AI Through SAP BTP

The SAP Parallel Universe with BTP and BDC

BTP (Business Technology Platform) and, in the future, probably also BDC (Business Data Cloud) are positioned as the natural boundary between the ERP core (clean core) and customer-specific modifications, data management, and add-ons. Within these platforms, the SAP BTP Generative AI Hub (as a function of SAP AI Core) provides the necessary orchestration layer for the use of LLMs.

SAP customers have access to a wide range of models through the GenAI Hub, including those developed by SAP and external hyperscalers like OpenAI, Google, and AWS. The hub is technically essential for combining the power of LLMs with relevant ERP data from the business context. For example, using the Hana Cloud Vector Engine for efficient vectorization and semantic search in RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) applications.

SAP AI without an SAP roadmap

Despite current technological advances, SAP customers face significant ERP challenges that often impede the adoption and return on investment (ROI) of AI applications within a cloud ERP system.

SAP's strategy and independence in the field of AI continue to be criticized. Users lack a clear ERP AI master plan or an S/4 AI roadmap for the period up to 2040. Some view SAP as too small to handle the significant topic of AI, especially when compared to the billions invested by Google, Microsoft, and Meta. SAP's focus on partnerships and acquisitions rather than developing its own AI expertise is seen as a waiver of its unique selling point.

SAP's former CEO Bill McDermott compensated for the company's lack of cloud expertise with acquisitions worth billions, demonstrating his willingness to take risks. This courage and a long-term AI strategy are lacking under current CEO Christian Klein.

SAP AI lacks compliance, governance, and trust

Transparency, trust, governance, and compliance are existential issues. This is especially true for business-critical ERP applications. SAP customers demand a high degree of explainable AI (XAI) and traceability to prevent AI models from acting as black boxes.

Using autonomous AI agents in S/4 systems raises serious questions about operational safety, 100 percent availability, and liability because the potential damage caused by an uncontrolled agent is estimated to be "astronomically high."

SAP Cloud First versus BTP GenAI Hub with on-prem

SAP's cloud-first strategy has widened the gap regarding AI. Innovations such as Joule and the GenAI Hub primarily support cloud solutions, disadvantaging on-premises customers with highly customized ECC 6.0 landscapes, also known as the "Z world." The DSAG (German-speaking SAP User Group) has criticized the fact that AI must also be accessible to on-premises customers and should not depend on existing cloud contracts.

The cost and licensing risks associated with SAP are highly complex and often opaque. DSAG also criticized the high costs of developing, quality-assuring, and operating BTP services in the consumption model. Indirect use is particularly critical when sensitive SAP data flows into external LLM models outside the SAP ecosystem. These unclear contractual and commercial risks must be clarified early on, as an incorrect assessment can quickly lead to unexpectedly high costs.

AI exit—SAP Foundation Model

SAP is considering how to guide itself out of the AI dilemma, as a global market leader in ERP. This machine learning model has been pre-trained to understand table-based business data for various forecasting tasks. SAP calls it SAP-RPT-1 (RPT stands for Relational Pretrained Transformer), and according to the company, it supports context-based learning. These specific Abap tables form the basis for this model. It is unclear whether Abap modifications can be incorporated into the machine learning model.

“You simply provide the model with a few labeled table rows from the respective forecasting task, and it immediately delivers a highly accurate forecast,” explained SAP Chief AI Officer Philipp Herzig. “A single model can fulfill an enormous range of business forecasts in finance, the supply chain, human resources, and more by looking at examples from different areas in the respective context each time.”

However, many SAP community experts believe that SAP is struggling with AI applications because a consistent roadmap was not developed years ago. SAP stumbled from the cloud era into the AI era.

Successful SAP cloud history

SAP recognized the strategic importance of the cloud early on, not least thanks to its former co-CEOs, Jim Hagemann Snabe and Bill McDermott. McDermott currently heads the highly successful cloud company ServiceNow. Snabe, who is still the CEO of Siemens in Munich, has a keen understanding of AI.

This year, Snabe was the keynote speaker at Europe's most important AI event. Siemens was also present at Viva Technology in Paris in June, which lasted four days and had 180,000 visitors. There wasn't much to see from SAP! Germany will be the partner country of Viva Tech in 2026 (Canada was the partner country this year). I was in Paris this year, and E3 magazine is planning comprehensive media coverage of Viva Tech in 2026. Please send written inquiries in French or German to Ulrike Godler ( ulrike.godler@b4bmedia.net).