In the ever evolving technology landscape, AI and automation are driving significant changes in how businesses operate, particularly within Global Capability Centres (GCCs). As organisations strive to enhance efficiency and deliver superior customer experiences, the role of AI continues to expand. In an insightful conversation with Express Computer, Rahul Lodhe, Head of Engineering, SAP Business AI, discusses how these technologies are shaping the future of SAP’s GCCs. Rahul shares real-world examples of AI-driven improvements, the challenges of upskilling employees, and key trends that are poised to influence the future of AI and automation in GCCs.
How has the adoption of AI and automation impacted the operational efficiency of SAP Labs India, and can you provide some real-world examples of improvements?
At SAP Labs India, our primary focus is on business processes. The first evolution of AI adoption in our technology stack began with enhancing efficiency in writing code. We’ve leveraged AI to automate use cases, generate documentation, and handle globalisation and localisation aspects. By integrating AI, particularly GenAI, we’ve been able to drive productivity significantly. Another key improvement is seen in customer service, where AI has enhanced the end-to-end process of service ticketing, providing a better experience for users. AI also helps with security, data optimisation, and overall end-to-end operational processes, ensuring improved operational efficiency.
In what ways are AI and automation helping SAP Labs India enhance customer experience and service delivery, especially in critical, high-demand environments?
AI has become crucial in improving the customer experience and service delivery at SAP Labs India. For instance, AI is infused into customer service processes, streamlining end-to-end service ticketing, which ensures faster and more accurate responses. We’ve introduced a co-pilot experience, an AI-driven UI that has significantly improved productivity and allowed us to cater to dedicated personas who benefit from seamless processes. Additionally, AI enables us to deliver tailored business processes for customers, enhancing their experience even in high-demand environments by integrating multiple vendors and optimising workflows.
What role does AI play in fostering innovation within SAP Labs’ GCCs, particularly in streamlining processes and enabling new business models?
AI plays a pivotal role in driving innovation within SAP Labs’ GCCs by streamlining business processes and enabling new models. For example, our AI agents can autonomously handle business processes, allowing us to envision and implement new models, such as custom AI use cases for clients. These customisations allow businesses to extend core use cases into their unique processes. Moreover, the integration of AI across silos within the organisation enables us to deliver value by ensuring seamless execution of business models and uncovering new opportunities for efficiency and process automation.
How is SAP Labs India addressing the challenge of upskilling employees in GCCs to work alongside AI and automation technologies, ensuring a smooth transition?
Upskilling is a critical focus at SAP Labs India, given the fast-paced developments in AI over the last few years. We are implementing various initiatives to ensure our employees are equipped to handle AI and automation challenges. Besides online e-training, we emphasise hackathons, innovation days, and hands-on events with customers to help employees understand real-world AI use cases. This approach ensures that our workforce is not just learning AI but applying it in meaningful ways. We also conduct design thinking sessions and user testing to further integrate AI learning into practical business contexts, helping our teams smoothly transition into the AI-driven future.
Looking ahead, what key AI trends or advancements do you believe will most influence the evolution of GCCs, and how is SAP Labs India preparing for these changes?
The future of AI in GCCs will see disruptive advancements, especially in the area of LLMs. While last year saw an explosion of LLMs, the trend is now shifting towards consolidation, where only a few key players with robust compute and open-source capabilities will lead. We are preparing for stronger reasoning and planning capabilities in AI, enabling AI agents to not only execute tasks but also think and plan independently. Additionally, foundation models will become more powerful, allowing businesses to ask specific questions and receive contextually strong responses. At SAP Labs India, we are actively adopting these AI advancements to further enhance automation and prepare for the higher levels of AI-driven engineering that the future holds.