SAP doubles down on Gen AI

SAP recently made significant announcements at its TechEd conference in Bengaluru, India, showcasing its intensified focus on AI and unveiling tools and capabilities aimed at enhancing developer productivity and enabling the creation of custom AI-powered applications.

During the event, SAP introduced AI-infused pro-code tools designed to accelerate application development and announced the introduction of vector database capabilities in the HANA Cloud. Additionally, the company launched an AI foundation hub that assists teams in building AI applications tailored to specific business use cases.

According to JG Chirapurath, the chief solutions and marketing officer of SAP, the company's approach to AI and SAP can be experienced in three ways. The first is the integration of AI within the application experience, followed by their assistive copilot, Joule, which aids in various tasks. The third approach allows customers to develop their own AI use cases to address their unique needs.

SAP plans to address the growing demand for generative AI-driven apps by launching its own foundation model. This move comes as enterprises across industries show increased interest in leveraging such applications.

The SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), a key component in powering business applications in the cloud, was also enhanced with AI capabilities. BTP combines application development, data and analytics, integration, automation, and AI capabilities in one unified environment. SAP's Build solutions, which provide low-code features for web and mobile app development, have been further advanced with the introduction of Build Code. This application development solution streamlines the production of code, data models, app logic, and test scripts for Java and JavaScript applications. It aims to boost developer productivity by 40-60% and is set to be generally available in Q1 2024.

In addition to Build Code, SAP empowers developers to create custom AI-powered applications for specific business scenarios and use cases. The HANA Cloud's vector database capabilities enable the storage of contextual business data, such as invoices in PDFs, images, and documents, in vector format. This facilitates easy search and discovery of relevant data for training AI models, eliminating the need for a separate database solely dedicated to data cleaning and searching.

SAP's AI Foundation serves as a comprehensive platform for building AI and generative AI-powered applications. It provides access to various open-source LLMs, allowing businesses to fine-tune, manage, and monitor them. This platform empowers enterprises to develop their own AI use cases using contextual data and models of their choice, even if they opt not to utilize SAP's pre-existing AI applications.

Going beyond their existing offerings, SAP's plans include the launch of a highly tailored foundation model, specifically designed to cater to the unique context and data it possesses. The goal is to provide enterprises with a starting point that understands their processes and context to achieve optimal results, aiming for at least an 80-85% fit. While no specific timeline was provided, SAP aims to make this foundation model available as soon as possible. Despite this, the company remains committed to its partner-first approach on AI solutions and will consider investments or acquisitions only when strategically necessary.

As SAP continues to develop AI tooling, including its proprietary model, the company acknowledges the need to comply with new AI safety and security standards outlined in President Biden's executive order. SAP has an ethics board and legal team in place to ensure ethical and responsible AI use. Additionally, the company recognizes its obligation to help customers comply with regulations in various regions, actively working to minimize the burden on them.

Overall, SAP's focus on AI at TechEd reflects its commitment to enhancing developer productivity and empowering enterprises to build customized AI-powered applications. By embracing AI-infused tools, vector database capabilities, and AI foundations, SAP aims to meet the evolving demands of businesses across industries.