SAP Expands Physical AI Partnerships and Demonstrates Success of New Robotics Pilots

New collaborations with leading robotics companies and enterprise partners accelerate autonomous operations across manufacturing, logistics, and field services.

Early results in proof-of-concept applications of SAP’s robotics initiative, Project Embodied AI, demonstrate up to 50 percent reductions in unplanned downtime, up to 25 percent improvement in productivity, and significant reductions in operational errors across manufacturing, warehouse automation, and quality inspection.

These results are among the reasons why SAP has expanded its Embodied AI ecosystem through partnerships with leading robotics companies and robotic enablement partners, as announced this week at SAP TechEd. This builds on the recently announced collaboration with NEURA Robotics and NVIDIA to drive the future of physical AI.

The Embodied AI initiative extends the impact of SAP Business AI into physical operations by making robots cognitive: able to autonomously execute complex tasks while understanding the broader business context in which they work. This empowers enterprises to faster adapt to changing operational environments.

SAP is uniquely positioned to deliver these innovations because of its decades of experience with business applications deeply integrated into the processes that power the modern enterprise. This allows SAP customers to integrate robotics into the same business functions seamlessly, in a way no other company can. The result of our new robotics partnerships includes new proof-of-concept applications of embodied AI that demonstrate the business value and return on investment of our approach.

Cutting-edge experiments demonstrate measurable productivity gains

BITZER, a leading name in refrigeration, air conditioning, and heat pump technology, teamed up with SAP and NEURA Robotics to revolutionize warehouse logistics. In a recent pilot proof-of-concept, BITZER’s warehouse became a testing ground for one of Europe’s most advanced humanoid robot, 4NE1, which was able to perform pick-tasks on its own in real time.

The tasks are selected by embodied AI agents. The process also integrates SAP’s business logic from SAP S/4HANA for extended warehouse management through SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP). Prior to its warehouse deployment, 4NE1 was trained virtually using NVIDIA’s Isaac Sim software. This ensured the robot was fully prepared for real-world operations. By integrating embodied AI into warehouse operations, BITZER could reach 24/7 utilization and a high level of responsiveness.

The technology can add to human expertise, stepping in during demand fluctuations and peak periods. It also complements regular shifts with flexible and scalable support. This ensures operations remain agile and efficient, even under varying workloads. Thanks to a single source of truth, orders can be expanded or cancelled in near real time, as robots execute changes almost instantly. This improves reaction times and enables BITZER to maintain high service levels while optimizing the use of resources.

“We are excited to join the Embodied AI initiative with SAP and NEURA. We believe this collaboration will enhance our operational efficiency and drive innovation in our processes.”

Christian Stenzel, Vice President of Corporate Organization and IT, BITZER

Transforming warehouse operations at Sartorius

Imagine stepping into a warehouse in which intelligent machines work side-by-side with humans. The first proof of concept for embodied AI at Sartorius shows it is possible and marks a milestone in the journey to next-level logistics.

“So far, like many others, our focus was on fixed automation, in which specialized equipment handles only a single task. Now we’re making automation intelligent, and far more dynamic, to help us navigate a fast-moving world.”

Steffen Dietz, Manager of Business Process Management in Operations and Supply Chain, Sartorius

The proof of concept, also delivered through the partnership with SAP and NEURA Robotics, demonstrates how cognitive robots can support manual workstations in an advanced warehouse environment. Here, the humanoid robot 4NE1 was trained with Sartorius products in NEURA Robotics’ lab. The solution builds on an SAP S/4HANA migration and SAP Extended Warehouse Management (SAP EWM) rollout in May, which established the foundation for leveraging the latest capabilities from SAP.

The result boosts efficiency and enhances operational resilience. “We’re really happy to help spearhead this new age together with SAP and NEURA,” Steffen Dietz, manager of Business Process Management in Operations and Supply Chain at Sartorius, shared.

Optimizing automotive production at Martur Fompak

Martur Fompak, a global leader in automotive seating systems, teamed up with Humanoid and SAP to explore how humanoid robots could transform field operations workflows.

Watch the video: SAP x Martur Fompak x Humanoid

Humanoid offers robots that provide cost-effective industrial automation and warehouse solutions, with modular designs that enable configurations for logistics operations, asset monitoring, and scalable field service applications.

Together the team is testing how cognitive robotics can support picking and packing operations at the company’s 30 production plants across various continents and countries.

The early exploration connects Humanoid modular robots with SAP solutions to execute workflows such as component retrieval, tray loading, and precise placement into production containers. SAP’s embodied AI agents provide context awareness around production orders and component variants.

“SAP’s AI platform gives our robots intelligence to adapt and scale with enterprise needs, which creates flexible automation.”

Artem Sokolov, Founder and CEO, Humanoid

Initial findings demonstrate the value in automating repetitive and ergonomically demanding tasks, such as unpacking parts, handling trays, or supporting kitting processes. These experiments will be the foundation for a broader transformation in which humanoid robots participate in SAP-driven manufacturing environments and logistics processes.

Robotics company partners

Building upon these successes, SAP announced the following additional partnerships:

AgiBot

Agibot creates general-purpose embodied robot products and an application ecosystem. The company delivers a complete product portfolio and deploy across all major application scenarios.

“Our SAP partnership transforms industrial automation by combining humanoid capabilities with enterprise intelligence that understands business context,” said Peng Zhihui, founder and CEO of AgiBot.

ANYbotics

ANYbotics provides a full-stack autonomous inspection solution that combines autonomous robotics with inspection intelligence.

“Integrating this continuous flow of inspection intelligence with SAP makes operations not only autonomous but truly intelligent, where issues are predicted, understood, and prevented before they affect production,” said Dr. Péter Fankhauser, CEO and co-founder of ANYbotics.

Watch the Anybotics robotic AI solution video.

Booster Robotics

Booster Robotics provides T1 humanoid robots for warehouse operations and field maintenance.

“Our humanoid platforms, with SAP’s intelligence, creates an adaptive automation foundation that understands business processes and operational context,” said Cheng Hao, CEO of Booster Robotics.

Watch the Booster Robotics x SAP EWM robotic AI solution video.

Galbot

Galbot’s fully autonomous, general-purpose humanoid robots have been deployed across a wide range of applications, including industrial, logistics, retail, and healthcare sectors. Powered by proprietary vision-language-action models, the Galbot G1 autonomously performs complex tasks such as precise parts sorting, industrial bin handling, and end-to-end pharmacy operations. These models enable Galbot robots to rapidly adapt to dynamic environments, ensuring high precision and efficiency even in challenging real-world conditions.

“Our collaboration with SAP marks a key milestone in transforming how robots understand and operate within enterprise environments. By integrating business context awareness into our robots, we’re creating automation that seamlessly adapts to shifting operational priorities in real time,” said He Wang, founder and CEO of Galbot.

Watch the Galbot x SAP EWM robotic AI solution video.

Humanoid

Humanoid offers reliable HMND 01 humanoid robots that provide cost-effective industrial automation and warehouse solutions, with modular designs that enable configurations for logistics operations, asset monitoring, and scalable field service applications.

“SAP’s AI platform gives our robots intelligence to adapt and scale with enterprise needs, which creates flexible automation,” said Artem Sokolov, founder and CEO of Humanoid.

Unitree Robotics

Unitree Robotics provides advanced quadruped Go2 robots for warehouse navigation and asset inspection, plus G1 humanoids with human-like dexterity for logistics operations, alongside industrial B2 models for outdoor facility maintenance.

“SAP embodied AI agents will revolutionize enterprise autonomous operations from warehouse management to predictive maintenance across facilities,” said Wang Xingxing, CEO and founder of Unitree Robotics.

Watch the Unitree robotic asset visual inspection video.

Robotics enablement partners

SAP also introduced the following robotics enablement partners to connect humanoid and mobile robots, optimize intralogistics, streamline inspections, and orchestrate physical assets enabled by SAP Business AI and automation technologies:

Capgemini

Capgemini explores the value that can be derived from the convergence of advanced technologies such as agentic and multi-agent AI systems, humanoid robotics, reinforcement learning, spatial computing, real-time 3D environments, and conversational AI. Capgemini and SAP are jointly exploring physical AI to help organizations gain a competitive edge.

Cyberwave 

Cyberwave connects SAP systems to the physical world through its Physical AI platform, which integrates robots, sensors, and digital twins into enterprise workflows.

“Together with SAP, Cyberwave turns enterprise data into coordinated physical action — bridging the gap between digital intelligence and real-world operations through Physical AI,” said Simone Di Somma, founder of Cyberwave.

HCLTech

HCLTech provides automation expertise through its AI Force platform and SAP integration capabilities, leveraging Cloud Native & AI Lab in collaboration with SAP to accelerate generative AI-led robotics solutions.

“Our collaboration with SAP enables cognitive robotics to seamlessly integrate with enterprise systems, transforming business operations through automation,” said Vijay Guntur, CTO and head of Ecosystems at HCLTech.

KINEXON

KINEXON brings physical AI to day-to-day material flow management, helping customers scale mixed-fleet operations with a vendor-agnostic orchestration platform for autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), automated guided vehicles (AGVs), and manual vehicles.

“Our collaboration with SAP infuses business-driven agentic reasoning into real-world material movement planning and execution, maximizing utilization and throughput,” said Dr. Alexander Huettenbrink, co-CEO of KINEXON Industries.

Lighthouse

Lighthouse transforms business complexities into streamlined digital solutions, leveraging expertise across SAP Intelligent Asset Management, SAP Business AI, and SAP BTP. 

“Embodied AI has huge potential for use cases, including asset and site inspection, health and safety, and quality inspection to deliver more resilient, flexible operations. We see major customer needs today, such as hazardous environments on offshore platforms in the oil and gas industry, utilities, and transportation,” said Urs Gehrig, managing director of Business Development at Lighthouse.

SinoSwissHub

SinoSwissHub is launching a regionally compliant, SAP-integrated orchestration platform for multi-robot fleets, with humanoids as the centerpiece.

“We don’t just connect robots to an SAP system; we enable real-time physical data to reinvent processes and build adaptive, resilient value chains together with SAP,” said Yuki Long, founder and CEO of SinoSwisshub and Aimbo Robotics.

Through these strategic alliances, SAP continues to lead the evolution from traditional robotic tools to those that empower autonomous operations, informed by deep business context.

To explore how SAP technology makes proofs of concepts possible in robotics, explore the reference architecture on the SAP Architecture Center site. To get involved in SAP’s Embodied AI initiative, register here.

Dr. Łukasz Ostrowski is head of Embodied AI and Robotics at SAP.