Launching into the Next Phase of our AI-Powered Transformation

In 2026 we will go "All-in on AI", delivering on five strategic imperatives to lead the next phase of our AI-powered transformation. These five strategic imperatives are make or break for SAP:

1. Joule as the new AI user experience.
2. Embedded and extensible AI in every business process.
3. Bold, high-value Industry AI applications.
4. SAP Business Data Cloud providing the data layer as the basis for our AI.
5. Adoption of our suite through RISE and GROW with our AI-powered tool chain and our modernized Services portfolio.

Joule and SAP Business AI are redefining the SAP user experience (UX) and transforming how users interact with SAP software. We are taking a bold, user-centric approach by establishing Joule as the new frontend across all SAP solutions. This enables users to complete operational tasks by triggering AI assistants for each line of business and to answer all analytical questions in one unified place. Our goal is to make AI assistants so powerful that customers never need to add a separate agentic layer on top of our software. Instead, they can rely on SAP to deliver AI out-of-the-box within our suite of solutions. Users will be able to interact with Joule through text and speech-to-text. In 2026, Joule will gain the ability to answer any question through our Perplexity integration and will follow users everywhere with WalkMe. If an agent or skill is missing or needs to be extended, Joule can be easily customized through Joule Studio, which is deeply integrated with SAP Signavio to connect directly into business processes. Already today, Joule provides more than 2,200 skills, covering over 80 percent of the most frequently used SAP transactions, and we are bringing these capabilities to our customers.

We are embedding agentic AI deeply into end-to-end business processes to deliver real value to SAP users through our AI assistants. These assistants will go beyond automating individual tasks. They will act as intelligent companions for users—from controllers to recruiters—by orchestrating multiple agents, making Joule our "super worker". Imagine a recruiter supported by Joule throughout the entire process: opening a requisition, screening applications, scheduling interviews, onboarding a new colleague, and instantly feeding this data into workforce planning connected to financial planning. This is the unique power SAP brings—moving beyond isolated processes to deliver productivity and an enhanced user experience across the entire workflow. To realize this vision, we are taking an end-user and business-centric approach to prioritize and develop the right agentic capabilities. All assistants will be fully extensible through Joule Studio.

We will go beyond delivering out-of-the-box agentic capabilities across our suite. Many of our customers’ most complex and valuable business challenges are highly industry-specific. To address this, we are building the next generation of AI-powered industry applications by leveraging SAP’s deep industry and process expertise. These Industry AI applications will be developed in close collaboration with customers through a Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) model. They will be delivered on top of our AI Foundation and SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), powered by SAP Business Data Cloud to seamlessly integrate SAP and non-SAP data. We will pilot our Industry AI approach in the first half of 2026, with a commercial launch planned for the second half of the year. This represents a significant opportunity for SAP to unlock a vast new market by building on our strength in industry-specific solutions. We are already delivering AI-powered innovations today, from intelligent spare parts management in manufacturing to smart services for utilities, and we will continue to build on that foundation.

Access to semantically rich, high-quality data is becoming the key differentiator in building high-value AI use cases. This is why we are committed to making SAP Business Data Cloud (SAP BDC) the foundational data layer for our AI strategy. SAP BDC is the single source of truth that delivers semantically rich data to SAP Business AI. It brings together market-leading capabilities in data analytics and planning, data warehousing, data management, and data engineering. In addition, it supports an open ecosystem of partners through zero-copy sharing, enabling seamless integration of non-SAP data. The real strength of SAP BDC comes from the data products we provide out of the box in every Line-of-Business application. Combined with predefined analytical and planning content in SAP Analytics Cloud, these capabilities make SAP BDC a powerful platform for AI innovation. With SAP BDC, customers gain immediate access to a predefined, semantically rich data model that accelerates AI-driven outcomes.

We are committed to driving adoption of SAP Business Suite across all customer segments through our go-to-market strategy. SAP Business Suite remains the central destination for our customers, bringing together applications, data, and AI in one unified experience. In 2026, we are increasing investment in our AI-powered transformation toolchain to make the journey to our suite at least 35% more efficient by reducing migration effort and time. Additionally, we are introducing a reimagined service portfolio that is closely aligned with our strategic ambitions.

• Our strategy remains to bring together apps, data, and AI into a virtuous flywheel.
• In 2026, we need to radically rethink everything we do and go all-in on AI to stay relevant.
• This means we will deliver on five strategic imperatives to lead the next phase of our AI-powered transformation:
  1. Joule completely reimagines our UX – ensuring that no 3^rd-party AI layer emerges on top.
  2. Joule automates workflows by orchestrating role-based assistants across business processes.
  3. Building the next generation of AI-powered industry apps leveraging our vast industry and process expertise.
  4. SAP Business Data Cloud brings together data across functions to create differentiating AI use cases and analytics.
  5. SAP Business Suite remains the one destination for all customers. Drive adoption of our suite through RISE and GROW with our AI-powered tool chain and our modernized Services portfolio.