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Amid one of the most ambitious product rollouts in SAP\u2019s storied 54-year history, CEO Christian Klein<\/a> opened and closed his Sapphire keynote with a question that has enormous implications for not only SAP and the tech industry but also for its 440,000 customers: Is SAP still a software company?<\/p>\n When Klein voiced that question early in his keynote, it was met with scattered laughter from the Sapphire audience, almost as if they thought it was some sort of trick question. After all, SAP created the world-shaping enterprise-applications category 54 years ago and its software touches 75% of the global economy.<\/p>\n And in a world where everything seems to be changing in front of our eyes, surely one eternal truth is that SAP has always been a software company and will always be a software company\u2026. Right??<\/p>\n Well, actually, no, it won\u2019t, according to Klein, who happens to be the person with the most skin in that game.<\/p>\n At the end of his keynote presentation, which was augmented by several SAP executives and customers outlining radical AI-first changes to the SAP portfolio, Klein raised again the question that he posed at the beginning of his presentation, but this time he posed the question directly to SAP\u2019s Joule AI assistant:<\/p>\n Klein: \u201cWill SAP be a software company in the future?\u201d<\/p>\n Joule: \u201cSAP is becoming a Business AI company.\u201d<\/p>\n Now I\u2019m sure some people are saying, \u201cWho cares? It\u2019s just a silly word game.\u201d<\/p>\n But I beg to differ: I believe we\u2019re witnessing something much more profound here for not only SAP and not only most other tech companies but also across huge swaths of the global economy.<\/p>\n And the catalytic agent \u2014 as foretold by Joule \u2014 is the unprecedented transformational power of AI.<\/p>\n 1. The SAP Evolution<\/p>\n At the heart of SAP\u2019s move from software to AI are two core components: the Autonomous Suite \u2014formerly Cloud ERP Suite \u2014 and the Business AI Platform, which unites and harmonizes Business Data Cloud, Business Technology Platform, and Business AI. From the press release<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cFor the mission-critical processes of our customers, \u2018almost right\u2019 just isn\u2019t good enough,\u201d said Christian Klein, CEO of SAP SE. \u201cBy uniting SAP Business AI Platform with SAP Autonomous Suite, we anchor AI agents in the business processes, data and governance so they can deliver accurate, compliant and secure outcomes, unlocking new sources of revenue and meaningful cost savings.\u201d<\/p>\n The Autonomous Enterprise includes a unified AI platform for building, contextualizing and governing agents, an autonomous suite that executes core business operations and a new user experience that redefines how people work with enterprise software.<\/p>\n Now, while the legacy term \u201csoftware\u201d is included as the final word in that excerpt, it\u2019s no accident that the word \u201capplications\u201d does not appear anywhere in Klein\u2019s strategic overview of SAP\u2019s extremely important launches that define precisely where the company\u2019s headed.<\/p>\n Clearly for SAP, it\u2019s no longer an apps world, and more and more it\u2019s becoming less and less of a \u201csoftware\u201d world. The new center of the SAP universe is agentic AI fueled by data \u2014 and Klein described the scope of this huge transformation for SAP.<\/p>\n \u201cFor 50 years, SAP delivered \u2018systems of execution,\u2019 where it was always the responsibility of the users to tell the system what to do,\u201d Klein said in his keynote.<\/p>\n \u201cBut today, those systems of execution have evolved into the SAP Autonomous Suite, representing the biggest product evolution ever for SAP.\u201d<\/p>\n From all that I heard and saw at Sapphire, here are a few other pointers about SAP\u2019s evolution away from software and into Business AI:<\/p>\n the fastest-growing product in SAP history is not one of its storied applications \u2014 rather, it\u2019s the Business Data Cloud, which fuels the SAP AI that drives better outcomes for customers;<\/p>\n in rolling out the Autonomous Suite, while SAP said very little (nothing?) about new applications, it spoke passionately about its 221 new agents and 51 new assistants;<\/p>\n when I asked COO Sebastian Steinhaeuser if agents are software, he said with a big smile, \u201cpart software and part wisdom\u201d;<\/p>\n at Sapphire a year ago, Klein spoke about SAP\u2019s commitment to provide customers with highly qualified enterprise architects to help plan out a very different technology future, and at this year\u2019s Sapphire Klein spoke about complementing those technical experts with industry-specific domain experts, meaning new carbon-based intelligence rather than software;<\/p>\n the company launched an ambitious rollout of Industry AI, in which the stars of the show were again agents rather than applications; and<\/p>\n SAP has established a $120-million fund to support and inspire partners to build AI agents \u2014lots and lots of AI agents.<\/p>\n Community Summit North America<\/a> is the largest independent innovation, education, and training event for Microsoft business applications delivered by Expert Users, Microsoft Leaders, MVPs, and Partners. Register now<\/a> to attend Community Summit in Nashville, TN from October 11-15. <\/p>\n 2. Similar Tectonic Shifts Across Tech Sector<\/p>\n Earlier this month, the CEO of explosively growing Palantir, Alex Karp, very specifically questioned whether \u201csoftware company\u201d is the appropriate descriptor for Palantir. Here\u2019s the powerful perspective from Karp via my May 7 analysis headlined \u201cPalantir\u2019s 85% Q1 Growth Reshapes AI Expectations, Creates Wild AI Categories<\/a>\u201c:<\/p>\n And as for whether what Palantir creates should be called \u201csoftware\u201d or the new term proposed by Karp, I can understand why some people might shrug their shoulders dismissively and say \u201cwho cares?\u201d. But I think that misses the larger point: customers are buying what Palantir is creating in outsized proportions, and perhaps that means that vendors and customers should think long and hard about why \u201csoftware\u201d might no longer be the right way to talk about what AI does \u2014 and more important, what it can do.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, I do think we are going to end up with a different term for software \u2014 you cannot just lump what we\u2019re doing into \u2018software\u2019,\u201d Karp said on the earnings call.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are really providing infrastructure and also the installation of AI infrastructure. If your [tech] company is largely running around and offering steak dinners with something that someone can hack and rebuild in a week, yes, you are going to have a huge problem. Business models that do not make sense are under huge pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n Note that Karp explicitly cites how Palantir is shifting from not only creating new technology \u2014 \u201cAI infrastructure\u201d \u2014 but also by taking on \u201cthe installation of AI infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n Outside of those beyond-software visions expressed by SAP and Palantir, we\u2019ve got plenty of other examples of how the term \u201csoftware company\u201d might still be accurate but is nevertheless hardly adequate:<\/p>\n this calendar year, Microsoft, Oracle, and Google Cloud will plow more than $400 billion in CapEx into their data-center buildouts;<\/p>\n OpenAI has established the \u201cOpenAI Deployment Company\u201d and has taken on outside investments totalling $4 billion in the new venture; and every single company in the Cloud Wars Top 10 has begun speaking fervently about its embrace of \u201cforward-deployed engineers,\u201d better known as FDEs (and they all claim to have been doing FDEs for decades).<\/p>\n 3. The Global Economy Is Next<\/p>\n And courtesy of a 123-year-old \u201ccar company,\u201d I\u2019ll leave you with this not-so-little glimpse at the shape of things to come<\/a>:<\/p>\n Ford launches energy business to capitalize on AI demand<\/p>\n Edited by Laura Stewart<\/a>, Editor at LinkedIn News\u00a0<\/p>\n Ford\u2019s stock jumped<\/a> to a six-year high Thursday following the launch of Ford Energy, a grid-battery business that will allow the 122-year-old company to capitalize<\/a> on the AI boom. Ford will invest $2 billion in the business, with plans to repurpose its existing EV battery manufacturing site in Kentucky. CEO Jim Farley<\/a> says the company is already seeing interest in its battery energy storage systems. The systems, which will go into production next year, could be a \u201chigh growth, high margin, anti-cyclical market development for Ford,\u201d Farley says.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Speciality-Summit-NA-Nashville-2026-1024x516.png\")
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