Shiraz Khota, Managing Director: Emerging Africa at SAP, said: “Organisations throughout East Africa are accelerating their business transformation and innovation efforts by leveraging the latest data and cloud capabilities to unlock the power of business AI in every line of business. With the recent expansion of SAP’s Joule AI assistant, organisations can now unleash unprecedented efficiency across their systems and processes to drive productivity gains of as much as 30%.”

The comments were made at SAP Innovation Day Kenya, part of a global series of events aimed at showcasing how technology can power growth, innovation and sustainability and support organisations as they meet emerging challenges.

The exclusive event also served as an introduction to how SAP Business Data Cloud and SAP Business AI help organisations unlock significant business value as part of the broader SAP Business Suite. Experts also provided behind-the-scenes insights into the power of business AI and cloud to future-proof companies’ enterprise application strategies and leverage data to enhance business insights and improve decision-making.

Research recently conducted by SAP found a near-universal demand for AI skills among African organisations. The SAP Africa’s AI Skills Readiness Revealed report noted that nine in ten companies in Africa already experience negative impacts due to a lack of AI skills, including failed innovation initiatives, an inability to take on new work, and loss of clients. Forty-three percent of Kenyan organisations that took part in the study expected a ‘significant’ increase in demand for AI skills this year.

“The rapid changes in workplace dynamics are transforming how companies develop, upskill and reskill their workforce to meet the long-term need for AI-related skills,” said Khota. “In the short term, organisations should seek ways to augment their skills base, for example by partnering with our rich ecosystem of implementation specialists that power business transformation in the region.”

SAP Innovation Day Kenya also included presentations by regional business leaders who have successfully leveraged SAP technologies to accelerate growth and unlock new capabilities.

Long-standing SAP customer Bidco Africa provided insight into its latest transformation initiative that is taking its legacy enterprise systems into the cloud and deploying AI across its business processes. Bidco Africa is a leading FMCG manufacturer that produces more than 800 SKU’s in multiple brands & products at 8 factories in East Africa. The company has been using SAP ECC since 2010, until a recent decision sparked a migration to SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

Vimal Shah, Chairman of Bidco Africa, said the shift to cloud underscores his company’s position as a regional innovation leader. “We see incredible potential for AI to transform our business and deliver greater agility, innovation and customer experiences. Our skilled team will also benefit from AI’s power to enhance product development, allowing us to consolidate our market leadership well into the future.”

The company plans further deployments in a second phase of the implementation, including procurement and manufacturing.

Khota added: “Companies that adopt a clean core strategy accelerate the pace of innovation and can more easily leverage business value through reliable data and AI innovations. As we enter a new era of AI-enabled innovation, organisations must ensure that business-critical systems remain agile, cost-effective, and ready to adopt innovation.”

Distributed by African Media Agency (AMA) on behalf of SAP Africa.

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