In a keynote that blended interactive audience participation, customer conversations, and product announcements, SAP executives and customers took to the SAP Sapphire stage on Wednesday to showcase how cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) are reshaping global business.
With the evolving SAP Services and Support portfolio, SAP executives also showcased a new approach to engaging with customers. The message was clear: transformation is no longer optional — it’s survival.
Building on this theme, Thomas Saueressig, Member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, Customer Services & Delivery, emphasized how SAP stands by its customers as an indispensable partner in today’s volatile environment marked by shifting tariffs, global uncertainties, and an accelerating pace of change. “We understand that our customers seek faster transformations, faster time to value, and increased agility,” Saueressig said, adding that SAP is committed to supporting them at every step of the way.
Using RISE with SAP, the company’s transformation-as-a-service offering, and the power of the Business Transformation Management portfolio, SAP can already deliver up to 30 percent cost savings for its customers, and this is more important than ever when budgets are under pressure and organizations need to transform quickly. “But we don’t stop there,” Saueressig said, announcing a further evolution of the RISE with SAP Methodology, with updates to the discovery phase, a project workspace in SAP Cloud ALM, as well as a new transformation preparation service, including tailored transformation road maps for SAP customers.
On stage, Mercedes-Benz CIO Katrin Lehmann shared how SAP helped the automotive company tackle recent challenges such as moving to the cloud and exploring custom AI options like Mercedes-Benz Direct Chat to add value for customers. “Moving to RISE with SAP means that we can accelerate processes and leverage innovation,” she said. Currently, Mercedes-Benz is exploring Joule as part of its RISE with SAP journey.
“This is the year when AI is becoming a reality for business,” Saueressig chimed in, noting that customers aim to distinguish their strategies for leveraging AI to stand out in the market.
By combining advanced AI technologies with enterprise resource planning (ERP), companies can unlock substantial enterprise value. However, this can best be achieved with partners, said Saueressig who announced the launch of an AI co-innovation program with Amazon Web Services (AWS.) This program brings together experts from the two companies as well as dedicated technical resources and cloud credits to define, test, and deploy generative AI apps on SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) to solve critical business challenges.
Focus on productivity, embrace AI
Saueressig then welcomed Jan Gilg, chief revenue officer and president of SAP Americas and Global Business Suite and member of the Extended Board of SAP SE, on stage. Gilg opened his remarks with a sobering statistic: during the rise of software as a service (SaaS), global business productivity grew just 1.5 percent since 2025, compared to the first wave of ERP from 1995-2005 when it grew by a more robust 2.6 percent. While the cloud has unlocked the ability to consume technology faster, systems have become larger and more complex. His conclusion? “More technology alone does not automatically mean better business outcomes.” He went on to say that what customers need are “integrated business processes, especially in an uncertain business environment.”
In the era of agentic AI, establishing an integrated and harmonized enterprise foundation is essential, Gilg said. He described the reimagined SAP Business Suite as data-driven and AI-powered, aimed at democratizing access to Business AI and said he is certain that this transformation can unlock a significant productivity boost.
Geoff Scott, CEO of the Americas SAP User Group (ASUG), joined the conversation, outlining the three top-of-mind topics among SAP customers: global uncertainty, a return to simplicity, and productivity growth. Scott added that ASUG members are focusing on a pragmatic approach for scaling SAP Business AI, emphasizing the importance of aligning AI initiatives with strategic business goals and validating them through pilot programs. He also emphasized the critical role of clean, integrated data and the power of collaboration and partnerships.
Grow resilience with the power of the public cloud
One of the most inspiring transformation stories during the keynote came from Jeff Suellentrop, CTO of Phoenix Global, a metals and mining company that was on the brink of bankruptcy when Suellentrop joined. In a capital-intensive industry, Phoenix Global was growing fast and its legacy tech stack couldn’t keep up.
“We basically replaced every system in the company,” Suellentrop shared. The company’s move to SAP’s public cloud offering, choosing the GROW with SAP journey, allowed it to streamline operations, reduce inventory, and improve asset utilization and resulted in a financial turnaround. “We have returned millions and millions of dollars back into the business,” Suellentrop said.
Scaling a global snacking empire with SAP Business Data Cloud
The final customer invited on stage was Mars, the family-owned confectionery giant behind M&Ms, Snickers, and Milky Way. Will Beery, vice president and global CIO for Mars Snacking, and Praveen Moturu, global vice president of Digital Platforms at Mars Information Services, explained how the company uses SAP Business Suite to support rapid growth and acquisitions. “When you think about our digital strategy and the architecture that needs to be there to enable these businesses, it has to be more global. It has to be more standard,” Beery said.
Mars has adopted a three-tier ERP strategy to support its retail operations, acquisitions, and core business. The goal is harmonization and innovation focusing on simplifying and standardizing its IT landscape. Moturu told the audience that using SAP technology, the company has been able to optimize workflows, reduce bottlenecks, and improve overall productivity and accuracy. Mars also opted for SAP Business Data Cloud, which Moturu described as a long-awaited solution that brings consistency and efficiency.
Drawing on his own experience managing SAP systems, Gilg said he understood of the challenges SAP customers face, and underscored SAP’s shift toward being a more supportive, invested partner in customers’ transformation journeys and committed to delivering tangible outcomes, telling the customer audience, “I’m here to be your voice inside SAP and to be with you for your entire customer value journey.”
Back on stage, Saueressig explained how new updates to the integrated toolchain will help to unlock value from the SAP solution faster, reduce the cost of transformation by up to 30 percent, increase business agility, and speed up continuous innovation.
Thanks to new offerings announced at SAP Sapphire, he said the impact of the integrated toolchain will be even greater. These include:
- A new transition guidance – with Joule – to orchestrate all transformation-related assets, bringing together SAP Signavio, SAP LeanIX, SAP Cloud ALM, and Joule for developers and consultants
- A centralized AI agent hub and governance in SAP LeanIX that helps companies map AI agents to their business capabilities
- Boosting UX and adoption by WalkMe integration across SAP Business Suite
- AI assistance for SAP Signavio with AI-assisted transformation advisor, process conformance check, and process context analyzer
“Fundamentally, AI will be omnipresent across the entire toolchain,” Saueressig said. “We will continue to work to drive down the cost and drive down the time to value for all of you.” Additionally, he said, the company is completely overhauling the SAP Services and Support Portfolio with three new success plans that build upon one another. Each includes enabling Joule for customers and supporting team ramp-up with learning journeys for SAP Business AI. He also announced data services, a comprehensive offering for SAP Business Data Cloud, which provides prescriptive guidance to customers from pre-sales to ongoing support, , starting with a free SAP Business Data Cloud discovery workshop and assessment to get customers started on their data journey.
To wrap up, Saueressig stressed again SAP’s commitment to listening to customers and challenging itself to improve its support for customers every day. “We’ll ensure you can realize value from all the solutions mentioned today… you have the power in your hands to transform today to be resilient tomorrow.”
