Artificial intelligence (AI) is fast-tracking the evolution of customer experience (CX), enhancing its power, scalability, and ability to deliver personalized interactions that engage customers, build loyalty, and fuel growth.
ASUG spoke with Balaji Balasubramanian, President and Chief Product Officer, SAP CX and Consumer Industries, to learn more about the innovations, transformations, and challenges within the CX space and how SAP is integrating CX capabilities across its business suite.
AI’s influence is happening just as the lines are blurring between B2C and B2B, and B2B customers are now expecting to have more personalized, memorable experiences like the ones they have in B2C engagements. To achieve that, the B2B sector needs to become more digital and provide greater self-service functionality, from onboarding to issue resolution, so they can operate at scale, according to Balasubramanian.
To navigate the shift, SAP is working to make CX an integral part of the SAP Business Suite, bringing consumer-grade experiences into business contexts while preserving the operational backbone required for complex B2B operations. Strong synergies exist between SAP’s industry-specific solutions (such as for retail) and its horizontal CX capabilities, as organizations across all industries are grappling with the need for personalized, omnichannel engagement and seamlessly connected back-office operations, says Balasubramanian, who previously led SAP’s commerce business and the consumer industries segment.
“What we are building, from a customer experience standpoint, will directly fit that need—from core engagement all the way through to how it works on the back-office effectively,” he says. For industries involving complex configurable products, self-service experiences will need to seamlessly integrate humans in the workflow, so the ability to bridge that self-serve experience with a human-assisted experience is critical.
The CX Engine
Historically, core Customer Experience was typically managed within the marketing function. But more enterprises now recognize that it demands cross-functional effort with high-level visibility and influence, requiring integration across the entire business. That’s the approach SAP is taking.
This integration is essential for acquiring and retaining customers, as well as delivering a seamless, end-to-end experience, says Balasubramanian.
“CX is an integral part of SAP Business Suite, which means that everything that I do to engage with my customers has to have the right backing all the way through,” he says. “That’s one of the key core principles of CX, and if we can do this properly, then I think it will hit the nerves of almost all businesses out there because they’re all struggling to acquire the customer. And of course, retaining them is even more important. Every customer lost could create a significant amount of impact.”
SAP CX Investments
The rapid advancements in infrastructure, including CPU and GPU technology, have reached a point where content can be personalized for users exactly when they need it, and that’s central to SAP’s investments in AI and automation.
“For example, imagine receiving a marketing message on WhatsApp or any other preferred channel. When you click on it, instead of being directed to a standard web page, you are taken to a page designed specifically for you, in real-time. This personalized page includes tailored design, layout, content, products, services and offers, all created just for you at that moment for you to take action,” explains Balasubramanian. “This level of personalization, which was unimaginable a few years ago, is what excites our customers. They are motivated by the possibilities AI brings. Now our opportunity is to execute in this rapidly changing world and make this a reality for them.”
But customers are also asking for SAP’s attention to concerns they have with AI implementations, including inconsistent results, challenges in realizing value, and doubts about AI’s ability to deliver relevant experiences tailored to different personas and applications. They’re also worried about proper data handling and data protection, breaking down data silos, and preventing hallucinations and biases generated by AI.
By positioning its CX solutions as part of an integrated business suite, Balasubramanian says SAP is well-suited to addressing these challenges.
SAP’s CX Roadmap
At SAP’s Sapphire & ASUG Annual Conference 2025, SAP announced additions to its Joule agent portfolio with several new AI agents that directly support CX, says Balasubramanian. For example, the Quote Creation Agent uses Agentic AI to automatically generate CRM-ready quotes from customer emails without human intervention, reducing response time from hours to minutes. The Catalog Optimization Agent converts product catalogs into optimal product listings to improve discoverability and conversion. The Shopping Assistant Agent prompts shoppers with questions that lead them to the best-fit product.
In the second half of the year, SAP will add the Joule action bar, an always-on, omnipresent, and context-aware feature across all its CX applications that lets users switch to an automated copilot capability for forms and other tasks, he explains.
Other new solutions include Enterprise Service Management, which uses AI to speed up issue-to-resolution cycles for finance and human resource users and enables faster handling of questions about onboarding, payroll, etc., boosting productivity and operational excellence. The SAP B2B Self-Service Portal, as an extension to SAP Cloud ERP, lets business partners leverage real-time order data, invoices, and payment status around the clock via mobile or the web. The self-service portal can be easily expanded to a full e-commerce portal, keeping pace as the business scales.
Launching in the third quarter of 2025, SAP Revenue Growth Management optimizes promotion and budget planning for consumer products companies with AI insights and real-time financial data. There are also new loyalty programs coming in Q4, notes Balasubramanian.
Balasubramanian says SAP’s vision for CX represents a transformative approach where CX is not just a cost optimization tool but a true growth engine, positioned at the center of the business suite to create seamless, personalized experiences.
“From core ERP to supply chain, to sustainability, to order management with the CX portfolio including Loyalty, we can stitch this whole thing together to drive that customer experience, and also engagement and profitable growth,” he says.