Customer Industry Solutions Shape the Future of Autonomous Enterprises

Artificial intelligence has entered a new phase. The conversation is no longer about whether organizations should adopt AI.

Across industries, businesses are already experimenting with AI to automate tasks, improve productivity, and create better customer experiences. The real question now is how do we move from experimentation to enterprise-wide transformation that delivers meaningful business outcomes?

At SAP, our answer is clear: the next wave of transformation will be driven by Industry AI. This belief is also reflected in the evolution of our own organization, as Customer Innovation Services evolves into Customer Industry Solutions. This is more than a name change; it represents an expanded mission and a recognition that the future of enterprise AI will be shaped by the combination of technology, deep industry expertise, engineering excellence, and customer-centric innovation.

The opportunity ahead is immense. Analysts estimate that generative AI alone could create between $2.6 trillion and $4.4 trillion in annual economic value globally, while global spending on AI is projected to exceed $630 billion by 2028. Yet, realizing this value will require enterprises to move beyond experimentation and deploy AI in ways that are deeply relevant to their industries.

For years, enterprises have pursued digital transformation through broad platforms and horizontal capabilities that could be applied across functions and sectors. AI has followed a similar trajectory. Large language models (LLMs) and general-purpose AI tools have demonstrated remarkable capabilities and unlocked entirely new possibilities. However, as organizations move beyond pilots and proofs of concept, one thing is becoming increasingly clear: generic AI can only take us so far.

“In the enterprise world, context is everything. The future of AI lies not in generic intelligence but in intelligence that understands industries, business processes, and how enterprises create value,” said Dominik Metzger, Global Head of Industry AI. “This is where Customer Industry Solutions plays a pivotal role, bringing together deep industry expertise, customer insights, and engineering excellence to bridge the gap between innovation and real-world business impact.”

A manufacturer seeking to optimize its supply chain faces challenges that are fundamentally different from those of a retailer personalizing customer experiences. A bank navigating regulatory requirements operates in a vastly different environment than a life sciences company accelerating research and development. Every industry has its own processes, data models, regulations, and ways of creating value.

This is precisely why Industry AI represents the next frontier of enterprise transformation. The Industry AI portfolio combines the power of AI with deep domain expertise and business context. It understands not only language, but also the nuances of industries and the realities of how businesses operate. It can address industry-specific challenges and deliver outcomes that are measurable, scalable, and relevant to the enterprise.

Building on our strong foundation of customer co-innovation, the Customer Industry Solutions organization brings together deep industry expertise, customer insights, and engineering excellence to accelerate Industry AI at scale. Importantly, we are also bringing together the strengths of customer innovation and forward-deployed engineering.

This combination is powerful. Customer innovation teams bring a deep understanding of business challenges, industry processes, and customer outcomes. Forward-deployed engineering brings the ability to rapidly build, deploy, and operationalize solutions in complex enterprise environments. Together, these capabilities enable us to bridge the gap between breakthrough innovation and real-world business impact.

Our role is not simply to help customers adopt new technologies. It is to work alongside them to address complex business challenges, rapidly translate ideas into solutions, and help move organizations from AI experimentation to enterprise-wide transformation.

Industry AI also changes the way innovation itself happens. The most valuable insights often emerge from solving real customer challenges. They come from understanding pain points on the ground, identifying opportunities to simplify complexity, and applying AI in ways that create tangible business value. This requires closer collaboration among customers, industry experts, engineers, and product teams than ever before.

This is another critical role that the Customer Industry Solutions organization will play. By working closely with customers across industries and regions, and by systematically capturing insights from the field, we can help inform future product development and accelerate the adoption of industry-specific AI capabilities at scale.

Every customer engagement becomes an opportunity to learn, refine, and build solutions that can benefit entire industries.

Sindhu Gangadharan is head of Customer Industry Solutions at SAP.