Almost three-quarters of SAP users in the UK and Ireland think enterprise AI will benefit their organisation
London - 2 December 2024 – Research from the UK & Ireland SAP User Group (UKISUG) has revealed that almost three-quarters (74%) of SAP users think enterprise AI will benefit their organisation. More than half (58%) stated that SAP will play an important role in deploying AI at their organisations.
The survey of 327 SAP user organisations reveals that, despite enthusiasm for AI, familiarity with SAP Joule—the company’s natural language generative AI co-pilot—varies widely. Over a third (36%) of respondents indicated they had heard of SAP Joule but were not familiar with it, while 28% reported being somewhat familiar. Only 3% said they were extremely familiar. Nevertheless, more than half (56%) of respondents believe that SAP Joule could enhance their organisation’s overall use of SAP.
"The rapid advances in AI offer organisations the potential to derive greater value from their data, while enhancing both user and customer experiences. With SAP at the core of many organisations, there is a clear opportunity for it to support customers on their enterprise AI journey,” said Conor Riordan, Chair, UKISUG. “As SAP Joule becomes integrated into an increasing number of SAP applications, it’s evident that further communication and education are needed as organisations shape their AI strategies. Through events like UKISUG Connect and TECHx, we will continue to collaborate with SAP to ensure our members gain a deeper understanding of how to effectively leverage technologies like SAP Joule.”
With many organisations in the beginning, or in the midst of, their SAP S/4HANA migration journey, more than half (53%) of respondents said that gaining access to SAP’s AI offerings would influence their deployment of SAP in the future.
"How organisations will access SAP’s future innovations, such as AI, remains a topic of much discussion. Moving to the cloud via RISE provides the most straightforward path, although it is often a multi-year, multi-phase process. However, some on-premises customers are unlikely to transition to RISE due to the complexity and critical nature of their implementations. For these organisations, the key question is how essential SAP’s AI offerings are to them, and if so, whether there will be an alternative means to access these capabilities,” added Riordan.
“Artificial intelligence is transforming the very fabric of how businesses operate. This year, we have made great progress in showing how our AI co-pilot, Joule, and our embedded AI capabilities can deliver tangible impact for organisations of all sizes. SAP Business AI is no proof-of-concept, it’s available now and we have thousands of customers using it for everything from payroll analysis to mitigating supply chain emissions”, said Leila Romane, Managing Director of SAP UK and Ireland. “We know that our customers are all at different stages of their innovation journeys. We are committed to supporting them as we showcase what AI can do, so that we can help them take full advantage of AI’s potential.”
UKISUG is hosting its annual Connect conference and TECHx (part of SAP TechEd on Tour) from 1-3 December 2024 at the ICC Birmingham.
About UK & Ireland SAP User Group
The UK & Ireland SAP User Group’s membership is open to users of all SAP products in the UK and Ireland. Membership consists of organisations from all sectors and of all sizes and includes some of the largest private companies and most significant public sector organisations in the UK and Ireland.
If you would like further information regarding the UK & Ireland SAP User Group, please visit https://www.sapusers.org/