Customer support is one of the cornerstones of a successful business, yet it remains one of the most complex and demanding areas of the knowledge economy. It requires synthesizing vast amounts of information — including customer business needs, industry specifics, technology, and governance — into actionable insights. 

At SAP, we’ve harnessed the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and other data-driven technologies to revolutionize customer support, turning it into a seamless, efficient, and value-added experience.

The Evolution of the Knowledge Economy

Beyond resolving everyday challenges, we continue to serve our customers as true business partners, collaborating with them to help them achieve their broader business goals. While we live in a knowledge economy, where economic value is derived from that knowledge and how we apply it, this paradigm is changing. As humans, our role in the economy is evolving as AI systems increasingly replicate human cognitive skills — retrieving and using the right knowledge at the right time.

In this new paradigm, success will be determined not by how much you know, but by how effectively you can allocate and manage resources to get work done. In customer support, this means moving from simply resolving issues to orchestrating AI tools and human expertise to deliver optimal outcomes.

AI, including generative AI, becomes a collaborative partner, enabling support teams to allocate resources efficiently and focus on higher-value tasks. Recognizing this paradigm shift, we go beyond resolving everyday challenges and serve our customers as true business partners, collaborating with them to help them achieve their broader business goals — as the world changes.

AI Is the Perfect Partner for Customer Support Transformation

At SAP, AI is built into core business processes of customers, connecting finance, supply chain, procurement, sales, marketing, human resources, and IT. Data-driven technologies such as AI, robotic process automation (RPA), and process mining elevate support experiences for our customers. They do it by simplifying support access, addressing complex scenarios using AI agents, and enhancing automation to increase efficiency while delivering personalized solutions, as well as taking advantage of system metrics and process insights.

The Customer Support & Cloud Lifecycle Management organization at SAP also drives AI innovation to analyze process metrics collected from the customer’s systems to evaluate efficiency, bottlenecks, and opportunities for improvement; improve processes using domain-specific machine learning models; and build AI solutions that can be integrated into applications used in a business process or scenario.

Generative AI: Elevating Customer Support

Generative AI has been a game-changer for customer support. It empowers our support teams by enhancing the quality and speed of outcomes and enabling more personalized recommendations for customers. It also opens new possibilities for orchestrating AI services in combination with AI agents.

AI agents streamline support processes by automating time-consuming tasks, such as retrieving and assessing information, while enabling human-machine collaboration. This allows support professionals to focus on improving both customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.

Real-World Impact: AI Use Cases in Customer Support

SAP has developed more than 50 AI-driven use cases, showcasing the transformative power of AI in customer support. These include:

• Precise and fast generative AI-infused recommendations appear for customers while they type their requests. Customers also benefit from proactive recommendations on trending content and preventative recommendations like system health checks.
• Smart ticket routing ensures support tickets reach the right experts, quickly.
• Proactive issue identification detects and addresses potential problems before they escalate.
• Internal workflow enhancements deliver efficiency gains from workflows such as intelligent search, automated error categorization, clustering of tickets with the same root cause, or expert swarming for complex issues.

Other generative AI capabilities include summarizing tickets, assisting in knowledge creation, and improving communication with customers.

These advances not only elevate support experiences for SAP customers, but also create significant efficiencies for our support engineers.

The SAP Advantage

SAP’s AI-driven support strategy is structured around three key pillars:

1. Capturing business opportunities with domain-specific AI models: By leveraging our domain expertise and historical data, we design machine learning models tailored to specific support challenges. These models enable precise and actionable recommendations.
2. Gathering real-world process insights: Using tools like SAP Signavio, we capture and analyze detailed process insights. This provides a solid foundation for identifying improvement opportunities.
3. Building and integrating AI solutions: We integrate AI-driven solutions into existing workflows, ensuring seamless application and measurable impact. Process insights guide ongoing refinements and enhancements.

And the numbers speak for themselves: SAP’s AI support scenarios are called up more than 1 million times by our customers on an average day. More than 35,000 end users use our AI capabilities per month.

The Road Ahead: Human-Machine Collaboration in Support

The future of customer support lies in human-machine collaboration. By combining the analytical power of AI with human expertise, we can deliver unparalleled support experiences. AI agents will play a pivotal role in this transformation, assisting with things like ticket triage, data analysis, and troubleshooting, thereby enabling support teams to focus on strategic activities. As AI continues to evolve, these agents will become even more capable of providing real-time insights and proactive solutions to anticipate customer needs before they arise.

SAP’s commitment to AI-driven innovation ensures that we remain at the forefront of customer support transformation. By continuously evolving our AI capabilities, we are setting the stage for a new era of value-driven, scalable, and efficient customer support.

But there is one thing that AI will never replace: the empathy, care, and passion of our support teams, ensuring every customer feels supported as we solve their challenges together. The future of customer support lies in blending AI’s analytical power with human expertise. By working together, we’re setting a new standard for customer success.

Thomas Saueressig is a member of the Executive Board of SAP SE leading Customer Services & Delivery.
Stefan Steinle is executive vice president and head of Customer Support & Cloud Lifecycle Management at SAP.

SAP today announced the launch of the new SAP Demo Environment 2.0, a platform designed to benefit partners by providing easy access to the entire SAP solution demo portfolio. This allows partners to effectively communicate the value of SAP solutions, helping customers understand how these tools can address their specific challenges and enhance their businesses.

Product demos play a crucial role in helping customers visualize the core features and capabilities of SAP solutions. Customers want to see tangible proof of how SAP solutions can solve their pain points and improve their success. However, creating tailored demos that reflect customer needs can be resource-intensive and time-consuming. The new SAP Demo Environment is designed to provide clarity and confidence, simplifying this process and enabling partners to deliver high-quality, relevant demos that resonate with customers.

Using Live Data to Showcase Real-World Scenarios

Through the Content Discovery tool, partners can gain free and unlimited access for up to 10 users to an integrated, pre-scripted demo landscape with a continuously updated library of, as of the start of 2025, more than 240 demos to 100 SAP solutions across various landscapes. These turnkey, scripted demos utilize live data to showcase real-world scenarios and processes, allowing to effectively address customer challenges and demonstrate the full potential of SAP solutions. With access to interactive demo scripts, professionals can build their own knowledge and leverage interactive value journeys to explore demos in a click-through format without needing a live system.

Driving Meaningful Business Outcomes in Delivering Value to the Customers

As many organizations are undergoing digital transformation, the new demo environment is a game-changer. It empowers users to enhance their skills and leverage future-ready demos that can directly address customer’s needs, ultimately helping to drive meaningful business outcomes and foster long-term partnerships.

“The new SAP Demo Environment 2.0 is a significant leap forward in equipping SAP partners to effectively convey the value of SAP solutions,” says Karl Fahrbach, chief partner officer at SAP. “By streamlining the demo process with a comprehensive library of cutting-edge demos and interactive demo scripts, partners can double-down on their commitment to innovation excellence, drive customer success, and unlock new opportunities for growth.”

Andre Bechtold is SVP and head of Solution and Innovation Experience at SAP.

New Extended Board, including Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Chief Revenue Officers (CROs), will further enhance efficiency and accelerate transformation.

WALLDORF — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced that Sebastian Steinhaeuser (39) has been appointed to join the SAP Executive Board. He will lead a newly formed board area called Strategy & Operations, continuing to support the execution of SAP’s strategy and driving simplification in operations. The SAP Supervisory Board also extended the contract of Executive Board Member Thomas Saueressig, head of Customer Services & Delivery, for another three years until 2028.

SAP also announced that it is forming an Extended Board* comprising senior leaders from across the company, including the newly appointed CTO, Co-CROs and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). The new SAP Extended Board will act as a strategic advisory body, driving execution of the company’s AI-first, Suite-first strategy. It will leverage global leadership to align with key initiatives and ensure smooth execution across the organization, while the SAP Executive Board remains the ultimate managing body of SAP SE.

New Board Area to Drive Strategy Execution and Simplification

The new Strategy & Operations board area will ensure that SAP continues successfully executing on its transformation journey by driving the company’s strategy internally and externally, as well as by simplifying internal operations. Bringing Strategy & Operations together with Global Marketing – led by newly-appointed CMO Ada Agrait – will also promote closer collaboration to deliver customers and partners an enhanced digital experience.

“Since joining in 2020, Sebastian Steinhaeuser has been crucial in shaping and implementing SAP’s corporate strategy. We believe that Sebastian is not just a leader, but the architect of a future where innovation meets impact. On behalf of the SAP Supervisory Board, I wish Sebastian a very successful start in his new role,” said Pekka Ala-Pietilä, chairman of the Supervisory Board of SAP SE. “Moreover, we are excited to extend our best wishes to Thomas Saueressig for his forthcoming term on the SAP Executive Board. His contributions have been instrumental in accelerating our customers’ journey to the cloud, and we look forward to his continued success.”

After joining SAP in 2020, Steinhaeuser held various positions, including the role of Chief Strategy Officer, where he also ran the growth areas Business Transformation Management, Business Network and Sustainability. In 2024, Steinhaeuser’s role expanded to Chief Strategy & Operating Officer, including oversight of business operations, processes and IT, as well as ecosystem and commercial functions. Prior to joining SAP, Steinhaeuser worked with the Boston Consulting Group, where he supported companies in their corporate and digital transformation journeys.

Further Organizational Updates to Build on SAP’s Successful Foundation

SAP is also announcing a new CTO and new CROs. Philipp Herzig will take on the role of SAP’s global CTO, in addition to his current position as Chief AI Officer. In this role, he will oversee SAP’s technology strategy, innovation, research and corporate development, driving the ongoing success of SAP’s Business AI and Sustainability units while continuing to advance innovation for SAP customers and partners.

Jan Gilg and Emmanuel (Manos) Raptopoulos will co-lead SAP’s Customer Success organization as SAP’s new CROs. Gilg, currently president and chief product officer for Cloud ERP, will oversee SAP Americas and the Global SAP Business Suite. Raptopoulos, the current regional president of SAP EMEA, will manage the SAP EMEA, MEE and APAC regions. Elevating leadership that combines a strong product background with great sales experience will help SAP engage more deeply with customers to translate their challenges into solutions that ensure sustained success. Herzig, Gilg and Raptopoulos will report into SAP CEO Christian Klein and serve on SAP’s Extended Board.

All changes are effective February 1, 2025.

Visit the SAP News Center. Follow SAP at @SAPNews.

*Members of the Extended Board: Ada Agrait (Chief Marketing Officer), Michael Ameling (General Manager, Business Technology Platform), Sebastian Behrendt (Head of Global Finance), Jan Gilg (Chief Revenue Officer, Americas & Global Business Suite), Philipp Herzig (Chief Technology Officer), Thomas Pfiester (Head of Global Customer Engagement), Emmanuel Raptopoulos (Chief Revenue Officer, APAC/EMEA/MEE), TBA (General Manager, Business Suite), Monika Schaller (Chief Communications Officer)

About SAP

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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.