AI icing

SAP is trying very hard to give the impression that it has the topic of AI firmly under control. The regular success stories about new AI applications, modules and processes resemble an overly nervous presenter with an artificial voice. What's that all about?
While the debate is gathering pace in the industry as to whether real money can be made from the many AI innovations at some point, SAP is trying to throw a lot of smoke and mirrors with AI actionism: It is currently impossible to tell what strategy SAP is pursuing with AI, as the acronym AI appears everywhere. SAP is pouring artificial intelligence over its own ERP offering like icing on a cake.

Operational added value is not yet recognizable for existing SAP customers. There are many test balloons and proofs of concept. SAP partners are organizing hackathons and looking for financially strong existing SAP customers. Hardly anyone dares to say that frosting a cake is probably not a bad idea, but a roast pork with cabbage and bread dumplings probably tastes better.

AI can and will make a contribution to next-generation ERP. However, traditional if-then-else programming is far from obsolete! Large-language models, machine learning and AI are largely based on probabilities. Complex rules from statistics bring wondrous results to light. Ultimately, however, the answers of a large-language model only reflect a certain probability about the real world.

But who wants to be dependent on a probability calculation when it comes to whether there will be a wage payment at the end of the month? Here, apart from any AI, the good old if-then-else rule seems more trustworthy: if it is the end of the month, then there is money, if not, then there is no money in the account.

It seems illogical, arbitrary and not very productive to construct an AI solution for every use case by force and cramp. SAP should clearly identify the ERP parts where artificial intelligence can provide operational added value, then a reasonable contribution margin might be achieved: good money for good AI. No existing customer will understand an SAP boss who acts as a confectioner. AI must pay for itself and not sweeten ERP life. Whether SAP can manage the boundary between AI marketing and ERP added value remains to be seen. The unpredictability of AI must not become the unpredictability of SAP.

The cartoon by Robert Platzgummer (1975 to 2016) was first published in the October 2005 issue of E3. Professor Henning Kagermann, then head of SAP in Walldorf, tried to establish a new Enterprise Service Architecture (ESA) with sweet promises.