It has never been a more exciting time for artificial intelligence (AI). Generative AI and large language models (LLM) are dominating headlines and making AI a part of every business conversation. However, turning AI technology advancement into business impact remains a challenge for many companies as they lack in-house expertise.
That is what we solve at ·èÅÄ´«Ã½ with our unique approach to AI.
Built-In, Relevant, Responsible Business AI
At ·èÅÄ´«Ã½, we deliver AI that is available from day one, as it is already built into the ·èÅÄ´«Ã½ applications that power the most critical business processes. It works for an entire business because it is developed using extensive industry-specific data and deep process knowledge. Organizations can use it with confidence, as it is created using responsible AI practices. In essence, ·èÅÄ´«Ã½ AI is AI built for business.
Today at ·èÅÄ´«Ã½ Sapphire, we are announcing 15 new business AI capabilities, many powered by generative AI. We have also expanded our partnership with Microsoft on generative AI.
Let’s have a closer look at a few of these new capabilities.
Strengthening Human Capital Management
A company’s greatest asset is its workforce. Our focus for human capital management (HCM) is to use AI to help organizations attract, retain, and skill their employees. New generative AI capabilities in ·èÅÄ´«Ã½ SuccessFactors Recruiting enable hiring managers to create compelling and accurate job descriptions that capture the desired skills and attributes of each role. Integration with Microsoft 365 Copilot in Word allows them to fine-tune further and then seamlessly publish back in ·èÅÄ´«Ã½ SuccessFactors software. Generative AI capabilities in the ·èÅÄ´«Ã½ SuccessFactors solution also generates interview questions tailored to specific job descriptions and candidates’ resumes, helping ensure inclusive language. The combined effect of these business AI capabilities saves hiring managers precious time and improves interview quality, maximizing the effectiveness of the hiring process.
We are also announcing talent intelligence hub in ·èÅÄ´«Ã½ SuccessFactors software, which leverages people’s skills, competencies, capabilities, interests, work styles, and learning preferences to formulate recommendations that help employees develop and grow. These recommendations inspire, guide, and support employees by suggesting learning choices, roles, mentoring programs, and peer connections. Organizations also gain a better understanding of skill sets in their workforce to improve internal mobility, retention, and workforce agility.
Both of these business AI scenarios are planned for availability this year.
Growing Supply Chain Resilience
In supply chain, we are using AI to help predict, prepare, and respond to rapidly evolving demands. New generative AI capabilities in ·èÅÄ´«Ã½ Transportation Management enable automotive and manufacturing companies to automatically process the tens of thousands of delivery notes they receive daily in different formats. The automation avoids data entry errors and works out of the box without requiring curated training data.
Additionally, in ·èÅÄ´«Ã½ Extended Warehouse Management, we are introducing an intelligent slotting capability that uses AI to suggest how to optimize warehouse organization, stocking, and replenishment based on a product’s characteristics, demand, or forecasts. This capability helps maximize warehouse space and increase the efficiency of warehouse management.
Users can take advantage of the intelligent slotting capability today; intelligent goods receipt is planned for availability later this year.
Increasing Efficiency and Compliance in Procurement
In procurement, we are using AI to help users contain costs and increase compliance across different markets. The new intelligent invoice conversion capability in ·èÅÄ´«Ã½ Business Network makes it easier for procurement teams to onboard new suppliers by automatically extracting and processing relevant information from supplier invoices. A close feedback loop improves the mapping accuracy over time, further expediting invoice processing and accuracy.
We are also using AI to enhance the employee purchase experience with personalized recommendations in ·èÅÄ´«Ã½ Ariba Buying. The guided buying capability uses data, such as employees’ roles, to suggest products and services chosen by peers and other pertinent products from the company catalog to improve the buying experience and curb maverick spend.
The guided buying capability in ·èÅÄ´«Ã½ Ariba Buying is available today; the intelligent invoice conversion on ·èÅÄ´«Ã½ Business Network is planned for availability later this year.
Reducing Risks and Controlling Costs in Finance
In finance, we are using AI to transform all finance operations with insights, recommendations, and automation. The new intelligent collections in ·èÅÄ´«Ã½ S/4HANA helps collection specialists forecast the risk of a late payment on an invoice and better prioritize which customers require follow up. This not only streamlines an extremely time-consuming task, but also simplifies risk management and makes it easier for corporate treasury to manage liquidity and capital levels.
Intelligent collections in ·èÅÄ´«Ã½ S/4HANA is available today.
Improving Employee & Customer Experience Â
·èÅÄ´«Ã½ Digital Assistant provides a unified natural language interface for ·èÅÄ´«Ã½ solutions. We are adding new generative AI capabilities to provide users with tailored assistance based on their context, helping new and experienced users be more productive with the tasks at hand.
·èÅÄ´«Ã½ Digital Assistant is also expanding its capabilities to provide users with proactive and contextual assistance inside their applications, starting with ·èÅÄ´«Ã½ Customer Experience solutions. With the new ·èÅÄ´«Ã½ Digital Assistant for customer experience, sellers and support teams can easily get holistic insights, create recommendations, and automatically generate content to personalize customer experiences.
Both these capabilities are planned for availability later this year.
Increasing Agility and Foresight Across your Business
We have covered just a few of the many business AI capabilities we are announcing at ·èÅÄ´«Ã½PHIRE. The figure below summarizes all of them — including the ones that bring value to several business functions, such as generative AI scenarios in ·èÅÄ´«Ã½ Analytics Cloud and ·èÅÄ´«Ã½ Signavio Process Manager.
New AI Capabilities
Delivering AI with Trust and Transparency
Responsible AI has been integral to our AI strategy since its inception. We follow a holistic approach to delivering AI that puts humans at the center of our products and processes. To do so, we have established an ethics policy and compliance processes to put responsible AI into practice. The AI in our applications is transparent, so we can understand how it makes inferences and builds recommendations. It respects the privacy of sensitive data and helps users avoid bias in your decisions. Altogether, we ensure you remain in control.
Learn more about these announcements and how ·èÅÄ´«Ã½ AI is built for business:
Bharat Sandhu is senior vice president of Application Development and AI at ·èÅÄ´«Ã½.
