More traffic doesn’t guarantee more customers.
Ross Bark (Enterprise Wide) shares how retailers use AI-driven CX to convert, retain, and grow.
Learn CX strategy trends: https://sap.to/6059CrBYW
🎧 More episodes of the Trending Chats podcast:
Watch on YouTube: https://sap.to/6050CrBYo
Listen on Spotify: https://sap.to/6051CrBYU
Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://sap.to/6052CrBYq
#TrendingChats #CX #CustomerExperience
AI is quickly evolving from a set of powerful tools to a central component of the competitive enterprise. Specialized models, AI agents, and AI-native architecture will ensure that AI continues to embed itself into the very core of enterprise operations—with potentially powerful benefits.
To navigate AI’s evolution, organizations need to understand that it’s no longer just a question of “What can AI do?” but “How do we set our organization up for success with AI? How do we build for it? What problems do I solve with which models? How do we govern it?”
Looking ahead to five critical themes that will define enterprise AI in 2026, these present both opportunities and challenges for organizations. Let’s dive in.
Advances in generative AI stem from breakthroughs in “foundation models,” massive neural networks trained on vast amounts of data that can be adapted to a wide range of tasks.
Large language models (LLMs) were the first wave of foundation models at scale. General-purpose LLMs, trained on the equivalent of all the text on the internet, opened the door to many value-adding use cases, including summarizing documents, writing code, and powering applications like ChatGPT and Claude. Over the last few years, we have already seen the foundation model approach applied to other domains, such as video creation and voice.
In 2026, specialized foundation models optimized for specific data types and domains will power the high-value enterprise AI use cases. Video generation models have already shown that models grounded in real-world physics data can reason about scenes and physical dynamics. Emerging world models demonstrate that simulating the physical world unlocks new possibilities in simulation, synthetic training data, and digital twins. Vision-language-action models demonstrate that robot-specific foundation models can generalize to new tasks and environments, enabling the transformation of web-scale knowledge into real-world actions in logistics and manufacturing.
In the enterprise domain, a similar shift is underway for structured data found in databases and transactional business software. While LLMs are impressive across many enterprise use cases, they cannot handle tasks like numerical predictions, such as inferring a delivery date or supplier risk score. However, work on relational foundation models shows that training on structured datasets—for example, data in tables, rather than generic text or images from the internet—can deliver high predictive accuracy without the tedious feature engineering and training required in classical machine learning. This means organizations can deploy predictive models in days, not months. Recent launches of relational foundation models, such as SAP-RPT-1, Kumo, and DistilLabs, highlight how new models can directly support use cases like forecasting, anomaly detection, and optimization across ERP, finance, manufacturing, and supply chain scenarios.
In 2026, these specialized models are expected to scale to deliver superior performance and economics for structured business tasks, surpassing general-purpose LLMs and state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms. These models will emerge as the workhorses behind high-value enterprise tasks.
AI has seen various approaches create value over the decades, from the first rules-based expert systems to probabilistic deep learning and the recent explosion in generative AI. In 2026, organizations will shift from enhancing existing AI applications and processes to AI-native architectures, which will fully realize the promise of modern AI.
AI-native architecture adds a continuously learning, agentic intelligence layer on top of deterministic systems, enabling applications to become intent-driven, context-aware, and self-improving rather than being statically coded around fixed workflows. Agentic systems will still only be as good as the context layer they can reliably retrieve and ground on. Here, organizations should invest in truly comprehensive, semantically rich knowledge graphs that provide a scalable source of context, making AI-native software dependable and self-improving.
Enterprise applications will increasingly be built natively around AI capabilities, featuring user experiences designed for multi-model, natural language interaction; AI agents reasoning through complex processes; and a foundation managing foundation models, services, and a knowledge graph capturing semantically rich business data. AI-native architecture also enables more employees to create apps—such as smaller, ad-hoc productivity applications—in a matter of minutes without straining IT.
AI-native architecture builds on, and even requires, established SaaS principles and investments in modern cloud applications. The technical term for combining probabilistic, adaptive AI models with deterministic systems of record is called neurosymbolic AI. It brings together AI’s best capabilities to adapt with reliable, governable, and deterministic processes. Next-gen applications will not just have AI bolted on; they’ll be built around AI at their core. This means combining reasoning, business rules, and data to deliver insights and automation seamlessly. Imagine ERP systems that proactively flag anomalies, recommend actions, and even execute workflows autonomously—all while staying aligned with company policies and regulations.
Over the past two to three years, generative AI has introduced a wave of value-added use cases. These use cases were largely based on users sending a prompt to a model, receiving a response, and then interacting with the model again.
Last year saw the start of the next wave of innovation: AI agents capable of planning and iteratively reasoning through multi-step tasks, including selecting tools, self-reflecting on progress, and collaborating with other AI agents. These advanced AI agents promise to tackle complex business processes that were previously immune to automation, such as analyzing myriad documents, records, and policies to resolve a dispute or book a trip.
However, the proliferation of AI agents, many of which handle critical tasks and sensitive data, demands the development of new capabilities. Agentic governance will emerge as a critical capability as organizations deploy hundreds of specialized AI agents. The “agent sprawl” challenge will mirror previous shadow IT crises, but with higher stakes given agents’ autonomous decision-making capabilities.
Forward-thinking enterprises will establish comprehensive governance frameworks addressing five dimensions: agent lifecycle management (version control, testing protocols, deployment approval, retirement procedures); observability and auditability (agent inventory, logging, reasoning paths, and action traces); policy enforcement (embedding business rules, regulatory constraints, and ethical guidelines into agent execution); human-agent collaboration models (defining autonomy boundaries, approval requirements, and escalation pathways); and performance monitoring (tracking accuracy, efficiency, cost, and business impact).
The organizational shift will prove profound—from viewing AI as an independent tool to managing agents as digital coworkers requiring onboarding, performance reviews, and continuous improvement. HR and IT functions will collaborate on “digital workforce management” as organizations treat agentic governance as seriously as they do traditional workforce oversight.
Consumers are becoming increasingly familiar with computer interactions requiring prompts in natural language, voice, and even images and gestures. At the same time, generative AI’s ability to create text, graphs, code, and HTML on the fly is improving rapidly. In parallel, AI agents enable users to simply express their intentions, allowing the agent to determine how to work toward achieving that goal.
These advancements open the door to varied and entirely new modalities for users to work with enterprise software, as well as “no-app ERP” experiences. For example, to book a customer visit, a worker typically needs to open an analytics application to review the account, look in the CRM system to retrieve the customer’s address, and then navigate to another application to book travel, among other tasks.
In 2026, we will see “gen UI” experiences increasingly surface via digital assistants, relieving users from the need to navigate between multiple applications and perform manual tasks. With time, AI will allow the user to simply express the intent: “Prepare a trip to my customer with the most leads.” From here, an AI agent will plan out the steps and required systems, interacting with the user to confirm travel details while dynamically generating analytical graphs and briefing material in the window. As AI agents develop stronger calculation and prediction tools, users will be able to “speak to their data” more naturally, with agents making data-based decisions in the background. To be clear, interactions with agents will extend far beyond a chat box; organizations will enjoy rich visualizations, complete workflows, and the ability to build hyper-personalized apps with just a few commands.
The user interface will not disappear. No-app ERP experiences and autonomous agents require the same foundational substrate that humans rely on for their daily work: structured workflows, security, governance, and business logic defined in business applications. The difference is that agents consume these primitives programmatically at scale, not only through a GUI, and humans can interact with these agents via natural language without ever needing to open the application.
These capabilities will usher in a new paradigm for human-AI collaboration and productivity in the workplace. Personalized experiences and adaptive workflows across applications and data sources will lower adoption barriers. This ability to focus solely on achieving a user’s intention, regardless of the interaction modality and underlying systems, will drive return on investment (ROI) in AI and enterprise software.
AI sparked debates about digital sovereignty among nations due to AI’s potential impact on everything from scientific discovery and national security to economic productivity and even culture. Events in geopolitics, such as supply chain disruptions caused by tariffs and war, have only intensified the urgency that many nations and organizations feel to become digitally sovereign.
Digital sovereignty has two broad definitions. First, digital sovereignty is an information security designation governing data storage and access, such as U.S. FedRAMP and German VSA, required to process sensitive governmental data in a “sovereign cloud.” Second, and more broadly, sovereignty refers to the provenance of physical assets, intellectual property, legal jurisdiction, and services along the cloud stack. For example, does an application utilize an AI model created in Europe, the U.S., or China, and is the data center geographically isolated?
The high stakes, geopolitical uncertainty, and complexity of “sovereign AI” will lead enterprises to increasingly demand AI and cloud solutions that are simultaneously cutting-edge, flexible, and fully sovereign. This intensifies the shift from globalized one-size-fits-all cloud to regionally compliant, AI-powered enterprise platforms. At the same time, governments will continue to refine their national AI strategies to invest in areas along the stack where they can compete and create value.
In 2026, AI is poised to move from a supporting tool to a fundamental pillar of the enterprise. This shift is driven by a convergence of defining trends—including increasingly capable agents, generative UI, and AI-native architecture—that push AI from the application layer and into the very core of business operations.
Organizations that thrive will be those that recognize this shift and build an enterprise that is purpose-built for AI: establishing robust governance to manage a new, collaborative workforce of humans and AI agents; embracing gen UI to lower adoption barriers and an intent-driven user experience that helps employees interact naturally; seeking out specialized foundation models that are precisely tuned for enterprise use cases to drive business value; and, finally, building applications natively around AI that combine reasoning, business rules, and data, delivering proactive insights and automation.
However, in 2026, organizations will still need high-quality, connected data. Data siloes severely limit the effectiveness of AI. As mentioned, AI-native architecture requires established investments in modern cloud applications that harmonize data across the entire business—because unified data means AI’s outcomes are more accurate and relevant.
Jonathan von Rueden is chief AI officer at SAP SE.
Walter Sun is senior vice president and global head of AI for SAP Business AI at SAP.
Sean Kask is vice president and head of AI Strategy for SAP Business AI at SAP.
You can be this chill too. Start vibing with SAP Business Suite: https://sap.to/6059CWfD3
Find out why Rose+Krieger chose SAP to scale their PLM landscape. Discover more: https://sap.to/6050CmskM
Dr. Autumn Krauss, Chief Scientist for SAP SuccessFactors, provides an overview of the third pillar of the predictions report by the Future of Work Research Lab: The Future of Work Practices.
This pillar considers how HR practices will adapt as AI fundamentally alters how talent is identified, managed, evaluated, and rewarded.
Get The Road Ahead: Predictions and Possibilities for the Future of Work report: https://sap.to/60587sSK6
#SuccessFactors #FutureOfWork
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.
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
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.
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.
Building upon these successes, SAP announced the following additional partnerships:
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 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 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’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 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 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.
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 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 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 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 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 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 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.
Close skills gaps faster with AI-powered, skills-first hiring and mobility from SAP SuccessFactors and Beamery.
Every unfilled role comes at a cost — in productivity, innovation, and growth. With SAP SuccessFactors and Beamery Talent Lifecycle Management, organizations can close critical skills gaps faster through an AI-powered, skills-first approach to hiring and mobility.
Beamery’s AI Workforce Transformation platform enriches SAP SuccessFactors with dynamic job and skills data, giving HR leaders a single, connected view of talent. The result: cleaner, unified skills data; dynamic job architectures; and real-time insight into emerging roles and market trends.
This connected approach transforms the entire talent lifecycle:
– Recruiters cut sourcing time by up to 75% and boost efficiency by 50%.
– Managers plan future roles and skills needs with greater confidence.
– Employees gain clear, data-driven career pathways within the organization.
AI-driven candidate matching and proactive talent pipelines help businesses find the right people, with the right skills, at the right time — all while ensuring fairness through independently tested bias mitigation.
Together, SAP SuccessFactors and Beamery are helping global organizations reshape how they hire, mobilize, and grow talent in the AI era — combining trusted SAP data with Beamery’s intelligent automation to create a future-ready workforce.
00:00 – Introduction
00:28 – The Challenge: Skills Gaps and Talent Shortages
01:12- Beamery + SAP SuccessFactors Integration
02:00 – AI-Driven Hiring and Candidate Matching
02:45 – Talent Mobility and Internal Growth
03:20 – Data Integrity and Bias Mitigation
04:00 – The Future of Skills-First HR
Learn how SAP SuccessFactors and @Beamery are transforming hiring and mobility with AI: https://sap.to/6051AAKHt
#SAP #SuccessFactors #BusinessAI
WALLDORF — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced that Nestlé S.A., one of the world’s leading food and beverage companies, has completed its first major upgrade to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition. This wave covers 112 countries, with more countries in Europe and the Americas to follow soon.
The first of three upgrades, this one involved more than 50,000 employees and was completed in under 20 hours. Supported by a standardized technology landscape that enabled minimal downtime, this smooth transition to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition sets a new benchmark for digital transformation in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry.
A long-time SAP customer, Nestlé since 2000 has used SAP software as its single unified system to manage its global operations and moved to the cloud in 2022. The upgrade to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition is a strategic leap in its transformation journey to future-proof the company as consumer expectations evolve and new technologies reshape the marketplace.
“We are building a future-ready enterprise—one that works smarter and faster,” said Chris Wright, Nestlé’s head of IT and CIO. “Having a common ERP system as our backbone is already a tremendous advantage for Nestlé. It provides a unified platform and data foundation that allows us to execute end to end across the value chain and have visibility across the entire company and beyond. With the upgrade, we gain new capabilities and insights that will help scale new products faster globally to meet the needs of our customers and consumers, and with AI and automation at scale, we’ll drive efficiency and effectiveness across our value chain.”
With a portfolio that includes global icons such as Nescafé, Kit Kat and Maggi, Nestlé chose to upgrade to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition to accelerate the rollout of new products and innovations across the group. The upgrade also supports it in making data-driven insights and improving processes to drive efficiency and effectiveness across the company’s business operations to better serve consumers worldwide who rely on its products every day.
“Nestlé’s successful go-live of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition showcases how scale can be a strategic advantage for innovation,” said Thomas Saueressig, member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, Customer Services & Delivery. “As one of the world’s most recognizable and forward-thinking companies, Nestlé exemplifies how cutting-edge technology empowers global brands to anticipate consumer trends, optimize operations and deliver exceptional experiences at scale.”
The upgrade also provides a robust digital core ready for AI and automation at scale across the company’s value chain, enabling Nestlé to gain real-time data insights for smarter decision-making. By harnessing AI and the Joule copilot at scale across its operations, value chain and product portfolio, Nestlé can personalize consumer engagement and optimize operations with greater agility. This helps ensure it remains responsive to evolving consumer expectations and lays the foundation for a truly omnichannel experience.
Visit the SAP News Center. Get SAP news via LinkedIn and Bluesky.
Media Contact:
Lesa Plingen, +49 622 776 9000, lesa.plingen@sap.com, CET
SAP Press Room; press@sap.com
Top image courtesy of Nestlé
This document contains forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to materially differ. Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the risk factors section of SAP’s 2024 Annual Report on Form 20-F.
© 2025 SAP SE. All rights reserved.
SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and other countries. Please see https://www.sap.com/copyright for additional trademark information and notices.
Deep research AI and role-based assistants, coupled with SAP Business Suite innovations, take efficiency to new heights.
We are thrilled to share that SAP has once again been named a Strategic Leader in the 2025 Fosway 9-Grid™ for Cloud HR. This report provides a multi-dimensional model to help organizations compare and choose the best cloud HR and learning tech provider in the European market to meet their business needs.
According to Fosway, vendors recognized as Strategic Leaders provide a rich suite of capability across a broad scope of features and have the sophistication to meet the needs of complex enterprise-scale customers. Strategic Leaders also have strong market performance and customer advocacy.
“The Cloud HR market remains fiercely contested and continually innovative,” said Dr. Sven Elbert, head of Analyst Services at Fosway Group. “The solution providers that thrive in this environment are the ones that maintain their momentum, expand their scope and sophistication, and leverage AI to gain competitive edge, as SAP has done and continues to do. SAP SuccessFactors is again named a Strategic Leader in 2025.”
This recognition underscores SAP’s commitment to innovation for its community of over 10,000 SAP SuccessFactors customers worldwide. Over the past year, SAP has delivered significant advancements across SAP SuccessFactors HCM, many supported by AI, designed to help customers close skills gaps, boost productivity, and support their people at every stage of the employee journey.
The SAP SuccessFactors first half 2025 product release introduced over 250 new capabilities designed to increase efficiency, elevate the employee experience, and drive business impact.
At SAP Sapphire Orlando in May, SAP unveiled several new solutions and product enhancements, including:
Building on this momentum, last week SAP completed its acquisition of SmartRecruiters, a leading talent acquisition software provider. This move further strengthens SAP’s ability to help customers attract and retain top talent in today’s highly competitive market.
Organizations of all sizes are rethinking how they manage their people—balancing efficiency with innovation, global consistency with local needs, and business growth with employee experience. In Europe, SAP is a trusted partner in this journey, helping companies tackle complex workforce challenges and prepare for the future of work.
Family-run snacks company Frit Ravich S.L. transformed its HR operations and reinforced its company culture, built on innovation and belonging, by choosing SAP SuccessFactors solutions. Now, with plans to become a skills-driven organization and double its sales, Frit Ravich is adopting AI in conjunction with SAP SuccessFactors solutions to expand career development opportunities and improve the employee experience.
“The Joule copilot will change the way we interact with our people on a daily basis. This does not mean that we’ll lose out on direct contact with them, but rather it will make HR interactions faster, more accessible, and more convenient, with 24×7 access,” said Rebeca Montilla, talent manager, Frit Ravich S.L.
As a global leader in aviation services “working above and below the wing,” Menzies provides a myriad of services, including ground services, fueling, air cargo handling, and executive services, together with comfortable lounges at more than 295 airports in 65 countries.
By choosing SAP SuccessFactors solutions, Menzies now has a unified platform to help it attain data-driven insights for business agility and provide a modern employee experience with opportunities for learning and career development.
Today, Menzies no longer needs to estimate how many employees it has at any given time. Having a single source of data means that it can pull up this information at the push of a button for the present as well as the historical past for comparison. “We can start to see trends, so we can start to understand what our future models would look like as well,” said Sarah Mackinlay, senior vice president of People Projects & Integrations at Menzies Aviation. “Being able to have business insight and business data to make decisions has been really important on our continued journey with SAP SuccessFactors and supporting our global strategy.”
“For us, this journey is about having a single source of truth with global consistency, data insight, and visibility yet maintaining local data ownership. Data security and integrity are at the very core,” she added.
As organizations face growing skills gaps, heightened employee expectations, and pressure to do more with limited resources, SAP continues to introduce new solutions to help customers tackle their most pressing business and workforce challenges. Join us at Success Connect at SAP Connect, October 6-8 in Las Vegas—or virtually on October 9—to explore how our latest advancements can drive real impact across your organization.
Learn more about SAP SuccessFactors HCM.
Lara Albert is chief marketing officer at SAP SuccessFactors.
About the Fosway 9-Grid™
Fosway Group is Europe’s #1 HR industry analyst. The Fosway 9-Grid™ provides a unique assessment of the leading learning and talent solutions available to organizations in EMEA. The analysis is based on extensive independent research and insights from Fosway’s Corporate Research Network of over 250 organizations, including BP, HSBC, PwC, RBS, Sanofi, Shell, and Vodafone.
Visit the Fosway website at www.fosway.com for more information on Fosway Group’s research and services.