SAP is on a mission to build an AI-powered, “modern and composable” customer experience suite.
That’s according to Balaji Balasubramanian, President and Chief Product Officer of SAP CX.
In an exclusive interview with CX Today, he pinpointed how SAP has laid the foundations, first with SAP Business Data Cloud.
SAP Business Data Cloud unifies data from SAP systems and third-party sources into a single source of truth.
As part of that, it pulls in customer signals from sales, inventory, service, marketing, loyalty, and even third-party logistics in near-real time.
In doing so, it gives businesses context and insight into “every” customer journey touchpoint.
SAP Business Data Cloud pairs with the SAP CX AI Toolkit, a no-code solution businesses can use to apply AI, including AI agents, across sales and service operations.
Referencing the two solutions, Balasubramanian said:
Our most recent innovations are more than just product updates. They’re the building blocks for something broader: a truly native AI-powered, modern, and composable customer experience suite.
“These foundational capabilities are designed to help businesses eliminate complexity, unlock intelligence, and transform how they engage with their customers across every channel.”
As such, SAP seems set to start packaging these solutions together as part of one CX suite, primed for particular verticals.
In doing so, the suite will bolster industry-specific editions of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public.
“This strategy reflects the future of SAP CX, as we move away from siloed tools and toward a unified, intelligent platform that understands, anticipates, and acts,” continued Balasubramanian.
“It’s how we’re creating systems that don’t just report data, they use it to drive business outcomes in the moment.”
Every Vision Needs a Roadmap: SAP Delivers 500 CX Innovations Per Year
As it builds out its customer experience suite, SAP has a roadmap that delivers over 500 CX innovations per calendar year.
AI agents will prove a core part of that roadmap, with SAP launching pre-configured agents for sales and service earlier this year. These are now part of the SAP CX AI Toolkit.
Yet, as Balasubramanian stressed, “We’re not only embedding AI and agents in areas where it drives value to our customers, but also reimagining processes for an AI-first world.
AI agents will complete many of these processes by leveraging unified and harmonized data in SAP Business Data Cloud. That will enable them to reason, adapt, and act.
As such, data will also continue to be a key focus, alongside composability. Balasubramanian continued:
We’re not only integrating applications, data, and processes across CX and within the broader SAP application portfolio, but also making sure that all our products look, feel, and operate as one, while giving our customers the choice and freedom to adopt based on their needs.
Later this month, Balasubramanian will share more on the tech giant’s roadmap at the SAP Sapphire & ASUG Annual Conference.
Differentiation Is Difficult, Balasubramanian Believes it Comes From Connected Data
SAP won’t be the first – or last – vendor to release an AI-powered customer experience suite that promises to move the needle.
Yet, differentiation – beyond flashy front-office features – has proven tricky, and many similar offerings have blurred into one.
SAP believes it has a compelling differentiator, however, in connecting CX teams with data, applications, and processes that typically lie outside their remit.
But, there’s more to it. As Balasubramanian stressed, “SAP CX’s differentiation goes beyond ‘simply’ connecting data and processes by activating said data across the entire value chain.
We’re designing systems that empower practitioners to act proactively, in real time, and with intelligence and context – regardless of whether they’re using SAP or non-SAP products.
Consider retail, where SAP has already brought much of this together.
Beyond a connected CRM, ERP, and CDP – as part of the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition – it has announced a loyalty management solution, order management, omnichannel sales transfer, and audit capabilities, and more. This solution will be released in H2 of 2025.
In weaving all this together, SAP pledges to help businesses move beyond legacy, siloed CX systems and instead think of CX as part of a cohesive enterprise ecosystem.
