SAP Ariba solutions have long been at the vanguard of procurement technology, providing a direct path for companies to replace cumbersome manual tools like paper POs and invoices with streamlined digital processes. Our customers have benefited through greater procurement efficiency, better supplier relationships, and higher cost savings. Now we’re helping businesses take those gains to the next level through new capabilities focused around two pillars: artificial intelligence and analytics.

The first pillar of artificial intelligence offers exciting possibilities for transformation, yet its use must be guided by carefully defined principles to ensure the best results. SAP believes a responsible AI solution is built on rigorous ethics and data privacy standards. This approach forms the foundation of SAP Business AI, giving customers access to relevant information to make reliable decisions, streamline processes, and deliver intelligent recommendations to the business faster than ever before. From simple autofills to corporate policy–aligned automated approvals, systematic AI-driven digitalization can eventually lead to a near-touchless procurement process. In 2024, we’ll continue expansion of both basic AI features and generative AI use cases to help you realize these benefits and more.

Image 1: Easily visualize market dynamics with generative AI in the SAP Ariba Category Management solution.

Our second innovation pillar, analytics, will work synergistically with the first. To be truly effective, spend analytics must offer broad visibility and in-depth data that give users valid insights where and when they’re needed. With the introduction of SAP Spend Control Tower, SAP is delivering on both goals. This next-generation analytics solution leverages enriched data from across your organization and applications to simplify the display of near real-time insights in standard and custom dashboards. Advanced capabilities tap the power of SAP Business AI to deepen user knowledge, enabling rapid analysis of massive datasets to reveal trends and make informed recommendations. These and other valuable analytics tools will allow procurement professionals to develop smarter strategies, reduce costs and errors, and shorten process cycle times.

Image 2: Quickly gain key insights with a modern UX and advanced analysis of pooled spend data in SAP Spend Control Tower.

Taken together, AI-enabled features in procurement and SAP Spend Control Tower will significantly enhance the way our customers manage spend. We’ll share more information publicly in the coming months, but if you want a preview of how these innovations can help you optimize business outcomes, contact us today.