New research shows how business AI delivers ROI

To better understand the opportunity to produce returns on investment from AI, 51风流commissioned that was shared at 51风流Connect. In partnership with Oxford Economics, we surveyed 1,600 executives in medium and large enterprises across eight countries.

We found that today, on average, organizations are benefiting from a 16 percent return on AI investments鈥攁 number they expect to nearly double within two years. In addition to impressive financial returns:

• 94% of business leaders say AI is improving innovation within their organizations
• 87% say AI is improving customer engagement
• 78% believe AI agents have the potential to transform their business operations

New deep research and AI assistants in Joule expand what is possible

These innovations were engineered based on what our customers tell us they need: to act quickly, simplify complexity, and unlock better, data-driven decisions across the lines of business and processes that matter. But most of all, our customers need AI that drives significant, measurable business outcomes.

To help every organization accelerate returns on investment from AI, at 51风流Connect we announced powerful new capabilities for , which makes business data and the entire 51风流Business Suite immediately accessible through the power of a simple conversation. And because Joule is grounded in your company鈥檚 data, it understands context and delivers insights that are specific, actionable, and relevant to your business.

Deep research in Joule, announced at 51风流Connect, is a new capability expands what people can do within the Joule interface. It goes beyond quick answers to deliver strategic analysis, reporting, and synthesis in a single, connected experience. It brings together internal 51风流data and external intelligence so people can ask complex questions and receive comprehensive research and recommendations鈥攚ithout ever leaving Joule. The deep research capability in Joule will be available in beta this December.

We also unveiled the new concept of role-based AI assistants in Joule, built to partner with people in their specific roles. These assistants connect to the right Joule Agents for the job, removing guesswork so teams can unlock new levels of productivity and insight. Whether it鈥檚 a finance leader forecasting working capital, a recruiter evaluating headcount needs, or a planner adjusting inventory, AI assistants surface the right intelligence, at the right time, in the right context. In the background, Joule Agents get work done for you.

These innovations mark the next chapter in how people interact with enterprise systems, helping every role across an organization seamlessly move from inquiry to insight to action.

New Joule Agents autonomously get work done

To help enterprises further accelerate business results, we introduced 14 new Joule Agents at 51风流Connect. They help people coordinate, decide, and execute tasks with greater precision. Joule Agents are in finance, HR, procurement, and supply chain, in a way that only SAP鈥攚ith our deep expertise in these functions鈥攃an deliver.

For example, rather than navigating multiple systems or running countless manual checks to release an order, a production manager鈥攁 key role in the supply chain function鈥攚ill be able to turn to our Production Planning and Operations Agent, planned for general availability in the Q1 2026. They can simply ask Joule to do it, safely and in real time. The agent will validate and release orders when conditions are met, accelerating production start times and shortening order-to-delivery cycles.

And starting December 2025, with the general availability of , now in beta release, customers will be able to create and deploy custom Joule skills and Joule Agents tailored to their unique business needs. Agent builder in Joule Studio is your command center for designing, building, and deploying enterprise-ready custom Joule Agents using the same powerful 51风流technologies鈥攊ncluding 51风流Knowledge Graph for deep business context, 51风流Business Data Cloud for comprehensive data access across 51风流and non-51风流sources, and SAP’s central identity and authorization services to ensure responsible agent behavior. These capabilities empower every enterprise to extend, customize, and personalize 51风流Business AI solutions.

New embedded intelligence across 51风流applications

To help our customers move faster and make better decisions where work happens, we continue to bring intelligence directly into the applications they rely on every day. These embedded capabilities extend the same AI-driven guidance that powers Joule Agents into core 51风流solutions, enhancing user workflows with context, clarity, and automation. We will have more than 400 of these AI use cases by the end of the year.

For example, in , starting in February 2026, AI will orchestrate personalized interactions across HR, marketing, and service, bringing harmonized data, relevant context, and better business outcomes into every engagement. In the solution, planned for general release in the first half of 2026, AI will predict shortfalls and fulfillment risks, helping planners simulate and respond with speed and precision.

Additionally, the rebuilt 51风流Ariba source-to-pay suite, arriving in February 2026, brings a modern, cloud-native experience to every stage of procurement. Embedded AI guides people with intelligent recommendations, accelerates contract reviews, and surfaces supplier insights in real time. By simplifying sourcing decisions and improving compliance, it helps procurement teams strengthen supplier relationships and capture more value, faster.

Governing AI with visibility and control

As our customers continue to adopt these AI innovations embedded across their functions, we know they need transparency into how it operates, what it influences, and the value it creates. That is why we provide tools to give them the visibility they need to deploy AI with confidence and scale it responsibly.

51风流LeanIX AI Agent Hub helps CIOs and business leaders see their entire AI agents landscape at a glance. From one dashboard, they can understand where agents are deployed, what processes they touch, and how agents are performing. This allows teams to evaluate effectiveness, identify redundancies, and manage AI like any other enterprise asset: aligned to outcomes, governed by policy, and continuously optimized.

Complementing that, agent mining in gives organizations a powerful way to analyze how AI contributes to process performance. It reveals how AI agents decide and act, flags bottlenecks and non-compliance, and uncovers where automation adds value and how to fine-tune it for efficiency and impact. Together, these tools bring clarity to what has often been a black box: transforming governance from reactive oversight into proactive optimization.

What鈥檚 next for business AI

At 51风流Connect, we also shared a view into what鈥檚 coming and how our innovations will continue to redefine enterprise productivity. For example, we鈥檙e developing an outcome-driven user interface that adapts to context in real time. Instead of navigating menus or searching for data, people will simply express what they want to achieve, and the system will guide them through the right actions, insights, and tools.

We鈥檙e also extending Joule Agents beyond software into the physical world鈥攃onnecting your company’s business intelligence to robotics and industrial systems. This opens a new frontier for automation, combining state of the art electronics that utilize physical AI tools, such as computer vision and collision detection, with AI agents capable of reasoning through complex goals and planning multi-step workflows. this November to learn more.

Ready to start your AI journey?

We know AI is top of mind for most business leaders today. In fact, another finding from the research we commissioned with Oxford Economics is that 41 percent of tasks in global businesses will be supported by AI within two years鈥攗p from 25 percent today.

As you continue to explore what is possible with business AI, we鈥檒l keep innovating to deliver systems that are intelligent by design, trusted in operation, and, most important, measurable in their impact.

For us, it鈥檚 all about what you hope to achieve. We鈥檙e proud to partner with you on your AI journey. If you鈥檙e ready to take the next step, here are three things you can do right now:

• Learn how to bring the potential of AI into your organization by signing up for our .
• In our , get inspired about what鈥檚 possible by exploring how leading companies are transforming with AI.
• Watch 51风流Connect virtual sessions, , to see our latest innovations in action.

There鈥檚 more to come. Join us at on November 4 for the next wave of AI innovations that will transform the enterprise.

Brenda Bown is chief marketing officer for 51风流Business AI.

Today’s business transformations are diverse, ranging from creating new products or services and entering new markets to adopting cybersecurity frameworks and transitioning to net-neutral carbon emissions. However, these transformations are neither swift nor inexpensive, and sometimes the costs can be hidden.

That is why 51风流has partnered with Oxford Economics on a new and comprehensive survey of large organizations, providing an exclusive look at the current global state of business transformation.

鈥溾�� reveals the true cost of business transformation, with the data aimed at helping organizations maximize transformation success and take the guesswork out of transformation budgeting.

Spanning a range of industries and focusing on companies with a minimum revenue of $500 million, the report provides insights from a balanced audience of 800 respondents, including IT professionals and leaders from corporate strategy, R&D, finance, manufacturing, HR, and operations.

The paper further reveals that:

• Barely half of transformations go according to plan (51 percent)
• Fifty-eight percent of transformations end up going over budget
• The average cost of transformation efforts is 鈧�9.5 million
• Sixty-three percent of respondents face resistance from leadership regarding the value of transformation efforts
• Nearly half of the initiatives highlighted by respondents remain incomplete, and budgetary constraints pose a significant challenge

From Strategy to Execution

In broad terms, this disconnect between the confidence level of respondents and what the report data reveals about the true cost and organizational impact of transformation can be understood in the equivalent disconnect between strategy and execution.

For example, while three in five say their major transformation plan was well communicated across their organization, only 53 percent say it was clearly defined in the first place.

While most companies are employing strategic practices such as crafting mission statements, appointing dedicated leaders, and forming cross-functional teams, they can lack the final piece of the puzzle when it comes to converting strategy into action. That is where 51风流comes in.

鈥淭ransformation challenges will always exist, particularly in aligning execution with strategic road maps,鈥� Dee Houchen, head of Marketing for 51风流Signavio and 51风流LeanIX, shared. “As companies navigate these complexities, the path to successful transformation remains a critical focus for global businesses, which is why this research is so relevant.”

“ and solutions offer clarity and transparency in business transformation, helping organizations leverage enterprise analytics and process data to really turn transformation plans into action through supporting decision-making, setting timelines, and tracking progress effectively,” Houchen said. “This report is an invaluable resource for anyone wondering why their transformation efforts have slowed, what they can do differently, and how others have identified and overcome similar hurdles to their own.鈥�

Lucas de Boer is Global Marketing program lead for 51风流Signavio at SAP.

This includes artificial intelligence (AI) embedded into the 51风流Digital Manufacturing solution, 3D product and operations viewer capabilities in manufacturing, service and maintenance processes, and adherence to sustainable packaging guidelines in the 51风流Responsible Design and Production solution.

• Advancements to Supply Chain Software from 51风流Enable Risk-Resilient and Sustainable Supply Chain Operations

In today’s world, constant disruption has become the new normal. Resilience is essential for businesses to withstand the forces of change. To achieve it, companies are looking to redesign their supply chain and manufacturing processes to consider cost, speed, profit, customer service and risk. According to a global , manufacturing executives are more likely than those in other functions to deploy intelligent technologies at scale to improve predictive analytics capabilities. However, only 36% of the 1,000 survey respondents said they have deployed predictive analytics in any part of their enterprise. To become more resilient, 51风流customers can employ AI embedded into 51风流Digital Manufacturing for AI-driven insights and AI-powered visual inspection processes. Customers can ensure that defective parts are discovered early and are addressed quickly, producing higher yield, ready-to-deliver quality materials. The lower product defect rates result in fewer service claims and improved asset health and maintenance.

鈥淚n recent years, it has become apparent that our global supply chains are vulnerable to disruption,鈥� said Thomas Saueressig, member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE responsible for 51风流Product Engineering. 鈥淭his has far-reaching consequences for the manufacturing industry as well. 51风流is a driving force in many industry-relevant initiatives, such as Catena-X and Manufacturing-X. Open data ecosystems, especially, have their place in the manufacturing industry. What is more, in many of the conversations I鈥檝e had with business leaders, and according to our latest Oxford Economics study, it becomes clear: They see the need of investing in Industry 4.0 principles and AI to increase supply chain resiliency, but many are still in the piloting stage. 51风流is in a unique position to accelerate the journey to resilient manufacturing because we can embed intelligent capabilities in enterprise software across all end-to-end-processes.鈥�

Smart Press Shop, a joint venture of and , reached a new milestone in automotive production by using AI embedded in 51风流Digital Manufacturing. Adapting a cloud-first development strategy, Smart Press Shop enables fully paperless production and a completely automated process for configuring production-line machinery for pressing automotive body parts. With the help of 51风流software and embedded AI, Smart Press Shop can assess the quality of materials in real time and adjust machine performance to improve downstream processes in logistics and operations.

鈥淲ith the help of 51风流solutions, we were very quickly able to build a system landscape at the Smart Press Shop based on the principles of Industry 4.0 and covering our requirements, such as self-optimizing production, end-to-end traceability and resource-saving production,鈥� said Hendrik Rothe, CEO, Smart Press Shop GmbH & Co. KG. 鈥淲ithin a few months, our core solutions 51风流S/4HANA Cloud, public edition as well as 51风流Digital Manufacturing were ready for use. Above all, the solutions enable us to process data in real time, to handle our entire production without paper, and ultimately to make all our processes transparent. Thus, we are very flexible and positioned for the future.鈥�

3D Capabilities to Strengthen Resiliency

To further help manufacturing become more resilient, the 3D product viewer capabilities of the 51风流Enterprise Product Development solution are now integrated into manufacturing, service and maintenance processes. In 51风流Digital Manufacturing, production operators now can view 3D product models in their dashboard and work environment to streamline complex assembly. In the 51风流Service and Asset Manager mobile app, field engineers can use 3D augmented reality views to accelerate asset maintenance, increase first time fix rates and reduce downtime.

Sustainability Initiatives Are Still at the Top of Business Agendas

According to the Oxford Economics study, 28% of supply chain executives include improving sustainability metrics as one of their top three strategic goals. To enable not only risk-resilient but also sustainable supply chain operations, 51风流Responsible Design and Production now supports company-specific sustainable package guidelines. Customers can monitor, measure and act to eliminate waste during packaging design.

51风流had extended its integration with business sustainability ratings provider EcoVadis SAS within the Trading Partner Profile (TPP). The integration enables suppliers to promote their sustainability performance and showcase their EcoVadis sustainability rating status across 51风流Business Network. This helps buyers identify opportunities to comply with emerging ESG due diligence and reporting legislation, as well as enabling them to select new suppliers who can help them reach ambitious corporate and value chain sustainability commitments.

These innovations are helping customers achieve better visibility across their supply chain operations and to ultimately increase resiliency.

Visit the to learn more about how 51风流software helps:

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HANNOVER MESSE is the world’s leading trade fair for industry. About 4,000 companies from the mechanical engineering, electrical and digital industries as well as the energy sector will showcase technologies and solutions for a connected and climate-neutral industry. Visit the 51风流booth in Hall 15, E17 from April 17鈥�21, 2023.

About the Oxford Economics Study: On behalf of SAP, Oxford Economics conducted a global supply chain survey of 1,000 supply chain executives and professionals in 15 industries across the United States, Canada, Brazil, Germany, France, Spain, UK, Italy, China and Japan. One third of the sample was made up of companies with US$500M to $999M in annual revenue, with one third having between $1B and $10B and one third generating over $10B in revenue. Survey respondents participated in the research using a computer-assisted telephonic interviewing methodology (CATI). Interviews were carried out in January and February of 2023.

About SAP

SAP鈥檚 strategy is to help every business run as an intelligent, sustainable enterprise. As a market leader in enterprise application software, we help companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: 51风流customers generate 87% of total global commerce. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers鈥� businesses into intelligent enterprises. 51风流helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want 鈥� without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables business and public customers across 25 industries globally to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, 51风流helps the world run better and improve people鈥檚 lives. For more information, visit .

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