SAP has datasets of over 27,000 customers ready to train generative AI models: APJ President Paul Marriott

SAP’s Asia Pacific Japan president Paul Marriott said that the German software major has procured datasets of over 27,000 customers anonymously over cloud to train its generative AI models, which will in turn help small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) with miniscule data available, to adopt generative AI quickly for business growth.

This will be a significant leg up for both SAP and its SMB customers in India, as almost 80 percent of SAP’s customers in the country are SMBs. To be sure, these anonymous datasets collated from customers have been done after taking due permissions, Marriott said.

Speaking to Moneycontrol on the sidelines of SAP NOW 2024 India on April 29, Marriott said, “Imagine having tens and thousands of customers’ data, anonymously available in the cloud, for generative AI processing. That’s exactly what we have across finance, HR, supply chain, and customer management. We’re building these generative AI scenarios on these massive customer datasets.”

“Around 27,000 of those customers are giving their data to allow us to use it to train these models. They’re massive datasets. And what we then do is we identify AI, where we create relevant and reliable use of generative AI, and also in a responsible way,” he added.

At present, SAP has over 30 generative AI scenarios or use cases ready.

According to Manish Prasad, President, and Managing Director of SAP Indian Subcontinent, nearly 60 per cent of India’s GDP touches the SAP ecosystem, across SMBs, larger enterprises and startups.

Correlating sustainability to profitability

SAP also released a survey of over 300 companies correlating how sustainability initiatives for them have brought in profitability and efficiency. According to the survey, 84 percent of the Indian companies saw a moderate or strong increase in the efficiency of business processes from sustainability activities.

Though the biggest challenge they called out was being unable to have access to data and not being able to integrate it correctly, especially the data from supply chain.

“That’s why we’re really focused with AI and the automation of the ecosystem which is achieved through our business network solutions. So you can automate the assets, automate contingent labour, travel and expense — for all of the suppliers for manufacturing, procurement, and so on,” Marriott explained.

He added that the acceleration of this correlation happened majorly in the last 12 months, which was “unbelievable.”

“India is a hotbed of technology and talent, combined with driving thing areas like green tech and sustainable solutions. This is an unbelievable opportunity for India’s next wave of growth,” he said.

SAP has its second-largest R&D workforce in India outside Germany. Overall, the company has 15,000 employees in the country and 13,500 customers. Of this, around 10,660 customers are SMBs, according to data from SAP.

The India opportunity

During his keynote address at the event attended by nearly 2,000 delegates, Marriott praised India’s stable and visionary political leadership, young talented population, vast AI, and startup ecosystem that is building innovations across businesses. This will help India reach its $30 trillion GDP growth goal by 2047, he said.

Marriott highlighted the need to take India’s journey from “incredible to inevitable” to become ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047 as per Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goals.

“India can reach its $30 trillion GDP goal by 2047 which is a staggering 10 times from today,” he said.

SAP’s AI investments

Globally, SAP has set up a dedicated AI business unit and is undergoing organisational restructuring with a planned investment of $2.2 billion to integrate AI internally and cut costs.

In January 2024, the company also restructured 8,000 jobs, saying that the affected workforce would be accommodated through reassignment to new areas and through voluntary programs, including early retirement options.

It had also earmarked $1 billion to invest in AI startups through SAP’s venture capital arm Sapphire Ventures.

Last year, SAP had set up an AI lab in Singapore which has so far hired 250 AI experts, Marriott told Moneycontrol. SAP is also planning to expand this to 350 plus experts dedicated to AI and generative AI.

Also read: SAP Labs India looks to double AI talent base by 2024, upskilling existing workforce

Marriott said, “The reason why this is important for me in terms of Asian strategy is that if you look at the talent pool here, it’s the biggest in the world. 70% of the world’s STEM talent is graduating out of Asia, and obviously a percentage of that out of India, We’re the fastest-growing startup ecosystem. And we also have some of the biggest social issues to solve with technology, like climate change.”

“With great tech, great people in an environment that we’re in — in India and Asia — and I feel we can have a profound impact on social outcomes,” he added.