Two major forces are driving rapid shifts in the modern enterprise: growing complexity, which can often feel overwhelming, and generative AI, the disruptive technology that promises to tame it.

From supply chain disruptions and shifting regulations to the struggle of attracting and retaining top talent, enterprises must navigate an ever more challenging environment. Meanwhile, AI has forever changed the game for business.

Though its potential to streamline operations and spark innovation is extraordinary, it demands more than a simple overlay on siloed, legacy systems. Realizing AI’s promise requires a fundamental shift in how people, applications, and data connect to tackle challenges and seize new opportunities.

Beyond Siloed Systems

The tension between escalating complexity and AI’s transformative power is redefining modern business. The days of relying solely on transactional systems or standalone intelligence are behind us; modern enterprises demand much more. Companies today seek an integrated business suite that unifies processes, harmonizes data, and leverages AI agents to tackle challenges and seize new opportunities.

Achieving this level of interconnection calls for a fresh approach to enterprise management — one that brings together three critical capabilities:

• End-to-end process integration that generates and relies upon trusted business data. McKinsey calls this an integrated technology operating model and says this “can help [organizations] build deeper relationships with customers, launch new business models, make processes more efficient, and make better decisions.”
• Harmonized data to fuel AI-driven insights. Data harmonization brings together all data — internal and external — so it can be managed more efficiently, analyzed, and used to guide business decision-making. Harmonizing data within an organization minimizes redundancies, improves data governance, serves as a single source of truth, and makes better use of scarce resources.
• AI that goes beyond basic automation and breaks down silos, driving real-time, cross-enterprise optimization. In other words, companies need AI that not only performs repetitive tasks but also actively analyzes data, learns from new information, and makes intelligent, actionable recommendations.

Real World Impact: BSH and MOD Pizza

By design, SAP software connects an entire organization to drive results grounded in enterprise data and in the context of business processes. This integrated approach is already delivering measurable results.

Global home appliance leader BSH is a company that already benefits from this approach, offering more than 10,000 products to 50,000 trade customers in over 50 markets. BSH achieved supply chain transparency, optimized inventory, facilitated on-time delivery, and enhanced customer experiences by synchronizing planning and execution across its extensive supply chain.

Another example is MOD Pizza. The company supports equitable opportunities and business growth by automating HR and streamlining onboarding for 1,000 new hires monthly, managing as many as 400 changes to employee data every day. Systems integration saved HR admins 15 hours per week in data entry alone.

These examples demonstrate that complexity can become a catalyst for progress — provided the right applications, data, and AI tools are in place. When these elements work in unison, the outcome is greater than the sum of its parts: a business that’s not just agile, but unstoppable.

Embracing the Next Era of Enterprise Management

We are entering a new era of enterprise management where AI agents collaborate to solve long-tail business tasks, redefining how the world does business. SAP is ready to help our customers by bringing together applications, data, and AI like never before.

Business leaders can ensure their companies not only survive but thrive by swiftly adapting to an ever-changing environment.

Thanks to AI, the systems we’ve always envisioned — where data flows freely, processes are fully connected, and decisions are backed by precise, real-time insights — are now within reach.

Jan Gilg is president and chief product officer for Cloud ERP at SAP.

This piece originally appeared on SAP BrandVoice on Forbes.

• SAP also debuts solutions to address loyalty gap as new survey results show 80% of U.S. consumers feel undervalued by brands

NEW YORK — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) announced a slate of new solutions and capabilities catering to the retail industry at Retail’s Big Show, the flagship industry event hosted by the National Retail Federation.

SAP’s top news is the general availability of the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, retail, fashion, and vertical business solution. This enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution is built specifically for retailers and marks a significant milestone in bringing tailored ERP capabilities to retailers of all sizes worldwide.

“SAP’s announcement of an all-in-one platform tailored for retail represents a meaningful differentiator in the market,” said Leslie Hand, Group Vice President for IDC Retail Insights. “Retailers often struggle with fragmented solutions that excel in some areas but cannot deliver the end-to-end integration necessary for seamless retail operations.”

“With SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, retail, fashion, and vertical business, SAP brings the same best-in-class functionality trusted by market leaders and recognized worldwide, now tailored to meet the scale, price and time-to-value required by fast-growing organizations,” said Balaji Balasubramanian, senior vice president and global head, Commerce and Consumer Industries at SAP SE. He added that retailers, in order to deliver personalized experiences, need an ERP system with retail-specific processes and capabilities that are tailored to the complexities of merchandising, store operations, and retail supply chains. Balasubramanian notes that generic ERP systems lack these end-to-end retail processes and aren’t flexible enough for today’s digital consumer.

SAP’s latest offering addresses these challenges through a solution built on the flexibility of public cloud architecture that unifies industry-specific processes, data and AI and offers out-of-the-box integrations. It also provides a comprehensive suite of capabilities designed to streamline processes, enhance customer experiences and drive sustainable growth. The new platform offers integrated management of finance, procurement and merchandising, with unified operational data and ready-to-use AI.

New loyalty solution to feature data-driven personalization

SAP also announced a new loyalty management solution aimed at retailers and consumer packaged goods companies, scheduled for release in the second half of 2025.

According to new research from SAP Emarsys, four in five (83%) U.S. consumers feel undervalued by the brands they remain loyal to, with many questioning their loyalty altogether. This new solution aims to equip organizations with experiential journeys and personalized, real-time offers to help earn customer loyalty through integration with the SAP Commerce Cloud, SAP Service Cloud, SAP Emarsys and SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, retail, fashion, and vertical business solutions.

Key features include:

• Loyalty profiles that connect every shopper with a cloud-based loyalty wallet, facilitating targeted and personalized offers, entitlements, and real-time basket analysis.
• Multi-brand loyalty management, as well as shared loyalty programs with partners that centralize loyalty programs across regions and markets, enabling combined brand programs for gaining market share.
• A single place for omnichannel promotion planning with real-time redemption to deliver any type of offer, digital payment and gifting to all customers on any channel.
• Loyalty journey planning that delivers experiential omnichannel journeys tailored to customer needs through personalized commerce, marketing, service and retail interactions.
• Quantifiable metrics that track promotion performance and loyalty-related liabilities, linking to financial systems to measure ROI, and enable settlements with the member and partner brands.

Artificial intelligence to make online shopping easier than ever

SAP also announced the general availability of an AI shopping assistant in the first half of 2025. This intelligent assistant, delivered with the SAP CX AI Toolkit, expands the existing AI capabilities of SAP Commerce Cloud, transforming the online shopping experience through natural language conversations that help customers quickly find exactly what they need.

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Media Contact:
Mallory Kuno, +1 (425) 239-9362, mallory.kuno@sap.com, ET

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