SAP’s latest AI announcements at Sapphire are landing as enterprise customers move beyond experimentation and begin demanding measurable returns, stronger governance, and scalable operational outcomes from AI investments.
Patrick Pugh, global and U.S. alliances leader at PwC, told Channel Insider that the event reflected a broader shift in the SAP market: enterprises are increasingly embedding AI into core business workflows rather than treating it as a standalone technology initiative.
SAP customers focus on data, governance, and ROI
Pugh said customers are no longer approaching SAP transformation as a traditional ERP implementation conversation. Instead, they are looking at SAP as a foundation for broader business transformation across finance, supply chain, operations, and customer experience.
That shift is putting more pressure on data strategy. According to Pugh, enterprise AI projects will only deliver value if organizations can access trusted, secure, and usable data across the business.
“AI, automation, and transformation are only as effective as the underlying data that you can get access to,” he said. “If you get the data right, if you change your ways of working, the technology is there now to unlock value that we’ve never been able to unlock before.”
Change management is also becoming a central part of the discussion. Pugh said companies need to rethink workflows and employee adoption alongside technical deployment.
“If people don’t change their ways of working to use this technology, then it’s tech for tech’s sake,” he said.
PwC points to alliance and internal SAP modernization work
PwC has a longstanding alliance with SAP, and Pugh said the relationship is increasingly important as enterprises look for help navigating faster technology cycles.
PwC brings industry expertise, business transformation capabilities, and implementation experience to SAP customers, Pugh said. He also pointed to PwC’s own SAP modernization work as a proof point.
“We took our proverbial medicine, if you will, and we did it to ourselves,” he said, referring to PwC’s own work consolidating data, addressing technical debt, and modernizing its SAP environment.
That internal experience helps PwC advise customers from both an implementation and operator perspective, he said. And that experience is becoming increasingly important to customers as technological innovation accelerates.
“I haven’t seen this kind of speed in motion and need to move with intentionality at the pace with which we’re moving, and I’ve been doing this a long time,” said Pugh.
SAP ecosystem partnerships gain strategic importance
Pugh said the SAP ecosystem is becoming more intentional as AI accelerates the need for collaboration across consultants, hyperscalers, technology partners, and frontier AI companies.
“As we looked at the traditional ERP world, they’ve been connected for purpose [in the past]. Now I think they’re connected with intentionality,” he said.
Pugh noted new integrations with leading solutions, hyperscaler products, and other vendors, which are shaping strategic decisions at most enterprises as a key component of SAP’s Sapphire announcements.
To him, that broader ecosystem approach shows how important trusted relationships remain for successful outcomes.
“Even in a rapidly changing technology world, so much still lies on a foundation of trust,” said Pugh.
“Oftentimes, I’ve seen people treat these alliance relationships as a hobby or secondary. We absolutely treat them as a critical, important part of our business.”
AI ROI expands beyond cost savings
Looking ahead to the second half of 2025 and early 2026, Pugh said customers are focused on three core themes: ROI, speed, and quality and security.
He said ROI conversations are becoming more sophisticated. Instead of measuring only cost savings or narrow pilot outcomes, organizations are looking at productivity, visibility, predictive analytics, customer experience, workforce experience, and growth.
“I don’t think they are measuring pilot ROI anymore,” Pugh said. “They are starting to look at the macro.”
For channel partners and enterprise technology advisors, that shift creates broader services opportunities in data readiness, business process redesign, managed and advisory services, and continuous innovation.
“One of the biggest themes for me [at Sapphire] was the shift from AI experimentation into enterprise-scale execution,” Pugh said, noting that enabling customers to experience that shift is driving deeper opportunity in advisory and operational managed services offerings that allow PwC to build closer relationships with clients.
“I am a believer that AI is an enhancer,” Pugh said. “How does AI help reshape our workforce and give our workers new experiences that will be more future-focused?”