#6 Andreas Welsch

Kicking of the new year in style, The Only Constant had a visit from Andreas Welsch . Andreas is a global AI leader at SAP, a recognized leading AI influencer and even has his own long-running AI podcast "What the Buzz". This makes him a unique voice in the market and a great guest on this first episode of 2024.

Read more about Andreas at the bottom of this newsletter.

Like always, I am very happy that we once again managed to make an episode that explores more than it explains ??

Listen to the episode here:

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What made this episode special to me?:

Andreas and me have been well connected for a couple of years now, and I have always been a happy follower of his content and podcast. He has a remarkable hands-on approach to AI that I really dig, and his job at SAP makes this even more real: how do you implement a hallucinating, biased, and jailbreaking LLM into one of the worlds biggest ERP software vendors renowned for stability, accuracy and reliability?

Thus, the distance between hype market "let's put this everywhere" and German engineering, testing and compliance in the shape of SAP was exactly what I set out to probe and Andreas did a great job at answering unwaveringly every question I put to him.

The key takeaways that linger with me:

• People - Andreas' only constant. It is not about what you can do with technology, but what is needed by the people who want to use technology. I am starting to use this myself whenever I see something new and fancy tech or AI use case on SoMe: Who asked for this? Who demanded it? We've got to remember what it is we are trying to transform and that this is brown field innovation.
• Critical processes cannot live with hallucinations. Like Andreas said, you can't accept if there's an occasional rounding error in Excel, and likewise not in a financial statement. It takes time, careful consideration and a very steady hand to implement a technology like GenAI on a critical part of a financial process.
• Modernization is key. So much Ai will be done by the software vendors, but as I like to say: "You won't get AI in you NAV 2009". Andreas doubles down on this by explaining how SAP is making a lot of the hard work for their customers behind the scenes - quote: "In a sense, the business users, for example, don't even need to know that there's AI, right?"

"In a sense, the business users, for example, don't even need to know that there's AI, right?"

And there's much more. I might just need to get Andreas back on the pod in a year or so to check in on his opinions again and whether anything have changed dramatically. There is a sense that we are at a tipping point, where real world implementation precautions are taking center stage from over-enthusiastic hype, and Andreas is definitely the go-to-guy in this stage of the AI craze.

About Andreas Welsch:

Andreas Welsch is a prominent figure in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) with over 21 years of experience in the software industry. Currently, he holds the position of Vice President Marketing & Solutions for Artificial Intelligence at SAP, a global leader in business applications. His work at SAP focuses on product marketing and go-to-market strategies for AI, where he has led various regional business development teams and established an AI Center of Excellence. Welsch has been instrumental in shaping AI literacy across SAP's largest software engineering unit and has served as a trusted advisor on over 80 AI projects across various industries.

In addition to his role at SAP, Welsch is a top AI thought leader recognized by The Futurum Group, Thinkers360, and others, for his many contributions to the AI community, including his work on the Intelligence Briefing series on LinkedIn and the "What’s the BUZZ?" live stream and podcast. He is also an active participant in various AI events and discussions, further demonstrating his commitment to advancing AI knowledge and application in the business world.