SAUDI COMPANIES TAKING THE LEAD LEVERAGING AI SAYS SAP SURVEY
KSA enterprises are ready to embrace AI, with 75% surveyed already hosting core business functions on cloud, but only 64% are highly confident of their data quality. SAP is expanding its efforts to collaborate with partners and customers on industry-specific AI solutions and use cases at its Khobar Experience & Innovation Center.
Enterprises across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have made impressive strides in preparing for effective use of Business AI, a YouGov survey commissioned by SAP shows. The results, which were shared at this year’s LEAP event held in Riyadh, will be used to inform SAP’s efforts to expand collaboration with customers and partners in the Kingdom to create industry-specific AI solutions and use cases at its Experience Innovation Center in Khobar.
The survey examined several key factors for effective AI implementation including whether companies are operating their core business functions on the cloud, the extent of existing AI implementations, the quality of business data available, and the AI expertise of staff. Significantly, 75% of the Saudi enterprises surveyed are already hosting their core business processes on the cloud, with a further 22% planning to do so within the next 15 months. Hosting enterprise resource planning solutions on the cloud maximizes the effectiveness of AI thanks to real-time data access, scalable computing power and the ability to integrate advanced AI models seamlessly into business processes.
Another pertinent finding was that 64% of Saudi enterprises stated they were highly confident of the quality of their data, while a further 32% describe themselves as ‘somewhat confident’. Having accessible, high-quality data is important as AI systems rely on data to learn patterns, make decisions, and generate reliable and actionable insights.
Ahmed AlFaifi, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, SAP, Middle East Africa – North believes that it is important to see higher confidence in data quality, resulting in clean, organized data that allows AI algorithms to forecast demand accurately, streamline supply chains, and enable AI models to be fair and unbiased, among other things.
A further indication that KSA companies’ readiness to leverage the broad potential of AI is that most of those surveyed were already using AI in several business areas. The most cited was customer service, with 45% leveraging AI to support this function, followed closely by marketing and communications (42%), accounting and finance (41%), sales (also 41%), and human resources (36%). Only 10% reported that they weren’t using AI in any business areas.
Companies do, however, face some challenges in broader implementation of AI across business functions. The most cited of these were the associated costs (51%), lack of skilled personnel (47%), integration with existing systems (42%) and privacy and security concerns (41%).
In discussing these challenges, AlFaifi highlighted how embedded AI solutions were helping to make the power of AI accessible to everyone, as well as SAP’s role in delivering training in Business AI.
The growing importance of SAP’s Business AI was reflected on a global level in the company’s impressive Q4 earnings results announced towards the end of last month. In announcing the results, SAP said its strong position in data and Business AI created additional confidence that SAP would accelerate revenue growth through 2027.
AlFaifi believes this will increasingly be the case in the Kingdom, too. “Our customers don’t have to invest in an extensive arsenal of discrete Business AI products that need to be integrated into our solutions. Our Business AI capabilities are embedded across our portfolio, and we also co-innovate with partners and customers to create solutions for industry-specific needs.”
The SAP Experience & Innovation Center, which opened in Khobar last year, serves as a pivotal platform for fostering a vibrant community of development and co-innovation. Designed to empower individuals and organizations to collectively tackle operational challenges and drive incremental business value across various industries, custom-tailored to the Saudi market, the center brings together SAP global and regional experts, local businesses, startups, and partners in a collaborative environment.
Key enterprises across multiple industries including oil and gas, energy, supply chain and logistics, manufacturing, telco, sports, entertainment, and the public sector have been invited to participate in the SAP Innovation Hub and Experience Center.
As for the challenge of the growing demand for AI experts, AlFaifi says SAP is addressing this through training initiatives such as the SAP Dual Study Program, the SAP Academy for Engineering, and the SAP Young Professionals Program.
