SAP has established a learning journey aligned with SAP’s Autonomous Enterprise so that partners understand the SAP vision and also understand the technology behind it, says Deepak Kaushik, Chief Partner Officer for Southeast Asia at SAP.

As organizations in Southeast Asia focus on their AI journey, the goal right now for Deepak Kaushik, Chief Partner Officer for Southeast Asia at SAP, is all about improving partner literacy when it comes to enabling customers. While the vendor has scaled its partner business in Southeast Asia, Kaushik shared that there is now a strong focus on how partners can deliver and help businesses adopt AI.

“A lot of technology evolution has happened, and AI is disrupting the world. So, we are putting a lot of effort into making sure our partners can actually deliver to customers. We have also scaled on improving the literacy of our partners in helping customers in their AI journey,” Kaushik shared with CRN Asia during an interview at the SAP NOW AI Tour Southeast Asia 2026 in Singapore recently.

Kaushik also mentioned that SAP has established a learning journey aligned with SAP’s Autonomous Enterprise so that partners understand the SAP vision and also understand the technology behind that.

“We have added a certification program. We are doing pre-sales validation so that when the partner goes and meets their customers, they really understand how to position that. Apart from that, we are doing a lot of sessions on Partner Connects where we really go and provide enablement to them. And this year, we are actually doing a lot of coaching to our partners so that partners really get to know about our vision overall,” he added.

The SMB opportunity

While enterprise growth has been positive for SAP, Kaushik also pointed out that the SMB segment is an area where the vendor is seeing a lot of potential.

“It’s an area that is a partner led territory and also an area that we would like to scale on. We are putting a lot of emphasis on our partner to really drive the business into that territory. With AI really making a change in the world, there is a lot of focus and interest in our customers, even among the SMB and midmarket companies, which is an area where our partners will be key enablers,” he explained.

Interestingly, Kaushik also mentioned that while partners want to enable the SMB and midmarket customers in their AI journey, some of them do lack the skills, which is why SAP is doubling down on making sure that its partners are subject matter experts when it comes to AI as that really helps in driving the change and transformation for customers.

“Our knowledge of SAP business processes, which are really based on our expertise in various verticals, is where we differentiate. And now with our Autonomous Enterprise vision, it gives clarity to our customers. And partners are really happy with this,” Kaushik added.

This is where Kaushik believes that partners also see the value from SAP as it’s not just a generic AI story but more on transforming the enterprise or even the SMB or midmarket company towards Autonomous Enterprise vision.

At the same time, Kaushik also shared that SAP will be looking to add more partners to its ecosystem in areas where they see a strong need for this. These partner-led markets will vary based on region, with countries like Vietnam for example being one that is very strongly partner-led.

“So, partner-led is where we will have the partner leading the business and capabilities with our customers. We are definitely scaling into that and across all the markets. There is a particular segment where we want partners to lead into that business. And we are definitely looking to scale across this. And it is not like we are stopping or any sort of thing in these markets,” Kaushik explained.

When asked what customers were also hoping to see more from SAP when it comes to their partners, he shared that customers would like to see SAP investing in its partners to provide end-to-end value to their customers.

“And they really think that SAP should really provide support to our partners throughout the customer value journey and make sure that partner is really delivering value to what customers are expecting. And that’s exactly what we are doing,” he concluded.