SAP Partners with Google Cloud to Bring AI to Datasphere

⇨ SAP has extended their partnership with Google Cloud to bring AI to SAP Datasphere data

⇨ Customers will be able to connect data from Catena-X to SAP data and generate large language models using Google Cloud Vertex AI

⇨ While initially focused at the automotive industry, there will very likely be more use cases in the future

While generative AI exploded in popularity in February this year, both SAP and Google have worked in the AI space for many years. SAP solutions have included predictive AI for some time, although this was typically referred to as machine learning. These predictive AI solutions used large bodies of data to make their predictions, but they did not have the generative AI capability to create information based on context.

To offer new generative AI-based solutions to customers, SAP announced that it will expand on the open data cloud with Google Cloud. The new capabilities will combine SAP Datasphere with Google Cloud Vertex AI to provide customers in the automotive sector the ability to improve sustainability performance. SAP’s vision is to integrate generative AI into SAP solutions and Google Cloud’s open data cloud to deploy new solutions that use information from SAP Datasphere and nearly any other data source.

The initial offering will use data from Catena-X, the SAP-supported open data ecosystem for the automotive industry. Organizations will be able to combine data sets from Catena-X with SAP data to build and train generative AI models. These models will optimize work performed with automobile manufacturers, suppliers, and end customers.

SAP and Google Cloud customers will also be able to utilize Vertex AI together with SAP Datasphere to create generative AI solutions to increase sustainability. This functionality will be available to SAP customers on Google Cloud, combining business data in SAP Datasphere and the SAP Sustainability Control Tower with third-party ESG data sets and Google Cloud generative AI models.

While this announcement is primarily aimed at organizations operating in the automotive industry, there is likely to be more collaboration in the future. SAP says that it shares a commitment to open data with Google Cloud and SAP customers will benefit from the business AI that is built into systems and from a unified data foundation. Google Cloud says it is excited about integrating SAP data and systems with their data cloud so that customers can utilize analytics capabilities, advanced AI tools, and large language models.

What Does This Mean for SAPinsiders?

SAP Datasphere is the solution that SAP uses as the system of record for data from both SAP and non-SAP sources across the enterprise, so it is likely to play a key role in the generative AI space. SAPinsiders should expect more reference architectures created around AI core in which SAP Datasphere will play a role. SAP has a strong vision for adding AI to their software and solutions, but that vision has not yet been fully realized as a product strategy.

SAP needs these integrations with other data sources in order to create and train AI data models, as SAP data alone is insufficient. This announcement specifically relates to Google Cloud, but in the future, it is likely that SAP will offer similar capabilities with other data platforms. This is likely to include AI and data offerings from Microsoft Azure and AWS. But customers working with these technologies will need to fully understand the use cases that they want to solve if they are to be successful.

Overall, SAPinsiders that want to leverage generative AI within in their enterprise landscape need to ensure that they are ready. This involves being prepared from a technology perspective, which includes evaluating SAP Datasphere and the AI offerings from cloud providers so that their deployment can be streamlined, as well as knowing which scenarios are most valuable and should be prioritized. Given these developments, what steps should be taken to make this happen?

• Evaluate which use cases have the highest priority and which are supported by the data needed to create an AI model.
• Determine which partner is best aligned with existing landscapes, and whether the organization can leverage existing contracts or relationships.
• Learn about SAP Datasphere, as this is likely to be the solution around which SAP is building different AI-based initiatives.