Will AI replace the need for ABAP developers?
In December 2022, ChatGPT was released, a chatbot that can generate ABAP code based on a single sentence. For example, ChatGPT will create within a matter of seconds an ABAP program if you say: "Write an ABAP program that allows a human to play the game rock, paper and scissors against the SAP system, and the system will determine their choice based on an algorithm based on the timestamp when the human makes its decision".
REPORT zrock_paper_scissors
TYPES: BEGIN OF t_choice,
? ? ? ? ? value TYPE string,
? ? ? ?END OF t_choice.
DATA: choices TYPE TABLE OF t_choice WITH DEFAULT KEY,
? ? ? result TYPE string.
* Populate the choices table with the possible choices
choices = VALUE t_choice( ( value = 'rock' )
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?( value = 'paper' )
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?( value = 'scissors' ) ).
* Prompt the user to make their choice
WRITE: / 'Enter your choice (rock/paper/scissors):'.
* Read the user's choice
READ TABLE choices INTO DATA(user_choice) INDEX 1 WITH KEY value = sy-ucomm.
* Generate the system's choice based on the timestamp
DATA(timestamp) = sy-timlo.
* Determine the system's choice based on the timestamp
CASE timestamp MOD 3.
? WHEN 0.
? ? result = 'rock'.
? WHEN 1.
? ? result = 'paper'.
? WHEN 2.
? ? result = 'scissors'.
ENDCASE.
* Announce the result of the game
WRITE: / 'You chose ', user_choice-value,
? ? ? ?/ 'The system chose ', result.
CASE result.
? WHEN 'rock'.
? ? CASE user_choice-value.
? ? ? WHEN 'rock'.
? ? ? ? WRITE: 'It''s a tie!'.
? ? ? WHEN 'paper'.
? ? ? ? WRITE: 'You win!'.
? ? ? WHEN 'scissors'.
? ? ? ? WRITE: 'The system wins!'.
? ? ENDCASE.
? WHEN 'paper'.
? ? CASE user_choice-value.
? ? ? WHEN 'rock'.
? ? ? ? WRITE: 'The system wins!'.
? ? ? WHEN 'paper'.
? ? ? ? WRITE: 'It''s a tie!'.
? ? ? WHEN 'scissors'.
? ? ? ? WRITE: 'You win!'.
? ? ENDCASE.
? WHEN 'scissors'.
? ? CASE user_choice-value.
? ? ? WHEN 'rock'.
? ? ? ? WRITE: 'You win!'.
? ? ? WHEN 'paper'.
? ? ? ? WRITE: 'The system wins!'.
? ? ? WHEN 'scissors'.
? ? ? ? WRITE: 'It''s a tie!'.
? ? ENDCASE.
ENDCASE.
True, the automatically generated ABAP code might not impress many ABAP developers, but the potential to disrupt their world very soon is significant.
Some ABAP developers are concerned that ChatGPT will disrupt the ABAP community. They worry that ChatGPT will make ABAP programming obsolete and that ABAP developers will no longer be needed.
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But instead of disregarding or fighting against the advancement of AI-generating ABAP code, we should ally with it. We can use the fast coding generated by AI with the creative solutions only a human can provide. We can allow AI to generate code as a wrapper around complex decision-making. And we can perform complex decision-making using the SAP low-code solution, Business Rule Framework.
Using AI to generate ABAP code can improve our work-life balance by getting more work done in less time. So let's embrace ChatGPT and use it to our advantage!
Programs | Products | Digital Transformation | Solution Architecture | IT Governance
2 年Most of us SAP customers would surely be in market for an AI based custom WRICEF performance tuning as part of the Early Watch Alert report or at least let us know which custom reports in our analytics systems could now be run in S/4 instead using the inmemory engine on the fly.
SAP Development Lead
2 年Until users are able to specify their requirements correctly on first time without additional changes, I think we do not have to be scared :)
SAP Lead|HANA UI5 Cloud|AI ML Data analytics|CSM? ICP?
2 年Good to see this. During my research, the topic was AI can able to generate ABAP code and AI really can. Now this post also confirmed the same.
Passionate supply chain innovator dedicated to guiding global companies towards AI-powered, sustainable, and simplified solutions.
2 年Hey Isard, real food for thought. Thanks for sharing.