A rockstar, a CEO, and a teenager walk into a room. It’s not the start of a joke, but the essence of a decade-long partnership between SAP and We Are Family Foundation (WAFF). Together, they’ve built a model that shows how young leaders can move from token voices to strategy shapers, from climate action to AI regulation. And the results offer practical lessons for every company looking to future-proof their business.

The challenges facing businesses today demand fresh ideas, digital fluency, and bold thinking. These are the qualities youth leaders bring in spades. For more than 20 years, WAFF, co-founded by music legend Nile Rodgers and his lifelong partner Nancy Hunt, has mentored young leaders from more than 100 countries. Over the past decade, WAFF and SAP have partnered to deepen that global impact, moving youth voices from symbolic gestures to central drivers of innovation.

From roundtables where teenagers challenge senior executives, to shaping initiatives at the UN Climate Change Conferences and the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, WAFF and SAP have developed a blueprint for embedding youth-led ideas into corporate strategy, supply chains, and culture while delivering measurable business and societal impact.

Here are five lessons from the collaboration on how intergenerational partnerships unlock value for both business and society.

1. Problems that span generations require leadership that does too

Traditional business models silo generations: executives design the strategy, then hand it down for others to execute. In today’s world, that handoff wastes momentum and risks irrelevance.

WAFF’s 2024 global study, Collaborating Across Generations, found that when senior leaders and young changemakers co-create from the start, ideas are stress-tested in real time. This results in strategies that are bolder, more resilient, and more adaptable to fast-moving challenges.

In short, instead of passing the baton on the final leg, build your strategies together from the starting line.

2. Intergenerational collaboration is a smart strategy

Youth leaders aren’t just “future leaders.” They already bring expertise that legacy teams lack. Digital natives understand platforms, trends, and user behavior instinctively. They also bring the urgency of living through the climate crisis and global inequality.

Take WAFF Youth Leader Arunima Sen, who uses AI to track plastic debris and apply data-driven models to malnutrition. Her work bridges grassroots innovation with scalable solutions, which is exactly the kind of thinking that can de-risk corporate strategies and ensure relevance from day one.

For companies, including youth voices isn’t an act of goodwill; it’s strategic de-risking.

3. Where business, policy, and community align, impact follows

Global challenges cannot be solved in silos. The biggest breakthroughs happen when companies, policymakers, and social entrepreneurs collaborate.

One example is Mozamel Aman, a young Afghan impact entrepreneur and immigrant in Germany, who built StartSteps to create inclusive employment pathways. In 2023, he began a partnership with SAP Germany connecting women to the opportunity for tech jobs in the SAP ecosystem, blending corporate support with government stipends. His organization leverages government stipends from the Bundesagentur für Arbeit (Federal Employment Agency) to train unemployed individuals and connect them with job opportunities. 

Germany’s technical talent gap is nearly the same size as its unemployed refugee population. Partnerships like this solve social challenges while closing critical business gaps in talent and innovation.

4. Purpose, profit, and the power of inclusion

Authentic inclusion of young experts, especially Gen-Zs, builds credibility, trust, and stronger business performance.

Employees notice:

• Engagement: Only 31% of U.S. employees were engaged in 2024, the lowest level in a decade.
• Retention risk: Employees who feel aligned with their company’s mission and values are much more likely to stay, while misalignment drives turnover.
• Business impact: Highly engaged employees drive up to 21% higher profitability.

WAFF’s global study findings underscore these statistics, indicating that young people see inclusivity and accountability as non-negotiable factors. By authentically including youth, organizations set a standard of purpose that fuels stronger engagement, deeper loyalty, and, ultimately, higher profitability.

5. Strategic procurement for social good

The most powerful financial corporate tool for change isn’t in giving, but perhaps in spending.

SAP Business Network facilitates US$6.1 trillion in annual commerce. Compare that to an average corporate social responsibility (CSR) budget of $12 million among FTSE 100 companies, and the potential is clear: redirecting even a fraction of procurement spend toward youth-led, sustainable enterprises can transform impact at scale.

Watson Institute, with leadership from former WAFF alumni, James Okina, has recently published a new research report on the opportunity for young social entrepreneurs in impact-led procurement. The report found that young, impact-driven entrepreneurs who succeed in selling to corporations report an average revenue increase of $170,187.50, while those who fail to secure deals lose between $7,000 and $300,000 in potential revenue. Okina offers that he “doesn’t understand why youth involvement in business is still so controversial.” SAP and WAFF agree. By integrating expert impact entrepreneurs who happen to be young into procurement pipelines, for example, companies embrace innovation and align with corporate goals and values while maintaining quality, price, and performance. It is a smarter, systemic approach than writing philanthropic checks.

A blueprint for the next decade

Over the past decade, SAP and WAFF have shown that partnering with young impact leaders creates a true competitive edge.

Companies that co-create with the next generation design strategies that are bolder, more relevant, and more sustainable. They build workforces that are engaged, trusted, and innovative. They align business goals with societal needs in ways that deliver measurable results—and, across generations, they operate on longer runways to implement lasting solutions.

Businesses that win in the next decade won’t just listen to youth; they will build with them. And that’s smart business.

Jennifer Beason is global director of Corporate Social Responsibility at SAP. Annie Greene and Jamie Roach are global program leads at We Are Family Foundation.

In an era defined by constant disruption, business leaders face a formidable challenge: aligning their people strategy with business goals amidst unpredictable workforce dynamics. From surging turnover to rapidly shifting skill requirements, the pressure on human resources has never been greater.

The key to navigating this complexity and building a resilient, future-proof organization lies not in guesswork but in harnessing an organization’s most valuable and often underutilized asset: its people data. By adopting a data-driven approach to HR and talent management, HR can evolve from a reactive administrative function into a proactive, strategic driver of business success.

A unified view of your workforce

The first and most significant hurdle for many organizations is the prevalence of data silos. When critical workforce information is scattered across disconnected HR, finance, and operational systems, it is impossible to get a clear, holistic view of the organization. This fragmentation is a major barrier to progress, leading to inefficiencies and compromised decision-making and preventing leaders from seeing the critical connections between their people and business outcomes.

Establishing a HR analytics dashboard as single source of truth for all people-related data is the foundational step. By harmonizing data from across the enterprise, leaders can gain real-time visibility into workforce composition, compensation equity, and internal mobility. This unified view fosters a culture of transparency and provides the clarity needed to make confident, data-backed decisions about organizational structure and talent management.

Turning data into insight with AI

Simply collecting vast amounts of data is not enough. The true power is unlocked when that data is transformed into actionable, forward-looking intelligence. This is where artificial intelligence (AI) and people analytics become essential. The adoption of these technologies is accelerating as well. According to IDC’s Human Capital Management Survey, 59% of HR talent teams and people leaders are strategizing around new use cases for AI-backed workforce analytics.^*

AI-powered applications can analyze complex data sets to identify patterns, trends, and provide tailored recommendations. This allows HR leaders to forecast talent upskilling and reskilling needs, identify employees at risk of attrition, and understand the drivers of engagement so they can proactively address issues before they impact the bottom line.

Driving strategic results across HR

When a foundation of unified data is combined with the power of SAP Business AI, the strategic impact can become tangible across all HR functions, driving better employee experiences.

First, consider employee engagement and retention. Disengagement is a critical issue, with companies facing a 92% likelihood of performance-related revenue losses when employees are disengaged.^** A data-driven approach helps uncover the root causes of turnover by analyzing feedback, performance, and compensation data. This allows organizations to address issues related to skills, workforce composition, or compensation, improving retention and building a more engaged workforce.

Second, in the face of a growing skills gap, data is indispensable. The World Economic Forum predicts that 59% of the global workforce will require reskilling by 2030 to meet changing demands.^*** The People Intelligence package in SAP Business Data Cloud allows organizations to map the skills their workforce has against the skills they will need, identifying critical gaps with precision. AI-enabled intelligence applications can then help create personalized learning paths for employees, ensuring that training investments are targeted, effective, and directly aligned with future business needs.

Finally, a data-driven strategy revolutionizes the hiring process. By analyzing metrics like time-to-fill, quality of hire, and source effectiveness, organizations can streamline recruiting, reduce bias, and make stronger hiring decisions. This not only enhances the quality of hires but also creates significant efficiencies and time savings, freeing up teams to focus on building relationships with top candidates.

The path to building a resilient and competitive organization is paved with data. By breaking down silos, leveraging the power of AI, and applying insights across the employee lifecycle, businesses can transform their people strategy. This evolution elevates HR into a critical strategic partner, capable of guiding the organization with clarity and confidence. In today’s landscape, a data-driven people strategy is no longer a future aspiration but a present-day necessity for success.

Interested in learning more about how People Intelligence can transform your HR strategy? Hear from experts on the latest trends shaping the future of talent and learn more about the latest AI and data-driven innovations in SAP SuccessFactors solutions.

Ponti Manolides is a growth priority marketing lead for Learning & Talent at SAP SuccessFactors.

*IDC, “Spotlight: Optimize Engagement and Business Impact to Maximize the Potential of Your Talent Practice” August 2025.
**IDC, “Webinar: Reimagining Talent: The Power of AI, Skills, and People Intelligence,” 2025.
***World Economic Forum, “The Future of Jobs Report 2025,” January 7, 2025.

SAP Business AI can boost productivity with technology that aligns with the AI strategies of our customers—ranging from building effective agents to managing intelligent systems.

Among the many announcements at SAP Sapphire in 2025, the company unveiled new innovations, partnerships, and integrations that can deliver real-time, proactive assistance. For example, SAP’s AI copilot Joule is now available to users across SAP and non-SAP systems. SAP also expanded its agentic AI footprint across SAP Business Suite by introducing Joule Agents for multiple use cases and an evolving AI Foundation as the AI operating system designed to simplify development, enabling developers to build, deploy, and scale solutions with ease.

The impact of AI on the delivery of customer support at SAP

As announced in Q2 this year, SAP’s simplified, tiered, services-and-support engagement model will be generally available in early 2026. Here, SAP’s customer support is a centerpiece of the Foundational Success Plan, delivered via the proven SAP Enterprise Support offering included in every SAP cloud solution subscription. The Foundational Success Plan can support in-house teams by helping to onboard and run solutions, keep business continuity, and drive ongoing value. It includes customer self-service options, application lifecycle management solutions centered around SAP Cloud ALM, and preventative mission-critical support. With the plan, SAP turns on Joule for a customer’s business and supports the team ramp-up with learning journeys for SAP Business AI.

When it comes to customer support in general, agentic AI can redefine the support process by moving beyond scripted responses and basic automation. It can assess situations, make decisions, and take action—often before the customer even knows there’s an issue. SAP’s customer support harnesses agentic AI to help deliver smarter assistance, faster resolutions, and a stronger human–tech partnership.

We focus on elevating support experiences for customers and improving support delivery for engineers by employing a combination of agents and assistants. For example, we use autoresponders and smart log analyzers to help process issues, while configuration advisors, language services, and proactive notifiers can guide customers toward self-service solutions. At the same time, our support engineers rely on co-pilots to help summarize cases, recommend solutions, escalate using intelligence, assist with communications, and create a continuous feedback loop for learning. For strategic customer support, we use tools like feedback collectors to help capture customer insights and channel recommenders to help ensure that every interaction is handled in the right channel. Together, these innovations can redefine support as faster, smarter, and more human.

The impact for customers

When it comes to SAP Business AI, we build trust and create customer confidence by being relevant, reliable, and responsible. Unlike traditional AI that only suggests answers, agentic AI can reason, decide, and take action. For customers to feel confident, they expect accuracy, reliability, and transparency from the system.

As we support and guide our customers, we recognize that while agentic AI is a game-changer, it is not a magic pill. Coupled with ethical and responsible AI, real impact comes from SAP’s business expertise and a deep understanding of what our customers truly need. When knowledge is combined with AI to infuse autonomy and interoperability in our agents, we can unlock the ability to simplify processes, remove friction, and deliver experiences that feel effortless.

AI technology amplifies human insight and delivers delightful user experiences, but when it comes to business AI, it is our domain expertise that fuels SAP Business AI into a tool for creating genuinely easy, productive, and meaningful experiences for our customers.

Stefan Steinle is executive vice president and head of Customer Support & Cloud Lifecycle Management at SAP.

SAP acquired Silicon Valley-based Taulia in March of 2022. Three years on, the fintech is helping customers unlock liquidity, and save big on costs as a result. Thomas Mehlkopf explains how.

The SAP Taulia portfolio offers solutions for working capital management and supply chain financing, as well as a network for buyers, suppliers, and financial institutions.

Mehlkopf is global chief revenue officer for Treasury and Working Capital Management at SAP, and is responsible for marketing and rolling out the solutions for these domains to customers.

Q: Three years ago, we announced that the Taulia products would be integrated into the SAP portfolio. What’s the status?

A: After acquiring Taulia, we pushed ahead with three main priorities to align with SAP Business Suite. The first was the integration of the portfolio into SAP Business Network so that, where suppliers and buyers both run SAP Taulia solutions, they can utilize the network to benefit from early payment options and supply chain finance.

We also worked on integrating the solutions into SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and released the SAP Taulia solutions for receivables financing and payables financing on SAP Cloud ERP in February 2025. These are particularly relevant for small and midsize enterprises that want to grow and that need quicker payments to do so. The current focus is on the U.S., Canada, UK, DACH, and Singapore markets, with the goal of making this functionality available in additional countries soon.

Our third priority was to embed SAP Taulia Virtual Cards into SAP Ariba solutions. The cards enable buyers to pay their suppliers sooner — even before they issue an invoice — using a “pay on purchase order” transaction. This ensures that the supplier in question has sufficient cash flow to fulfill the order.

Back in 2022, Taulia was described as a growth opportunity for SAP and for customers. Could you tell us how SAP Taulia is performing?

SAP Taulia already has several customers that finance billions through the platform, thereby improving both their own liquidity and that of their suppliers. My team’s objective is to increase that number and to continue scaling up, and we’re making good progress. Over the last three years, the volume of transactions processed with SAP Taulia has risen steadily from US$500 billion to US$800 billion.

Customers are benefiting from this progress: one large enterprise in the oil and gas industry saved almost €700,000 within a single month of going live. Extrapolated to a full year, that’s annual savings of almost €8 million. So, the business case for customers is definitely there.

You presented the first AI use case in SAP Taulia at SAP Sapphire in 2025. Can you tell us about its value for customers?

The AI use case relates to our “insight to action” approach and helps companies plan and improve their cash flow. SAP Taulia has already been using artificial intelligence for some time to forecast supplier behavior around early payments. By combining this insight with data from an app on SAP Business Technology Platform that provides transparency on free cash flow, the AI use case will give customers tips on how to improve their liquidity. It also runs through various scenarios showing them ways to influence it. Information like this is especially important for CFOs — never more so than in times of uncertainty.

Are there any other recent announcements you would like to share?

Yes, another important update is that SAP Taulia is now part of SAP’s cloud ERP packages for the public cloud, SAP Finance Base and SAP Finance Premium, as well as the private cloud, SAP Cloud ERP Private. This means that we can quickly show customers the positive business case for their transformation of using SAP Taulia to improve their cash flow and achieve savings.

In times of global crisis, trade tariffs, and supply chain disruption, why are the SAP Taulia solutions so vital for cash flow?

Cash is still king, especially in a crisis. An article published recently in German business newspaper Handelsblatt reported that net debt among the 40 companies on Germany’s DAX stock market index has increased eight percent to €227 billion since the pandemic. Clearly, financing is a major issue, particularly given that interest rates have risen so sharply. Many companies borrowed when interest rates were low and are now having to refinance their loans at higher interest rates, which puts enormous pressure on their finance teams. SAP Taulia solutions can help by providing the funding that businesses need.

Given the impact that trade tariffs have on the supply chain, it is vital that companies carry out liquidity planning and scenario analysis. They need to think about where they will manufacture their products in the future, what effect that choice will have on revenues, and how they can use SAP Taulia to improve their cash flow.

Which reference customers are already benefiting from this?

SAP Taulia customers include Henkel, Airbus, Nissan, AstraZeneca, Kimberly-Clark, and Bridgestone.

One customer has enabled early payments to suppliers totaling over €5 billion since the start of the program, which has led to an improvement in cash flow of more than €1 billion during this period.

Your pledge is “to create the future of finance together.” What does that involve?

We want to team up with our partners and customers to influence the transformation of corporate finance. That includes working with banks and implementation partners and integrating SAP Taulia into a swathe of SAP solutions. Together, we offer customers a comprehensive portfolio of treasury and working capital solutions, ranging from payments and cash management to financial risk management.

One key aspect of our road map is our treasury and payment portfolio, which covers topics such as the future of payments. We are also working to integrate new technologies, including blockchain and digital currencies, so that we can offer our customers innovative payment and financing solutions.