Even the most sophis­ti­cat­ed arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI) sys­tems start out pret­ty dumb. They (the soft­ware-based AI engines) don’t know much because they haven’t yet been exposed to the infor­ma­tion they need to gain the intel­li­gence we want them to have. 

This argu­ment helps explain the rela­tion­ship between AI and machine learn­ing. AI can help orga­ni­za­tions dis­cov­er busi­ness behav­ior pat­terns and pre­dict future out­comes. But it also can devel­op even high­er lev­els of intel­li­gence with­out being explic­it­ly pro­grammed when it is exposed to enough data. This is the process that actu­al­ly allows machines to learn.

But Real­ly, How Smart Is Arti­fi­cial Intelligence? 

SAP’s rela­tion­ship with AI has evolved. It was just recent­ly that SAP con­cen­trat­ed the bulk of its efforts in this space with­in SAP Leonar­do design think­ing. Since then, SAP has begun embed­ding AI func­tions across its prod­uct portfolio. 

If SAP is known for its prowess in trans­ac­tion­al data that resides in what are typ­i­cal­ly struc­tured sys­tems of record, then where can ASUG mem­bers apply SAP AI with­in their prac­ti­cal busi­ness applications? 

We already know that SAP HANA can func­tion as the data foun­da­tion for mod­ern infor­ma­tion man­age­ment sys­tems. But with more AI func­tion­al­i­ty now com­ing to mar­ket, ASUG mem­bers can look to auto­mate invoice and pay­ment match­ing with­out the need for human oper­a­tors. When a finan­cial sys­tem is tasked with per­form­ing this action through AI, it can then evolve with machine-learn­ing-based intel­li­gence and start to make rec­om­men­da­tions to man­agers who can make informed busi­ness deci­sions. That’s just one exam­ple, but the use cas­es are plentiful. 

Where to Use AI

ASUG mem­bers using SAP Suc­cess­Fac­tors for their HR and human cap­i­tal man­age­ment (HCM) require­ments also will see an increas­ing num­ber of AI options pre­sent­ed to them. Func­tions such as machine-learn­ing-enabled resume match­ing and employ­ee approval con­trols (e.g., for vaca­tion requests or new lap­tops) are auto­mat­i­cal­ly rolling out with­in the platform. 

Sales­peo­ple are using AI too. Across every indus­try you care to name from cake bak­ing to oil rig man­age­ment, there is always a need for pro­cure­ment and sales. SAP says it is enabling ​“pre­dic­tive lead man­age­ment” through AI to give sales man­agers faster insight into who they’ll win their next deal with, where to find the best prospects, what val­ue to ascribe to the poten­tial deal, and the most oppor­tune time to reach these prospects.

SAP also has not­ed that sales­peo­ple can use AI to offer auto­mat­ed sales dis­count approvals. Where online sys­tems of cus­tomer engage­ment exist (from sim­ple e‑commerce sites to more com­plex cus­tomer rela­tion­ship man­age­ment sys­tems), AI can help indi­cate whether a cus­tomer is enti­tled to a dis­count so they nev­er miss it.

SAP AI for ERP

In moves that reflect SAP’s her­itage in enter­prise resource plan­ning (ERP) for core cus­tomer asset man­age­ment, the com­pa­ny also points to AI use cas­es in ware­house automa­tion. Where stock and order­ing sys­tems can be cat­e­go­rized, com­part­men­tal­ized, and auto­mat­ed, AI can shoul­der the grunt work and leave man­agers to focus on activ­i­ties that bring greater val­ue to the business.

Let’s also men­tion phys­i­cal assets such as plant machin­ery and oth­er types of indus­tri­al equip­ment. SAP has iden­ti­fied AI as a key route to apply new lev­els of pre­dic­tive main­te­nance and ser­vice to these areas of busi­ness so that ASUG mem­bers can dove­tail their Inter­net of Things (IoT) invest­ments in sen­sors, cam­eras, gauges, and oth­er mon­i­tor­ing equip­ment with new AI advance­ments. SAP detailed these AI use cas­es in an Intel­li­gent Enter­prise eBook and not­ed that it is ded­i­cat­ed to embed­ding intel­li­gent tech­nolo­gies with­in cus­tomers’ core processes.

Essen­tial­ly, SAP’s approach to AI is an offer­ing designed to allow ASUG mem­bers to sift through vast datasets of oper­a­tional and trans­ac­tion­al infor­ma­tion to pre­dict and adapt to cer­tain sce­nar­ios. The com­pa­ny says that cus­tomers can use AI to reduce oper­a­tional costs and mit­i­gate issues proac­tive­ly by:

• Increas­ing automation
• Opti­miz­ing asset management
• Improv­ing oper­a­tional performance
• Iden­ti­fy­ing efficiencies
• Decreas­ing downtime

Indus­try-Spe­cif­ic SAP AI Use Cases

We have already men­tioned SAP AI in the con­text of man­u­fac­tur­ing appli­ca­tions, sales-focused activ­i­ties, firms that oper­ate ware­house facil­i­ties, and (as two ran­dom exam­ples) cake bak­ers and oil rigs. Yet these indus­try-spe­cif­ic use cas­es actu­al­ly extend as far and wide as busi­ness itself.

“From detect­ing ear­ly forms of can­cer or dis­ease to ana­lyz­ing MRI scans — essen­tial­ly any­thing that’s data dri­ven — [AI and] machine learn­ing tech­nol­o­gy can bring huge ben­e­fits to the health care indus­try,” said Ewan Maalerud, mem­ber of the Dig­i­tal Cus­tomer Expe­ri­ence team for SAP Ana­lyt­ics Cloud. ​“By ana­lyz­ing large amounts of med­ical data, AI can help clin­i­cians give faster and more accu­rate treat­ment to their patients, and can learn to make bet­ter deci­sions going forward.” 

Maalerud goes on to list oth­er exam­ples of indus­try-spe­cif­ic SAP AI rang­ing from its appli­ca­tion in cyber­se­cu­ri­ty sys­tems to its abil­i­ty to reduce ener­gy costs through opti­mized asset man­age­ment. Finance, gov­ern­ment, and the envi­ron­ment also are not­ed here.

Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence Will Run the Intel­li­gent Enterprise

Where SAP AI goes next will no doubt align with the company’s intel­li­gent enter­prise ini­tia­tive. This will fea­ture new areas such as SAP AI chat­bots, which ASUG will look to decon­struct and exam­ine at a future date.

AI is get­ting smarter and is being applied every­where. Major changes are hap­pen­ing in every indus­try and the smart mon­ey is on how smart AI will even­tu­al­ly be ready to stand on its own. 

Inter­est­ed in learn­ing how to use pre­dic­tive main­te­nance and machine learn­ing in EAM? Reg­is­ter for our on-demand web­cast and learn where to start.