From AI Hype to Real­i­ty: Take­aways from SAP TechEd Berlin 2025

For the past year, we’ve all been talk­ing about the poten­tial of Gen­er­a­tive AI. But at SAP TechEd Berlin, the con­ver­sa­tion shift­ed from what AI can say to what AI can do. As the CTO of Islet Group, I look at these inno­va­tions through a sim­ple lens: How does this actu­al­ly help our cus­tomers run their busi­ness­es better?

Here is my recap of the most impact­ful announce­ments at SAP TechEd, and what they mean for your business.

1. Era of “Agen­tic AI” is here: SAP Joule

The star of the show was of course SAP Joule. We are mov­ing beyond sim­ple chat­bots to “Agen­tic AI” sys­tems that can rea­son, plan, and exe­cute com­plex tasks.

• Busi­ness ben­e­fit: Effi­cien­cy is no longer just about automat­ing repet­i­tive tasks, but also about han­dling unpre­dictable scenarios.
• What’s new: We saw the Joule Stu­dio, where we can now build cus­tom AI agents tai­lored to spe­cif­ic busi­ness needs. Imag­ine an AI agent that doesn’t just answer a ques­tion about a delayed ship­ment but active­ly inves­ti­gates the cause, pro­pos­es a rerout­ing option, and updates the cus­tomer — all autonomously.
• The ecosys­tem: SAP announced that by 2028, there will be an esti­mat­ed 1.3 bil­lion deployed agents. With the new Agen­tic Orches­tra­tion com­ing in 2026, Joule will be able to man­age mul­ti-step work­flows across dif­fer­ent depart­ments like Finance, HR, and Sup­ply Chain with­out human handholding.

2. Uni­fied expe­ri­ence: Joule + Microsoft Copilot

One of the biggest fric­tion points for users is switch­ing between appli­ca­tions. A major high­light was the inte­gra­tion of Joule with Microsoft Copi­lot.

• Busi­ness ben­e­fit: Your teams can now access SAP’s deep busi­ness data with­out ever leav­ing their Microsoft 365 envi­ron­ment. Whether you are in Teams or Out­look, you can ask Joule to pull up the lat­est finan­cial report or pro­cure­ment sta­tus. This seam­less user expe­ri­ence will be a big pro­duc­tiv­i­ty booster.

3. Data as back­bone: SAP Busi­ness Data Cloud

AI is only as good as the data it feeds on. SAP Busi­ness Data Cloud (BDC) is the answer to the data silo problem.

• • Busi­ness Ben­e­fit: Real-time deci­sion-mak­ing requires real-time data. SAP BDC allows us to con­nect data from SAP and third-par­ty apps with­out com­plex replication.
  • Con­text: By uni­fy­ing data prod­ucts and intel­li­gent appli­ca­tions, we can ensure AI agents are act­ing on sin­gle source of truth, reduc­ing errors and improv­ing the reli­a­bil­i­ty of auto­mat­ed decisions.

  .

4. Accel­er­at­ing inno­va­tion: SAP Build & Cloud ERP

For busi­ness­es to stay agile, they need to adapt their sys­tems quick­ly. SAP Build has evolved to become the cen­tral hub for this, bridg­ing the gap between pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ers and busi­ness experts.

• Busi­ness ben­e­fit: With Joule for Devel­op­ers, we are see­ing AI capa­bil­i­ties embed­ded direct­ly into the cod­ing envi­ron­ment (like ABAP and SAP Build Code). This means we can build, test, and deploy new exten­sions for SAP Cloud ERP faster than ever.
• The result: Reduced time-to-mar­ket for cus­tom busi­ness appli­ca­tions and a “Clean Core” that is eas­i­er to upgrade and maintain.

5. Trust, secu­ri­ty, and sovereignty

As a Euro­pean part­ner, data pri­va­cy is non-nego­tiable. I was pleased to see the strong focus on “AI for Europe” with­in SAP’s AI Foun­da­tion strategy.

• Busi­ness ben­e­fit: With local­ly host­ed AI mod­els and strict adher­ence to Euro­pean data stan­dards, com­pa­nies can lever­age pow­er­ful Foun­da­tion Mod­els (like the new SAP-RPT‑1 for struc­tured busi­ness data) with­out com­pro­mis­ing on com­pli­ance or security.

6. Man­ag­ing it all: SAP Cloud ALM

A crit­i­cal under­ly­ing theme for any CTO is man­age­ment. SAP Cloud ALM is evolv­ing to sup­port agen­tic work­flows. As we intro­duce more AI agents into our land­scapes, hav­ing a robust Appli­ca­tion Life­cy­cle Man­age­ment tool is essen­tial to mon­i­tor their per­for­mance, ensure secu­ri­ty, and man­age the health of the entire cloud ecosystem.

The mes­sage from SAP is clear: the tech­nol­o­gy is ready. The shift to SAP Busi­ness AI is not just a tech­ni­cal upgrade, it’s a fun­da­men­tal change in how we work.

At Islet, we are ready to help you nav­i­gate this agen­tic future. Whether it’s set­ting up your first SAP Joule agent or opti­miz­ing your data foun­da­tion, we are here to turn these inno­va­tions into tan­gi­ble busi­ness value.

Sources: SAP TechEd Berlin pre­sen­ta­tions and the SAP Inno­va­tion Guide H2 2025.

- — -

The author of the blog, Tom­mi Luo­to, leads the tech­no­log­i­cal devel­op­ment of our island. He has exten­sive knowl­edge of the ecosys­tems across the vast oceans of tech­nol­o­gy, while also explor­ing new hori­zons togeth­er with our cus­tomers. If you are inter­est­ed these top­ics and would like to dis­cuss fur­ther, please get in touch: