germany and other countries. Please see for additional trademark information and notices.