SAP rethinks the future of enterprise applications: AI will be everywhere

SAP Sapphire 2025, the technology megaconference, kicked off on Tuesday with more than 33,000 attendees registered worldwide. Of those, 20,000 will attend the event in person in Orlando, and then in Madrid from May 26-28, where more than 180 exhibiting partners and 1,000 speakers from 20 countries will deliver more than 800 industry-leading presentations.

SAP CEO Christian Klein highlighted that SAP is building on the combined power of the world’s leading business application suite, the wealth of enterprise data available, and the latest AI solutions. “With the expansion of Joule, our collaborations with leading AI partners, and our advancements in SAP Business Data Cloud, we are delivering on the promise of business AI. The time has come for AI to deliver tangible benefits to our customers in an unpredictable economic environment.”

Joule: The Invisible Coworker

SAP’s generative AI copilot, Joule, is revolutionizing the way we interact with enterprise applications, making work more personalized and conversational while increasing productivity at scale. New levels of user experience and business efficiency. Joule now works not only inside SAP systems, but also supports users outside them – supporting them throughout their daily work with real-time data discovery, rapid insights, and automated processes. Powered by WalkMe technology, the new “action bar” is an on-demand menu window that continuously analyzes user behavior and can predict user intent. Joule now acts as a proactive advisor, not just a responder.

SAP continues to adhere to the principles of ethical AI when using Joule: data security, transparency, and user control are guaranteed.

SAP’s collaboration with Perplexity, an AI-powered answer-finding platform, further expands Joule’s capabilities in using structured and unstructured data to answer complex business questions. Building on Perplexity’s technology and the SAP Knowledge Graph, Joule now responds instantly with visually presented, structured information – such as graphs and charts – based on real-time data directly related to SAP business processes. For example, a user can ask how a specific external event might impact their business – and Joule will create a forecast that combines current global events with the company’s own business data.