How SAP’s Business AI Will Power the Top 10 Enterprise Projects in 2025 and 2026

SAP is aggressively repositioning itself as the central nervous system for enterprise artificial intelligence, leveraging its vast incumbency in core business operations to drive the top AI projects of 2025 and 2026. The company is executing a clear “Business AI” strategy, embedding relevant, reliable, and process-aware intelligence directly into its cloud application suite. This move is designed to create a high-value, defensible ecosystem that automates complex workflows in finance, supply chain, and HR, providing a distinct advantage over standalone AI tools. For energy sector leaders, this signals a critical shift where operational efficiency, financial forecasting, and sustainability reporting will be managed through an integrated, AI-driven platform.

SAP Business AI Projects Gain Commercial Traction

SAP is rapidly transitioning its AI offerings from discrete, embedded features to a fully integrated, commercially adopted platform that automates entire business functions.

• Between 2021 and 2024, SAP‘s AI strategy focused on launching its Joule copilot and embedding specific AI capabilities within its portfolio, with over 24, 000 customers using these tools in some capacity.
• The period from 2025 to today marks a significant acceleration toward platform-level adoption, with analyst reports from February 2026 indicating that two-thirds of recent cloud orders now include SAP Business AI.
• This commercial momentum is validated by major customer projects, such as RAK Ceramics selecting SAP in February 2026 for a cloud transformation specifically to prepare for AI adoption across its enterprise.
• The company’s roadmap demonstrates this shift, scaling from 230 AI use cases in early 2025 to a target of over 400 by the end of the year, managed through the forthcoming AI Agent Hub set for general availability in Q 4 2025.

Investment Data Reveals SAP’s Multi-Billion Dollar AI Pivot

SAP is backing its AI-first strategy with a multi-billion-dollar capital injection and corporate restructuring, signaling a definitive commitment to leading the enterprise AI market.

• In January 2024, SAP initiated a company-wide transformation with a €2 billion investment to restructure 8, 000 roles, re-focusing its workforce on AI-driven business areas.
• The company followed this with a direct investment commitment of $1.1 billion into its Business AI unit, aiming to accelerate the development and integration of AI across its cloud portfolio.
• Through its venture arm, Sapphire Ventures, SAP pledged over $1 billion in July 2023 to fund external generative AI startups, fostering a wider ecosystem of innovation.
• This strategy includes direct investments in leading AI model providers, including Cohere, Anthropic, and Aleph Alpha, ensuring access to a diverse range of best-in-class technologies for its customers.

Table: SAP’s Strategic AI Investments (2023-2026)

SAP’s Partnership Strategy Creates an Open AI Ecosystem

SAP is constructing a powerful, open AI ecosystem through a web of strategic partnerships with technology leaders, data platforms, and consulting firms to accelerate adoption and deliver customer choice.

• In 2025 and 2026, SAP established critical alliances to address data sovereignty, including an expanded partnership with Cohere for sovereign AI in Canada (February 2026) and a collaboration with Open AI for Germany’s public sector (September 2025).
• The company fortified its data integration capabilities through partnerships with Snowflake (November 2025) and Databricks (February 2025), enabling customers to build AI applications on their business data without duplication.
• During 2024, SAP deepened its ties with hardware and software giants, partnering with NVIDIA to build AI-powered digital twins and expanding its work with Microsoft to integrate their respective AI copilots.
• To drive implementation at scale, SAP has strengthened its alliances with global strategic service partners like KPMG (February 2026) and Accenture (May 2025) to help clients modernize their operations with Business AI.

SAP’s Open Ecosystem Integrates Third-Party AI

This diagram provides a technical view of the open partner ecosystem described in the text. It shows how the ‘Generative AI Hub’ connects SAP applications with third-party models, validating the partnership strategy.

(Source: AIMultiple research)

Table: Key SAP AI Ecosystem Partnerships (2025-2026)

SAP’s Sovereign AI Strategy Targets Europe and Asia

SAP is executing a targeted geographical strategy that combines a massive sovereign cloud investment in Europe with specific, high-value partnerships in key global markets to address regional data regulations.

• From 2021 to 2024, SAP‘s AI efforts were globally distributed but lacked a strong regional focus. The major shift occurred in September 2025, when SAP announced it will invest over €20 billion into its sovereign cloud capabilities in Europe over the next decade, creating a data-secure environment for its European customers.
• This European focus was further reinforced through partnerships to address specific national requirements, most notably the collaboration with Open AI to launch “Open AI for Germany” in 2026 for the public sector.
• In Asia, SAP is pursuing a strategy of ecosystem development, highlighted by its October 2024 investment of S$12 million in its Singapore Digital Innovation Accelerator to boost local Business AI adoption and co-create solutions.
• The company is also addressing North American needs, with its expanded partnership with Cohere in February 2026 launching first in Canada to provide full-stack sovereign AI solutions.

SAP Business AI Reaches Commercial-Scale Maturity

SAP‘s AI technology has advanced from a collection of embedded tools to a commercially mature and integrated platform, validated by a clear product roadmap and enterprise-level customer deployments in 2025 and 2026.

• The period between 2021 and 2024 was characterized by the initial rollout of AI features within specific applications and the launch of the Joule copilot, establishing the foundation for Business AI.
• A significant maturity milestone was reached in May 2025 with the unveiling of the AI Foundation, which acts as a new “operating system for Business AI” by unifying development tools like Joule Studio and the AI Hub into a cohesive platform.
• The technology’s readiness for commercial scale is demonstrated by the planned general availability of the AI Agent Hub in Q 4 2025, providing a central governance layer for managing a “workforce” of hundreds of specialized AI agents.
• This maturity is further proven by recent product launches targeting specific industries, such as the AI-enhanced retail innovations announced in January 2026, which embed AI directly into core retail operations for planning and fulfillment.

SWOT Analysis: SAP’s AI Strategy for 2025-2026

SAP‘s AI strategy is built on the formidable strength of its unparalleled access to enterprise data, creating a deep competitive moat, yet its rigid cloud-only policy for innovation poses a significant threat of alienating its vast on-premise customer base.

• Strengths and Opportunities are centered on leveraging its incumbency to deliver context-aware, industry-specific AI solutions, as seen in the Syngenta partnership for AI-assisted agriculture.
• Weaknesses and Threats revolve around the execution risk of migrating its massive customer base to the cloud, with user groups already issuing formal demands in October 2024 for a more flexible, hybrid approach.
• The company’s ability to balance its strategic strengths against the threat of customer resistance will determine the ultimate success of its AI-driven financial targets, including the goal of €10 billion in free cash flow by 2026.

Market Ranking Confirms SAP’s AI ERP Strength

This chart reinforces the ‘Strengths’ component of the SWOT analysis by positioning S/4HANA as a top contender in the AI ERP market. It provides external validation of SAP’s competitive standing.

(Source: Velosio)

Table: SWOT Analysis for SAP’s Business AI Strategy

Forward-Looking Insights: The Cloud Migration Imperative for SAP’s AI Success

The single most critical factor for SAP‘s success in 2026 is its ability to successfully manage and accelerate the migration of its vast on-premise customer base to the cloud, as access to its entire Business AI portfolio is gated behind this transition.

• The success of the RISE with SAP program in 2026 will be a primary indicator of AI adoption, as it is the main vehicle for moving customers to the cloud where AI innovations are deployed.
• Watch for the market adoption of the SAP Business Data Cloud Connect for Snowflake, planned for general availability in the first half of 2026, as it represents a key technical enabler for customers to leverage their SAP data in modern AI stacks.
• The expansion and real-world performance of SAP‘s collaborative AI agents, following their developer release in Q 1 2025, will demonstrate the company’s ability to deliver on the promise of high-value, autonomous enterprise automation.
• The traction of sovereign AI solutions with partners like Cohere in Canada and Open AI in Germany will be a crucial test of SAP‘s ability to compete and win in regulated industries and the public sector globally.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is SAP’s core “Business AI” strategy?

SAP’s strategy is to embed relevant, reliable, and process-aware AI directly into its cloud application suite. Instead of offering standalone tools, it leverages its deep access to contextual business data to automate complex workflows in areas like finance, supply chain, and HR, creating an integrated, high-value ecosystem.

What is the biggest challenge or risk to SAP’s AI success?

The single biggest risk is customer resistance to its “cloud-only” innovation policy. Since access to the entire Business AI portfolio is gated behind the migration to SAP’s cloud, the company faces the threat of alienating its vast on-premise customer base, which could slow AI adoption and hinder its financial targets.

How is SAP addressing data privacy and regional regulations with its AI?

SAP is executing a “sovereign AI” strategy through major investments and partnerships. This includes a €20 billion investment in its European sovereign cloud, a collaboration with OpenAI for Germany’s public sector, and a partnership with Cohere to provide sovereign AI solutions that meet data residency requirements, starting in Canada.

How much has SAP committed financially to its AI pivot?

SAP has made a multi-billion-dollar commitment, including a €2 billion investment for a company-wide restructuring to focus on AI, a direct investment of $1.1 billion into its Business AI unit, and over $1 billion pledged through its venture arm, Sapphire Ventures, to fund external generative AI startups.

What are some key partnerships SAP has made to strengthen its AI ecosystem?

SAP has formed critical partnerships with AI model providers like Cohere, Anthropic, and Aleph Alpha; data platforms like Snowflake and Databricks for seamless integration; hardware and software giants like NVIDIA and Microsoft; and strategic service partners like KPMG and Accenture to drive implementation at scale.