SAP announced it has penned a deal with IBM to integrate its Watson AI into SAP Start, which in turn provides a unified entry point for cloud solutions from SAP.
Customers already use SAP Start to search for, launch and engage with apps provided in cloud solutions from SAP and SAP S/4HANA Cloud; the integration with Watson adds natural language capabilities and predictive insights to the experience by providing, effectively, digital assistant features. This gives SAP Start the ability to use AI and machine learning to extract information from a variety of data sources and answer user questions across lines of business.
In contrast to the headline-generating (both literally and figuratively) ChatGPT, IBM’s Watson is more of a “knowledge engine,” meaning that it is designed to analyze and process vast amounts of data to provide insights, recommendations, and solutions to complex problems, rather than simply generating human-like responses in a conversational context.
Other companies have used the Watson AI for fraud detection, risk management, customer service and compliance. SAP already employs Watson in the TripIt mobile app from SAP Concur, which lets users access AI-derived weather insights to better plan trips.
“This milestone collaboration with IBM aims to provide SAP customers a better user experience, faster decision-making and greater insights to help transform their business processes,” said SAP CEO Christian Klein. “Working together to incorporate additional AI, machine learning and other intelligent technologies into SAP solutions can lead to better business outcomes for our joint customers. Today’s news, along with the recent news of our expanded use of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, is a prime example of how the rich, 50-year partnership between our companies continues to grow stronger and move the industry forward.”
In addition to natively embedding IBM Watson AI capabilities into SAP solutions, SAP and IBM are collaborating on generative AI and large language models aimed to deliver consistent continuous learning and automation based on SAP’s application suite.
The news comes at the same time that IBM itself announced it has paused hiring for roughly 7,800 roles within the company that, theoretically, could be done by AI.
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