SAP Predictive Analytics Library
SAP AI copilot fails
There are areas of computer science where generative AI can be quite convincing, but it is precisely in this area where SAP is failing. At the end of last year, Chief Technology Officer Jürgen Müller presented a co-pilot for creating software. When asked, it turned out that this copilot could handle JavaScript, but not ABAP (SAP’s own programming language), which is important for SAP customers.
The unofficial reason for the copilot's lack of Abap knowledge: there is not enough Abap code to train a large language model (LLM) with. Such a shame.
However, a Microsoft employee told E3 magazine off the record that Microsoft has an Abap copilot in its labs. An embarrassing situation for SAP, which board member Jürgen Müller has yet to rectify.
The perfect combination: Signavio and Aleph Alpha
SAP could surprise the IT world with AI-powered innovation. No other IT company knows as much about business processes as SAP, after all. If this knowledge could be used to train a large language model from Aleph Alpha, and then combined with Signavio's process mining, then SAP would once again have a unique selling point in the B2B world.
SAP CEO Christian Klein does not seem keen on reflecting on SAP's strengths, however, but rather seeks salvation in copying supposed megatrends. Why is SAP focusing on generative AI when business processes are the dominant topic for SAP customers? Global IT companies are the ones who should be providing copilots for low-code/no-code; SAP should instead stick to providing business algorithms. SAP could achieve so much more, but is instead wasting valuable resources copying technical gimmicks from other companies.
SAP Hana Graph and Vector DB
In some cases, directed graphs are superior to a relational SQL construct. The Hana platform has a graph engine based on graph theory. This could be used to build many innovative functions, for example to solve logistics problems. A vector database can also handle tasks that are cumbersome for an SQL database. In-memory computing is not always necessary to receive real-time answers.
SAP has good solutions to many problems, but if they do not align with that SAP CEO believes is the current Zeitgeist, then he ignores them. SAP should be more independent and self-confident, but this is unlikely to happen with the departure of Professor Hasso Plattner, Chairman of the Supervisory Board. Plattner’s successor is a mere puppet, and while Christian Klein is a conscientious reorganizer, he is not an innovator or entrepreneur. Too bad for SAP.
