Unleashing Business Transformation with Customer-Specific AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become the new catalyst of enterprise innovation. Yet, as AI becomes more embedded in core business processes, one thing is becoming clear: generic, out-of-the-box solutions alone cannot meet the complex, evolving demands of modern enterprises.
Customers don’t seek off-the-shelf AI, they seek outcomes. They demand solutions tailored to their industry, aligned with strategic goals, and built to drive real results.
That is where customer-specific AI solutions add depth — not just as a technical enhancement, but as a strategic lever to unlock transformative business value.
According to McKinsey’s State of AI 2024, 72 percent of companies use AI in at least one business function, but only 23 percent report a significant impact on their bottom line. Why? Because many AI projects lack the contextual depth to solve the real industry-specific challenges businesses face.
Similarly, a 2024 IDC study shows that while 80 percent of enterprise leaders plan to increase AI investments, nearly half say the absence of domain-tailored solutions is a barrier to ROI. While foundational AI models provide broad capabilities, true business value comes from solutions tailored to each customer. These targeted applications ensure that innovation aligns with specific regulatory demands, operational realities, and customer requirements.
These custom solutions leverage proprietary data; they are designed for specific business processes and are co-developed with stakeholders who understand the operational heartbeat of the enterprise. The result is measurable business impact, as well as faster deployment and better performance.
At SAP, we see AI’s true potential in enhancing human decisions, simplifying complexity, and transforming customer experiences. But this potential is only realized when AI is deeply grounded in each customer’s business context. That is why our approach to customer-specific AI is built on three core principles:
- Context-rich insights: With unmatched access to enterprise data from across industries and business functions, SAP is uniquely positioned to deliver AI that understands how real businesses run.
- Trust and transparency: From model explainability to data privacy, AI from SAP is built on a foundation of enterprise-grade governance and responsible AI standards.
- Co-innovation at scale: SAP partners closely with customers to develop differentiated AI solutions that solve their unique challenges.
Real outcomes with real customers
To address the complexity of managing nearly a million annual invoices across more than 40,000 contracts, Accenture partnered with SAP to simplify its fragmented, manual billing process. Using SAP Business Technology Platform and generative AI, the company built an intuitive, compliant application that empowers account executives to use AI for specific rate cards and contract terms, managing invoicing independently, and reducing reliance on specialist teams. The result was faster, more accurate billing, a better user experience, and major time savings, freeing commercial teams to focus on clients. By year-end, billing efficiency is expected to improve by 32 percent, with setup times cut in half and manual work replaced by an intuitive, automated platform.
Similarly, a global chemical and consumer goods company recently partnered with SAP to embed AI into its dispute management process, automating document indexing and classification. This customer-specific AI solution reduced manual effort, sped up resolution times, and boosted user productivity, showing how business-specific AI can streamline workflows and elevate customer experience at scale. The result was efficiency gains of up to 1,000 hours a month, reduced manual effort by over 500 hours/month, and improved accuracy and faster turnaround time for document-driven workflows.
These examples highlight a clear trend: customers want to co-create AI tailored to their needs, not just adopt a one-size-fits-all solution. Customer-specific AI solutions empower them to embed intelligence into the very workflows that define their competitive advantage, whether it’s last-mile logistics in retail, claims processing in insurance, or energy optimization in utilities.
In the coming years, enterprises will not differentiate by whether they use AI, but by how effectively they align AI to their business. Customer-specific AI solutions make this alignment possible. They bridge the gap between technology potential and business reality. They transform AI from a generic tool into a strategic advantage, enabling businesses to move faster, think smarter, and lead with purpose.
As more organizations navigate the complexities of digital transformation, those that embed AI into the heart of their unique processes will be the ones to redefine what is possible.
The future belongs to businesses that don’t just adopt AI, but shape it to fit their vision, values, and velocity.
Thomas Saueressig is a member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, Customer Services & Delivery.
Sindhu Gangadharan is head of Customer Innovation Services at SAP and managing director of SAP Labs India.