Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution: Rethinking AI for Real Impact

There is a lot of noise around AI right now. New tools, new models, new promises. Much of the conversation is focused on speed: how AI can help us write faster, code faster, produce faster. That matters, of course. But in a recent conversation with Casey West, lead developer advocate at Google Cloud, we explored a more interesting question: what if the real value of AI is not only that it helps us move faster, but that it helps us think better?

West made a point that stayed with me. Using AI simply to generate more output is only the beginning. The more powerful use case is to treat AI as a collaborator in the thinking process: something that can challenge assumptions, ask questions we might not have asked, and help us see a problem from a different angle. In that role, AI is not replacing judgment, it is creating useful friction around it.

That shift matters because the work of building technology is changing. Developers are no longer just writing deterministic logic and controlling every outcome in advance. Increasingly, they are working with systems that are creative, probabilistic, and less predictable by design. That opens up huge possibilities, but it also raises the bar. Quality, guardrails, metrics, and trust become even more important when software starts to reason in ways that are not always fully scripted.

The advice West offered to developers was simple and probably more durable than any specific tool or framework: fall in love with the problem, not the solution. The technologies will change. The models will change. The implementations will change. But the ability to understand a problem deeply, stay curious, and apply AI with judgment will remain valuable.

Why Partner Momentum Around SAP CX Matters Now

The Autonomous Enterprise is no longer a concept. It is being built and deployed right now. For SAP partners, this is a defining moment.

Across industries, customers are moving from pilots to production. They are investing in systems that can run pricing, orders, fulfillment, and service end-to-end, with AI actively driving decisions and outcomes. They are not looking for more tools. They are looking for results.

This is where SAP has a clear point of view. Customer experience (CX) only works when it is connected directly to execution.

Turn customer engagement into a growth engine

SAP Customer Experience is integrated with SAP Cloud ERP across pricing, order management, fulfillment, billing, and service. AI operates inside these processes using real business data. That means every customer interaction can reflect what the business can deliver.

This is the shift now underway, and it is creating immediate opportunities for partners.

SAP partners are the ones who bring this to life. They take product capabilities and turn them into working solutions that improve conversion, increase fulfillment accuracy, and reduce service cost.

The next wave of growth will be led by partners who move quickly and build on this foundation.

Customer experience is now measured by what gets done

Customer experience is no longer judged by engagement metrics alone. It is judged by outcomes. Customers expect:

  • Accurate pricing at the moment of purchase
  • Real product availability, not estimates
  • Orders that are fulfilled as promised
  • Service that resolves issues without repetition or delay

When these things work, the experience works. When they fail, the problem is immediately visible.

AI is increasing the speed of every interaction. It is also exposing execution gaps faster than ever before. If pricing, inventory, or order data are inconsistent, customers see it instantly.

This is why customer experience and execution can no longer be separated.

AI is now driving actions, not just insights

AI is already acting inside key business processes. As seen in the SAP Sapphire 2026 Innovation News Guide, in SAP CX today:

  • Marketing, content, and campaign assistants can orchestrate segmentation, content creation, and optimization based on live performance signals.
  • Commerce, merchandising, shopping, and order management assistants can connect discovery, conversion, and fulfillment to real-time inventory and pricing.
  • Sales assistants help guide deal qualification and deal execution by linking pipeline signals to pricing, availability, and fulfillment data.
  • Case and service management assistants help automate routine interactions while maintaining full context across orders, entitlements, and history.

These are not future scenarios. These capabilities are available and in use. But they only work when they are connected to trusted business data.

Without that, AI creates errors at scale. With it, AI drives measurable improvement.

Autonomous CX connects experience to execution

Autonomous CX connects core products and processes across the business, operating on a shared business context. It brings together SAP Commerce Cloud, SAP Sales Cloud, SAP CPQ, SAP Service Cloud, SAP Field Service, SAP Engagement Cloud for marketing, and SAP Cloud ERP across finance, supply chain, and order management.

This is not a set of disconnected applications. It is a unified system where customer interactions and operational processes run on the same data foundation. Pricing, inventory, orders, and service are consistent across every touchpoint.

As a result, AI can move from recommendation to execution, working to ensure that every interaction is grounded in what the business can deliver. It can also remove the integration gaps that slow down CX execution.

SAP CX partners are moving faster from projects to outcomes

This shift is changing what customers expect from partners. Customers are not asking for system implementations. They are asking for outcomes such as:

  • Faster time to deploy
  • Higher conversion rates
  • Improved order accuracy
  • Lower cost to serve

SAP provides a strong starting point with embedded assistants, standard integrations, and prebuilt industry scenarios. Partners are building on this to deliver complete solutions. This is where differentiation happens.

Where partners are creating value today

The opportunity is not theoretical. It is already visible in active partner work.

Across SAP CX:

  • The cloud ERP edition of SAP Commerce Cloud can connect storefront, pricing, ordering, and fulfillment in one model.
  • SAP Revenue Growth Management and SAP Retail Execution support trade planning and in-store performance.
  • Intelligent applications help package AI use cases across marketing, sales, and service.
  • SAP Service Cloud with partner integrations such as Parloa enables automated, context-aware service interactions.

SAP CX partners are turning these capabilities into repeatable offerings. Examples include:

  • Industry packages for retail and CPG combining commerce, pricing, and fulfillment
  • Preconfigured deployments of SAP Sales Cloud and SAP Service Cloud that reduce time to go-live
  • Integration connectors linking SAP CX with existing commerce, loyalty, and service platforms
  • Extensions to CPQ and sales workflows that improve deal margin and approval speed
  • Service automation scenarios that reduce manual case handling using real order and entitlement data
  • AI-driven discovery connected directly to SAP Commerce and SAP Commerce, order management

These are practical, deployable solutions that can deliver measurable results.

The ecosystem is expanding what’s possible

SAP is strengthening this model through partnerships. Recently announced partnerships with companies such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Parloa, and Vercel enable new interaction models like conversational commerce, AI-driven search, and composable digital experiences.

What matters is that these experiences connect back to SAP for execution. Orders, pricing, fulfillment, and service remain consistent across every channel. This gives partners the freedom to innovate on the experience layer while relying on SAP for reliable execution.

A new economic model for partners

The economics for partners are changing. With Autonomous CX, partners can build:

  • Industry solutions that can be reused and scaled
  • Implementation packages that shorten delivery timelines
  • Extensions and integrations that apply across customers
  • Ongoing services for AI optimization and governance
  • New offerings built around AI assistants, AI agents, and orchestration
  • Higher-value transformation programs that combine AI, data, and process design

This creates a more predictable and repeatable revenue model. It also strengthens long-term customer relationships.

Now is the time to act with SAP CX

Customers are making decisions now. They are selecting platforms and partners that can deliver AI-driven execution across customer experience. They are looking for partners who can:

  • Connect CX to ERP processes
  • Deliver solutions that work out-of-the-box and scale
  • Improve measurable business outcomes

SAP provides the foundation. The platform is in place. The capabilities are real. The next step is execution.

Partners who move now can define the use cases, build the offerings, and lead in their industries. The momentum is already building. This is the moment to accelerate it.

What partners should do next

To move from opportunity to execution, partners can act now.

SAP is not asking partners to start from scratch. The platform, capabilities, and ecosystem are already in place. The opportunity now is to build, differentiate, and lead.


Karl Fahrbach is chief partner officer at SAP.
Balaji Balasubramanian is president and chief product officer for SAP Customer Experience.

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SAP Launches Joule in SAP for Me: An AI-Powered Gateway to Insights, Support, and Guided Actions

SAP introduces Joule in SAP for Me, a new, unified entry point to one of SAP’s most widely used customer portals. It’s smarter, simpler, and more intuitive.

Joule helps turn intent into autonomous action

SAP for Me is the digital tool for customers and partners to easily interact with SAP and get immediate guidance to the best solution. With this portal, users can access important alerts, metrics, and insights about their SAP product portfolio from a single access point. The integration of Joule in SAP for Me is not just a feature drop or a UX redesign. This is an inflection point in how customers access products, support, and self-service. 

We are moving from a click-and-search portal to a conversational, agent-driven enterprise ecosystem. For users, this is an experiential shift with significant business outcomes. By taking over the tedious work of clicking, searching, parsing, and diagnosing, Joule helps free up IT administrators, consultants, and business leaders to focus on what truly matters: driving innovation and scaling their business.

“The successful launch of Joule in SAP for Me is the result of strong collaboration, innovation, and a shared commitment to improving customer experience. It demonstrates how SAP continues to turn its AI strategy into real, tangible value, delivering solutions that are not only powerful but also practical and user-centric.”

Gerlinde Wallner, Organizational Change Manager and Coach, Strategy & Operations, SAP

What can users expect from this new unified, AI‑powered entry to SAP for Me?

  • Effortless navigation across the portal
  • Fast access to relevant information
  • Advanced self-service with guided support
  • Accelerated task execution without needing to know where to click

In their fast-paced business environments, users don’t have to search through complex menus or multiple touchpoints. Joule in SAP for Me can simplify their path to support. They can simply ask, explore, and act to experience personalized, conversational access to support, self-service, and key tasks in SAP for Me.

“Joule is transforming SAP support by making it more intuitive and intelligent. We can guide users conversationally to the right outcome—no searching, no guesswork—accelerate self-service and task execution, and deliver context-aware, personalized support directly within SAP for Me.”

Corinne Reisert, VP, Customer Support Experience SAP for Me, Global Customer Support, SAP

In addition to introducing Joule in SAP for Me, SAP takes advantage of AI-powered agentic case resolution, which brings AI agents into support workflows to help analyze new cases, detect duplicates, suggest routings, and draft responses. For select priority cases, AI agents can recommend replies, which helps reduce manual effort, improve triage accuracy, and shorten resolution timelines. This is available now to SAP customers.For more information, see agentic case resolution.

Joule in SAP for Me is being rolled out in phases as of May 2026, at no extra cost to customers.

“With SAP runs SAP, we show our customers how we scale agents across the enterprise to deliver real outcomes. Joule in SAP for Me exemplifies how conversational and agentic AI can fundamentally transform the way users operate and offer customers a simple and intuitive path to access SAP’s services and support.”

Benjamin Blau, Chief Process & Information Officer, SAP

While Joule in SAP for Me already helps deliver a simpler and more intuitive way to access information, support, and guided actions, this is just the starting point. As SAP continues to advance its AI strategy, customers can look forward to new scenarios, expanded agent capabilities, and deeper integration across services and support processes. This launch establishes the foundation for a more conversational and autonomous customer experience, one that will continue to evolve as SAP brings the next generation of AI-powered innovations to life.


Stefan Steinle is executive vice president and head of Global Customer Support at SAP.

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Why you should let data drive your digital strategy 📈

To understand your customers you can’t rely on general stats. Chris Luecke, host of Manufacturing Happy Hour shares how B2B suppliers can use data from platforms like SAP Business Network to stay visible and grow network engagement.

Learn more about SAP Business Network and sign up for a supplier account today: https://sap.to/6051B8n0al

#SAPBusinessNetwork #B2BManufacturing #SupplierSuccess

Business AI at Enterprise Scale | SAP Sapphire Orlando 2026

SAP is helping enterprises turn the promise of Business AI into real outcomes across data, processes, and governance.

In this closing segment from SAP Sapphire Orlando 2026, Christian Klein, SAP’s Chief Executive Officer, returns to the question he asked at the start of the keynote: Will SAP be a software company in the future? With help from Joule, the answer is clear: SAP is becoming a Business AI company.

The video recaps the major keynote announcements, including SAP Business AI Platform, SAP Autonomous Suite, and the role of RISE with SAP in supporting change management and AI adoption. Together, these innovations help organizations bring the Autonomous Enterprise to life with accurate, secure, and scalable AI outcomes.

The segment closes with a clear message: SAP is working with customers and partners to help companies move from AI promise to enterprise-wide impact.

Watch the full Global Keynote: https://youtu.be/9aa-etRsaLU?si=j0rDQJCtoxUai0fX
Watch all SAP Sapphire replays on demand: https://www.sap.com/events/sapphire.html

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About SAP:
As a global leader in enterprise applications and business AI, SAP stands at the nexus of business and technology. For over 50 years, organizations have trusted SAP to bring out their best by uniting business-critical operations spanning finance, procurement, HR, supply chain, and customer experience. For more information, visit: https://www.sap.com/index.html

#SAP #BusinessAI #SAPSapphire

Becoming an Autonomous Enterprise | Experience Center at #SAPSapphire

Experience what it takes to move from competition to collaboration through the lens of a major global sports event at the Sapphire.

See how SAP brings together data, applications, and AI through the Autonomous Enterprise so you can operate as one and perform when it matters most. https://sap.to/6051BBv4gT

#SAPSapphire #AutonomousEnterprise #AI

Beyond the Point System: Modern Loyalty | SAP Spotlight on ANZ Tech | Episode 7

IIs your loyalty program just “earn and burn,” or is it creating a real experience?

In this episode of SAP Spotlight on ANZ Tech, Jess asks a simple question: what makes someone loyal to a brand? The answer is not just points. It is also ease of use, and whether customers connect with the philosophy of the brand. If loyalty feels hard to manage or slow to redeem, people lose interest fast.

Our customer experience experts, Scott and Scott, explore why modern loyalty programs need to go beyond basic point aggregation. “Earn and burn” can be part of the formula, but it should drive meaningful behaviors and enhance the customer experience. That could mean discounts, but it can also mean access to something exclusive, like early invitations, events, or perks that feel genuinely relevant.

You will also hear a practical example of how brands are using data well. Instead of treating everyone the same, leading programs combine personalization with context, like inviting a customer to a new store opening near where they live. When it is done right, it feels thoughtful, not creepy, because the value is clear and the experience is tailored to real life.

If you are rethinking retention, this episode is a useful prompt: loyalty works best when it is easy, personal, and aligned with what customers actually value.

👉 Download the Customer Loyalty Index to explore the data behind what drives retention today: https://sap.to/6051B6mj2N

Follow us on social:
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About SAP:
As a global leader in enterprise applications and business AI, SAP stands at the nexus of business and technology. For over 50 years, organizations have trusted SAP to bring out their best by uniting business-critical operations spanning finance, procurement, HR, supply chain, and customer experience. For more information, visit: https://sap.to/6058B6mjN6

#CustomerExperience #CustomerLoyalty #SAP

@NHL Front Office App: Playoff Salary Cap Scenarios in Real Time

Playoff pressure. New cap rules. SAP helps NHL GMs make confident decisions when it matters most. https://www.sap.com/about/customer-stories/nhl.html

Joule Delivers Real Results Across Industries | SAP Business AI

See how organizations across industries are using SAP Business AI and Joule to drive real business outcomes.

In this video, customer voices show how AI is helping businesses solve industry-specific challenges at scale. From HR and payroll to supply chain, retail, manufacturing, and mobility, SAP Business AI helps organizations work faster, make better decisions, and improve employee experiences.

You’ll hear how AI is accelerating payroll support, reducing costs, improving supply chain efficiency, limiting food waste, supporting workforce transformation, and helping teams adapt to new business models. Across every example, the focus is the same: turning business data into action and making AI useful in the flow of work.

SAP Business AI brings together trusted data, enterprise processes, and AI capabilities to help companies create value across functions and industries.

Learn more about SAP Business AI: sap.com/products/artificial-intelligence.html

00:00 – Why SAP is positioned to deliver business AI
00:11 – HR and payroll: faster service, lower cost
00:24 – Retail and supply chain: better decisions, less waste
00:52 – Manufacturing and mobility: workforce transformation
01:06 – Margin improvement and employee experience
01:14 – Joule for every employee
01:23 – Shaping a smarter tomorrow with SAP Business AI

Follow us on social:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sap/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sap
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SAP/
Threads: https://www.threads.com/@sap

About SAP:
As a global leader in enterprise applications and business AI, SAP stands at the nexus of business and technology. For over 50 years, organizations have trusted SAP to bring out their best by uniting business-critical operations spanning finance, procurement, HR, supply chain, and customer experience. For more information, visit: https://www.sap.com/index.html

#SAPBusinessAI #Joule #Industries

How to Test ABAP Business Services in SAP Gateway Client

Working with OData services in SAP often begins with understanding how to access and test those services, and the service URL plays a central role in that process.

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