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African business and technology leaders met at SAP Now. They discussed opportunities for greater adoption of technology to power growth and innovation.
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Speaking at the event, Eskom chairman Mteto Nyati said: “South Africa is slowly but surely experiencing an economic uptick, with improvements in both political and infrastructural stability. This has the potential to increase foreign direct investment and boost local economic confidence. [Itwill also help in] providing the private sector, and technology leaders in particular, the opportunity to focus on transformation and development within their organisations. Now is the time to look at where your businesses need to be three to five years down the line.”
SAP Now is a global series of events that brings together some of the most innovative minds and technologies shaping the future of business. The African edition, held at The Forum in Johannesburg, saw 300 business leaders and experts from Africa and Europe. They converged to share insights and best practices for leveraging technology to drive growth and innovation on the continent.
Addressing the macroeconomic outlook for Africa, Chief Economist at Development Bank of Southern Africa Zeph Nhleko said: “Infrastructure deficit developments provide an opportunity for economic development in Africa. Additionally, Public Private Partnerships are critical for economic growth on the continent. Private entities such as SAP with its network partners have huge responsibilities to facilitate connectivity solutions that will drive the Africa of the future.”
Impact of business AI growing
Johannes Dressler, Chief Business Officer for MEA South SAP and Managing Director for Emerging Africa at SAP, said: “Business leaders face growing complexity and increasing pressure to stay ahead of stakeholder expectations, driving demand for deeper insights into various aspects of the organisation’s performance. The power of technologies such as AI integrated to core business processes and built on trusted data is enabling greater efficiency and improved innovation capacity. Technology is transforming the way business leaders make decisions, enabling them to lead with greater foresight, precision and resilience.”
A survey of 2000 global customers found that 96% of companies have an executive mandate to explore or implement AI technology. Of the respondents, 40% are implementing AI for specific use cases, 38% are exploring potential use cases, and 17% have a mandate to implement AI strategically across the organisation.
AI was also revealed to be the primary differentiator among customers who are evaluating systems integrators.
SAP recently announced a slew of new innovations, including an expanded set of use cases for its Joule AI copilot.
“Joule for SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud Edition enables 95% faster informational searches and 90% faster execution of navigation and transaction tasks, speeding up internal decision-making,” says Dressler. “SAP Business AI for field service agents also increases dispatcher productivity by 12.5% and reduces errors by 5%, driving improved customer satisfaction, while generative AI in SAP Product Innovation Management reduces the total cost of campaign creation by 50% and improves the quality of idea and campaign descriptions. As African organisations continue to build out their AI strategies, we expect to see immense productivity and innovation gains realised by the effective integration of data and AI into core business processes.”
Thriving partner ecosystem unlocking AI benefits
SAP NOW was held in collaboration with the Africa SAP User Group (AFSUG) and SAP ecosystem partners, with Microsoft – one of SAP’s longest-standing partners – playing a key role at the event.
Kholiwe Makhohliso, Managing Director for Southern Africa at SAP, said: “The growing adoption of AI among African enterprises and SMEs is enabling faster work, smarter insights, and better business outcomes across industries. African organisations are now laying the groundwork for a new era of human-AI collaboration that will bring unprecedented productivity and unlock new revenue streams. We look forward to working with our incredible partner ecosystem to support African organisations in their efforts at unlocking the benefits of technology for sustained innovation and growth.”
Ravi Bhat, Chief Technology & Solutions Officer for Africa at Microsoft, noted the power of co-operation and partnership in supporting the AI and digital transformation ambitions of African enterprises. “Our organisations have enjoyed 30 years of successful, value-driven collaboration. Our joint capabilities empower organisations to run intelligent and frictionless enterprises powered by scalable cloud solutions and the growing impact of AI. Together, we hope to continue delivering an accelerated path to growth and innovation for all our customers on the African continent.”
