How to Prepare Your SAP Data for AI

Since generative AI exploded onto the global market, organizations have flocked to adopt it. SAP is no exception–late last year, the ERP launched its embedded AI copilot, Joule. In addition, SAP has invested in other AI companies, hired a chief artificial intelligence officer, and added generative AI features to its products. In order to spur cloud adoption, many of SAP’s premium AI features will only be available to RISE with SAP and GROW with SAP customers.

While SAP is clearly investing in AI, questions arise for the SAP-run enterprise: What is AI’s impact on SAP-powered organizations and how can you prepare your SAP data for AI?

AI and the Supply Chain

After a string of rocky years for the global supply chain, this year has seen greater stability. However, organizations aren’t out of the woods yet as it becomes increasingly critical to navigate inflation and increasing costs. According to a recent study by Boston Consulting Group, 65% of global executives consider supply chain costs to be a high priority. Most organizations meet cost savings targets, but over a third (35%) struggle to manage rising costs.

Other supply chain challenges include:

• Managing continuing inflation

• Struggling to keep up with changes to technology

• Short-term interruptions to the supply chain

• Geopolitical upheaval impacting worldwide trade

How does AI factor into supply chain management? Early research shows that AI could have cost-saving benefits for companies with complex supply chains. AI can also be used for master data management by finding master data, onboarding it, finding anomalies, automating master data modeling, and improving data governance efficiency. However, most of the MDM AI features in the market are still running in human-assisted mode.

Is Your Data AI-Ready?

Like moving to the cloud, when you’re looking to adopt AI, it’s essential to make sure your data is prepared for it. Before implementing an AI-powered solution, make sure to back up data, keeping servers and data retrievable in case of setbacks.

For those of you who are still determining the right approach for implementing AI, here are a few questions to ask ahead of time:

• Are our processes digital enough for AI?

• What tasks do we want to optimize?

• What would be the time benefit of using AI for our processes?

• What support and budget do we need to implement AI?

• Is our data clean and in a consistent format?

The last question is crucial. The phrase, “garbage in, garbage out” is popular in the AI-sphere for a reason–AI works by analyzing existing data and taking that knowledge to derive patterns and trends. If your information is littered with inaccuracies, the output generated by the AI will be too.

Pave the Way for AI Adoption

SAP data is a goldmine for flexibility and adaptability, but accessing and analyzing it effectively can be challenging due to its complexity. And even if you’re ready to adopt AI, how do you answer those crucial questions as to whether or not your data is ready?

That’s where Angles Enterprise for SAP by insightsoftware comes in. Without data insights, you lack a clear understanding of your organization’s operations. SAP has out-of-the-box reporting capabilities to help you hit the ground running, but when you’re asked a question that only a custom or ad hoc report can provide answers to, you’re left to rely on IT departments or outside consultants.

With Angles, you have self-service capabilities to answer those critical questions easily, without the need for technical knowledge. Angles gives the power of operational analytics and business intelligence (BI) to the people who need it most—your business users.

Data quality is paramount for successful AI adoption. Angles acts as a data custodian, helping identify and rectify inconsistencies within your SAP system. Ensure you’re not feeding AI messy or inaccurate data by cleaning your data with Angles. Angles ensures your data is trustworthy and AI-ready, providing a solid foundation for training and using AI models effectively. This sets the stage for AI to generate accurate and actionable insights to suit even your most complex enterprise-level needs.

When you’ve cleaned and organized your data with Angles, you still need to feed it back into SAP. Once data has been properly cleansed and prepared via Angles, Process Runner by insightsoftware is the perfect tool to automatically load that clean data back into your SAP system. Process Runner turns Microsoft Excel into your SAP data management cockpit with little to no-code transaction automation, powerful data management, and flexible workflow features. It automates data downloads and uploads for any SAP module, including FI/CO, SD, HR/HCM, MM, and PP.

AI is only as powerful as the underlying data that supports it. But you don’t have to be overwhelmed by your data–with intuitive tools like Angles and Process Runer, you can ensure your SAP data is accurate, organized, and efficiently fed back into SAP. With Angles and Process Runner in your toolbox, you’ll have the confidence to take on larger data initiatives while harnessing the power of artificial intelligence.

Ready to learn more? Watch our on-demand webinar on the role AI plays in mastering your SAP master data.