SAP Shows the Power of AI in Transforming HR with Renewed Partnership with Inspired Education Group

SAP and Inspired Education Group have renewed their partnership to implement AI-driven HR solutions across Inspired Education’s global network of 120 premium schools. Inspired Education, which serves over 95,000 students across six continents and employs 14,000 staff in the UK, required a unified HR platform to support its digital transformation, streamline operations, and enhance employee experiences.

This renewed agreement marks the continuation of a five-year collaboration, with a focus on leveraging AI to enhance HR service delivery. Inspired Education will integrate SAP’s AI copilot, Joule, into its HR ecosystem.

“Our partnership with Inspired Education continues to go from strength to strength. Global organizations need access to real-time data insights to deliver value to their employees. With SAP SuccessFactors and the deployment of our copilot, Joule, we are driving genuine transformation that will see Inspired Education better understand its workforce, how they operate, produce better talent recruitment and retention strategies, whilst reducing heavy administrative processes. We’ll continue working together to ensure Inspired Education remains at the forefront of educational excellence,” said Leila Romane, Managing Director SAP UK and Ireland.

AI and HCM go Hand in Hand

Along with many of its other solutions, SAP has embedded AI throughout its SAP SuccessFactors offering, relying on massive amounts historical, HR-specific data – including 500 million resumes and 200 million job descriptions.

Joule will play a key role in automating HR processes, improving talent retention, and optimizing recruitment strategies. Through self-service HR functionality, employees will gain easier access to HR services, reducing administrative burdens and allowing HR teams to concentrate on strategic initiatives.

Studies show that AI significantly enhances HR efficiency by automating repetitive tasks, leading to substantial time savings, reducing HR labor time by an average of 15% to 20% through automation and augmentation.

Joule will provide valuable employee insights to aid in performance reviews, goal-setting, policy development, and benefits management. Additionally, the AI tool will revolutionize talent acquisition by assisting in CV reviews, skill matching, and generating interview questions and tasks. This will help Inspired Education accelerate hiring and maintain staff morale across its global workforce.

Personalization

A major factor in Inspired Education’s decision to extend this partnership was the platform’s personalization capabilities. The organization will have the flexibility to roll out SAP SuccessFactors modules in phases, starting with Employee Central, Performance, and Recruiting. Over the next three years, it will expand to Onboarding, Compensation, and Workforce Analytics, ensuring a tailored implementation to meet its specific needs.

This follows a common trend in the HCM space, as the adoption of AI in HR functions has seen a significant increase. A recent survey indicates that 72% of HR professionals now utilize AI in their operations as of February 2025, up from 58% in 2024.

The integration of AI into HR processes varies across organizations. Approximately 53% of HR professionals report using AI tools, with 51% expressing high satisfaction with the technology. An additional 35% are interested in adopting AI solutions in the near future.

“We are committed to providing a premium educational experience for all 95,000 of our students, and our teachers and staff are key to this ambition. As an organization, we recognized the need for a unified HR platform that could bring together our operations worldwide and drive out inefficiencies, increasing internal mobility and empowering our staff to do what they do best without unnecessary burden. SAP SuccessFactors will support us through our work in transforming our processes and workflows through digital tools,” said Torben Lundberg, Chief Information Officer at Inspired Education.

Inspired Education follows a global approach to education, integrating best practices to offer a high-quality learning experience from Kindergarten to Year 13. With SAP’s advanced AI and HR solutions, the organization is set to enhance its HR operations, ensuring that both educators and students benefit from a well-supported, efficient, and innovative educational environment.

What This Means for SAPinsiders

The most effective AI needs to be free from bias. While AI adoption for HR purposes is increasing, research shows that the concern around biases is one of the largest impediments. AI systems can unintentionally inherit biases from the data they are trained on, leading to unfair hiring practices or discriminatory decision-making. Many HR leaders worry about AI making biased recommendations, particularly in recruitment and performance evaluation. SAP has worked to eliminate bias from its AI by detecting any potential existing issues. It also established the SAP Global AI Ethics Organizations which works to eliminate bias in AI by pinpointing existing issues in datasets and accounting for biased language.

The end goal of AI should be to empower people. As Torben Lundberg said, AI should free up HR workers to do what they do best. Chatbots and virtual assistants provide instant responses to employee queries, allowing HR teams to focus on more strategic tasks. AI-driven automation minimizes manual paperwork, streamlining processes like payroll, benefits administration, and compliance. Additionally, AI-driven analytics in SuccessFactors enables predictive workforce planning. Organizations can identify trends, anticipate attrition risks, and implement proactive engagement strategies. These all free up workers to better interface with the people in their organizations.

Infuse AI throughout the HR processes, don’t just sprinkle it on top. As SAP works to bolster the capabilities of Inspired Education through its Joule AI co-pilot, other organizations should follow suit. Though most HR teams are using AI, the actual use cases are uneven. Research shows that 83% of HR professionals leverage AI to enhance internal communications and boost employee engagement. However, just 32% employ AI in learning initiatives, 30% integrate AI into performance evaluation processes, and 22% apply AI for workforce analytics and planning. This means that more than two-thirds of companies are not getting the intelligent insights that AI can provide.