Pow­ered by a glob­al team of 218,000 diverse peo­ple across 60 coun­tries, HCLTech deliv­ers smarter, bet­ter ways for all of its stake­hold­ers to ben­e­fit from technology. 

With 10,000 cus­tomers using its soft­ware and prod­ucts, over 210 deliv­ery cen­ters, 60 inno­va­tion labs, and 2,000 patents dri­ving inno­va­tion, this glob­al tech­nol­o­gy com­pa­ny deliv­ers indus­try-lead­ing capa­bil­i­ties cen­tered around dig­i­tal, engi­neer­ing, cloud, and AI, pow­ered by a broad port­fo­lio of tech­nol­o­gy ser­vices and prod­ucts. At the heart of it all is HCLTech’s com­mit­ment to super­charge progress for its customers. 

In his role as Glob­al Exec­u­tive Vice Pres­i­dent for HCLTech’s dig­i­tal busi­ness, over­see­ing soft­ware as a ser­vice (SaaS) and enter­prise appli­ca­tions, Praveen Bhat leads the company’s com­mer­cial appli­ca­tion busi­ness globally. 

Focused on serv­ing and empow­er­ing busi­ness­es of all sizes to not only remain com­pet­i­tive but also achieve strate­gic and oper­a­tional excel­lence, Bhat is ded­i­cat­ed to lever­ag­ing SaaS and enter­prise appli­ca­tions to help HCLTech’s cus­tomers stream­line end-to-end func­tions, from dig­i­tal expe­ri­ence and cus­tomer rela­tion­ship man­age­ment to sup­ply chain man­age­ment and human cap­i­tal man­age­ment. The con­sult­ing and ser­vices under Bhat’s watch are focused on a spec­trum of prod­ucts, includ­ing SAP. 

In an exclu­sive ASUG inter­view, Bhat reflects on the evo­lu­tion of the ERP land­scape amid the accel­er­at­ing devel­op­ment of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI), the emer­gence of agen­tic AI, and the surg­ing inter­est from enter­prise cus­tomers in how they can har­ness the trans­for­ma­tive poten­tial of AI for business. 

This inter­view, which you can down­load, has been edit­ed and condensed.

Q: How do you see busi­ness trans­for­ma­tion enabled by SAP ERP solu­tions chang­ing with the accel­er­at­ing devel­op­ment of AI?

AI is a major focus for every­one in the ERP ecosys­tem — both in terms of the solu­tions we imple­ment to help cus­tomers trans­form and the way we use AI to trans­form how we imple­ment. SAP and its com­peti­tors are invest­ing heav­i­ly in devel­op­ing their AI solu­tions, and the tech­nol­o­gy has advanced sig­nif­i­cant­ly in the last year. We are in ear­ly access and plan­ning to show­case this tech­nol­o­gy with a pop-up lab at SAP Sap­phire & ASUG Annu­al Conference. 

Tra­di­tion­al­ly, ERP trans­for­ma­tions were pri­mar­i­ly focused on imple­ment­ing a suite of inte­grat­ed busi­ness process­es across an ERP-cen­tric archi­tec­ture, under­pinned with qual­i­ty data and inte­gra­tion into oper­a­tional sys­tems such as HCLTech Man­u­fac­tur­ing Exe­cu­tion Sys­tems (MES) to plan and man­age all aspects of an enterprise’s busi­ness. With the rise of AI, the focus is now on apply­ing the tech­nol­o­gy to dri­ve more effi­cien­cy, automa­tion, and busi­ness agili­ty. It’s the next stage in the evo­lu­tion of ERP and busi­ness appli­ca­tions in general. 

Many of our cus­tomers are explor­ing what AI can do for them. We’ve also found they are very inter­est­ed in how AI solu­tions dri­ve major changes in the way we exe­cute SAP imple­men­ta­tion projects, accel­er­at­ing (and automat­ing) deliv­ery across a range of tasks from gen­er­at­ing plans, and automat­ing migra­tion tasks or gen­er­at­ing bespoke cloud appli­ca­tions in the SAP Busi­ness Tech­nol­o­gy Plat­form (BTP).

Q: How can gen­er­a­tive AI dri­ve dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion and com­pet­i­tive advan­tage for SAP-cen­tric enterprises?

This needs to be bro­ken down into the dif­fer­ent types of AI:

• SAP’s con­stant­ly grow­ing list of embed­ded AI-enabled scenarios
• Busi­ness AI services 
• Joule user sup­port agents 
• The upcom­ing SAP agen­tic AI framework 

Each of these solu­tions brings some­thing dif­fer­ent to the future of SAP ERP. Gen­er­a­tive AI solu­tions are par­tic­u­lar­ly help­ful with unstruc­tured data. When­ev­er there is unstruc­tured data flow­ing into an SAP sys­tem — or you need to gen­er­ate read­able com­mu­ni­ca­tions and out­puts — gen­er­a­tive AI solu­tions can add sig­nif­i­cant val­ue for enterprises.

For exam­ple, gen­er­a­tive AI can inter­pret vast amounts of data and pro­vide insights to sup­port deci­sion-mak­ing that was not pos­si­ble even just a few years ago. In this area, we see many use cas­es involv­ing doc­u­ment and image pro­cess­ing, along with data extrac­tion and using this to inte­grate with SAP process­es. Many of the embed­ded SAP AI solu­tions use these ser­vices and can be lever­aged out of the box. We are invest­ing in train­ing for our con­sul­tants to ensure they are aware of the many new AI-pow­ered capa­bil­i­ties, so these are an inte­gral part of the SAP solu­tion design.

The use of nat­ur­al lan­guage to com­mu­ni­cate with IT sys­tems enabled by gen­er­a­tive AI is also going to trans­form the way peo­ple inter­act and com­mu­ni­cate with them. When using a vir­tu­al assis­tant like Joule, you can have a con­ver­sa­tion with your SAP sys­tem. For exam­ple, you can ask ques­tions or request a com­plete trans­ac­tion rather than work­ing through trans­ac­tion­al screens. This is espe­cial­ly impor­tant for engag­ing with the Gen Z work­force. We will be able to increase the lev­el of auto­mat­ed pro­cess­ing, which means that the human work­force will need to inter­act with SAP in a dif­fer­ent way to solve prob­lems, pri­or­i­tize, ana­lyze, and strategize.

This inno­va­tion changes the way we man­age change dur­ing the deploy­ment of the SAP solu­tion, since the user has a vir­tu­al assis­tant that explains and exe­cutes process­es. This great­ly reduces the need for tra­di­tion­al train­ing approach­es. We advo­cate for a fast start guide to help users access the sys­tem and under­stand the high-lev­el process, and then oth­er detailed how-to ques­tions can be han­dled by Joule. SAP’s gen­er­a­tive AI copi­lot is only avail­able as a stan­dard tool, but the Joule devel­op­ment stu­dio will soon be released to part­ners, and our inten­tion is to devel­op cus­tom Joule skills, includ­ing skills for our indus­try cloud solutions.

I think the biggest change will come with the forth­com­ing Agen­tic AI frame­work. I have already seen the shift from Sales­force to ​“Agent­force” and so we are excit­ed about the poten­tial that agents will bring to SAP. We are already see­ing requests from cus­tomers look­ing at grow­ing busi­ness capac­i­ty using agents as a dig­i­tal workforce.

Q: How will the rise of agen­tic AI dis­rupt busi­ness going forward?

Since SAP announced its agen­tic AI frame­work at SAP Sap­phire & ASUG Annu­al Con­fer­ence in 2024, we’ve seen a lot of focus on the devel­op­ment of agen­tic AI by SAP. This is where automa­tion can occur, with a busi­ness role filled by an AI agent run­ning in SAP, and oper­at­ing tar­gets and bound­aries defined by human managers.

Much of HCLTech’s focus has been on human-cen­tric AI, which is using AI to aug­ment and sup­port human oper­a­tors. For exam­ple, we devel­oped a ser­vice bul­letin assis­tant for our add-on main­te­nance, repair, and over­haul (MRO) solu­tion that uses gen­er­a­tive AI to ana­lyze orig­i­nal equip­ment man­u­fac­tur­er (OEM) ser­vice noti­fi­ca­tions, as well as inspec­tion and ser­vice require­ments on air­craft and com­po­nents. The tool then pro­pos­es the key tasks and mate­ri­als need­ed to an oper­a­tor who reviews, updates, and con­firms them in the sys­tem. Our solu­tion then cre­ates the required tasks in the SAP iMRO solu­tion, sav­ing oper­a­tors time and reduc­ing man­u­al errors.

How­ev­er, agen­tic AI is real­ly going to trans­form busi­ness fur­ther by cre­at­ing a dig­i­tal work­force that can oper­ate process­es with­in a frame­work to pro­vide addi­tion­al capac­i­ty when­ev­er need­ed. It will be pos­si­ble to have agents run process­es that would not be effi­cient with human oper­a­tors, and this will enable agents to dri­ve rev­enue growth, offer new ser­vices and prod­ucts, and run back-office process­es with more efficiency.

What is clear is that agen­tic AI requires a new way of approach­ing solu­tion design. For exam­ple, an agent is not sim­ply automat­ing a set of busi­ness rules— this can be achieved with tra­di­tion­al RPA. An agent AI spec­i­fi­ca­tion should be thought of as a dig­i­tal job spec­i­fi­ca­tion with a clear objec­tive and skills that enable it to achieve that objec­tive. We have devel­oped an agen­tic AI design frame­work to guide our cus­tomers through this process and are using a micro-ver­sion of this for our SAP Sap­phire pop-up lab.

Con­nect with Praveen Bhat on LinkedIn

Q: What is HCLTech doing to embrace AI in your SAP con­sult­ing services?

HCLTech is a great AI inno­va­tor, hav­ing devel­oped our own AI solu­tions over the last decade. We believe this has giv­en us a great start in using AI to trans­form the way we imple­ment SAP and oth­er pack­aged applications. 

We are approach­ing this top­ic in four key ways:

• Estab­lish­ing labs to ideate and devel­op cus­tomer user cas­es, whether it’s deploy­ing SAP’s increas­ing num­ber of stan­dard AI-pow­ered sce­nar­ios or devel­op­ing cus­tom solu­tions using our ideaX framework
• Show­ing the art of the pos­si­ble by adding AI capa­bil­i­ties to our indus­try cloud prod­ucts, such as the Ser­vice Bul­letin work­bench in HCLTech’s iMRO
• Using AI capa­bil­i­ties in the pro­pri­etary tools we build to auto­mate imple­men­ta­tion and migra­tion tasks such as our ABAP Coder work­bench, CDS View migra­tion tool, and con­fig­u­ra­tion copy automa­tion for mul­ti-coun­try deployments
• AI Force is our devel­op­ment and engi­neer­ing plat­form that enables orga­ni­za­tions to devel­op AI solu­tions. We are also look­ing at how we can lever­age our exper­tise in this area to part­ner with SAP to devel­op the next gen­er­a­tion of AI solutions

Q: What steps should orga­ni­za­tions take now to ensure their SAP land­scape is ready to embrace AI solutions?

This is quite sim­ple. To lever­age SAP Busi­ness AI solu­tions and the soft­ware company’s cat­a­log of stan­dard AI capa­bil­i­ties, enter­pris­es must be on SAP S/4HANA Cloud. You can also lever­age SAP BTP to build AI solu­tions to use in SAP ECC; how­ev­er, users may find there are limitations. 

We devel­oped a migra­tion fac­to­ry specif­i­cal­ly to enable cus­tomers to move from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA quick­ly — so that they can then start ben­e­fit­ing from the lat­est SAP inno­va­tions, includ­ing AI services.

The oth­er aspect is the extent to which the SAP sys­tem is cus­tomized. If cus­tomers want to lever­age the stan­dard SAP AI con­tent, then they real­ly need to be aligned with SAP best prac­tices. How­ev­er, there are many options for apply­ing AI ser­vices in more cus­tomized land­scapes also using the BTP Busi­ness AI solutions.

Q: As enter­pris­es begin embrac­ing gen­er­a­tive AI, what are some ways lead­ers can obtain cross-orga­ni­za­tion­al buy-in?

Many of our cus­tomers have already ini­ti­at­ed AI projects, although in many cas­es, these are quite open ini­tia­tives. For those that haven’t start­ed obtain­ing cross-orga­ni­za­tion­al buy-in for gen­er­a­tive AI, it can be a com­plex process, but there are sev­er­al strate­gies lead­ers can employ to facil­i­tate this transition:

• Com­mu­ni­cate a Clear Vision: Lead­ers should artic­u­late a com­pelling vision for how gen­er­a­tive AI can trans­form their orga­ni­za­tions. This includes explain­ing the poten­tial ben­e­fits, such as increased effi­cien­cy, inno­va­tion, and com­pet­i­tive advan­tage. This resource, Envi­sion­ing GenAI-pow­ered Work­places, high­lights how gen­er­a­tive AI can stim­u­late cre­ativ­i­ty, fos­ter curios­i­ty, and enhance employ­ee pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, align­ing with the strate­gic shift toward imme­di­ate val­ue generation.
• Show­case Quick Wins and Suc­cess Sto­ries: Shar­ing exam­ples of suc­cess­ful AI imple­men­ta­tions with­in the orga­ni­za­tion or indus­try can help build con­fi­dence and demon­strate the tan­gi­ble ben­e­fits of gen­er­a­tive AI. We rec­om­mend that cus­tomers start by address­ing some spe­cif­ic busi­ness chal­lenges as this can be deliv­ered quick­ly and proves the busi­ness val­ue. Many orga­ni­za­tions have con­cerns about secu­ri­ty and ethics asso­ci­at­ed with using AI solu­tions and large lan­guage mod­els. To address this issue, it’s impor­tant to define your company’s pol­i­cy and approach up front; this is some­thing we can help with as part of a pilot engagement.
• Engage Key Stake­hold­ers: Involv­ing key stake­hold­ers from dif­fer­ent depart­ments ear­ly in the process can help ensure their sup­port and address any con­cerns they may have. We sug­gest bring­ing togeth­er busi­ness and IT to col­lab­o­rate; in our expe­ri­ence, this is the most effec­tive way of iden­ti­fy­ing impact­ful and tech­ni­cal­ly viable solutions.
• Pro­vide Train­ing and Resources: Offer­ing train­ing ses­sions and resources to employ­ees can help them under­stand and feel com­fort­able with the new technology.
• Fos­ter a Cul­ture of Inno­va­tion: Encour­ag­ing a cul­ture that embraces inno­va­tion and exper­i­men­ta­tion can help employ­ees feel more com­fort­able with adopt­ing new technologies.

Q: This is a very inter­est­ing time. There is a lot of uncer­tain­ty in the glob­al econ­o­my, and AI has the poten­tial to rad­i­cal­ly trans­form ERP solu­tions that have been rel­a­tive­ly sta­ble for many years. Do you have any final words of advice for SAP customers?

AI and Agen­tic AI, if deployed well in an inte­grat­ed ERP envi­ron­ment, can bring effi­cien­cy and agili­ty to an enter­prise to help adapt to chal­lenges in the glob­al econ­o­my like those we have seen in the last few months. 

Cus­tomers that are best posi­tioned to exploit AI tech­nolo­gies are those that have already invest­ed in region­al or glob­al inte­grat­ed ERP solu­tions with good qual­i­ty data. Orga­ni­za­tions in this posi­tion can devel­op AI solu­tions and deploy them quick­ly. I rec­om­mend that orga­ni­za­tions start an agen­tic AI ini­tia­tive and begin exam­in­ing use cas­es that will gen­er­ate val­ue and new rev­enue streams, enable new mar­kets, and be ready to embrace the tech­nol­o­gy quickly. 

For those that are not quite ready with an SAP S/4HANA land­scape, I urge a rapid migra­tion to the ERP plat­form and start an AI readi­ness ini­tia­tive. We pro­vide an SAP inno­va­tion lab ser­vice to help cus­tomers under­stand the pos­si­bil­i­ty that SAP AI offers, inspire cus­tomers with ideas on how AI can trans­form busi­ness, and then deliv­er rapid POCs to bring these solu­tions to life. This will help cus­tomer super­charge their jour­ney to an intel­li­gent ERP pow­ered by SAP AI.

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