Dive Brief:
- SAP tapped Google Cloud to bring the hyperscaler’s Vertex AI model training and deployment capabilities to its Datasphere data cloud platform, the enterprise software application provider announced Tuesday.
- The initial use case is an automotive industry vertical integrating Google Cloud’s generative AI models with the SAP-supported Catena-X data ecosystem. A sustainability solution connecting SAP Datasphere and Sustainability Control Tower platforms to the Vertex AI toolkit will be available soon, the announcement said.
- The collaboration deepens an existing partnership around cloud and AI. In May, the two companies integrated SAP’s Datasphere platform with Google Cloud’s ML-enabled BigQuery, expanding data sharing and analytics capabilities.
Dive Insight:
Enterprise software vendors are hustling to infuse generative AI into existing enterprise systems, deploying ready-to-use tools and trainable models on the ERPs, CRMs and data systems their customers already depend on.
SAP has aggressively pursued the new technology. In addition to leveraging its Google Cloud relationship, the company expanded its Microsoft partnership in May, bolstering its workforce recruitment and training tool SuccessFactors with Azure OpenAI Service’s natural language processing capabilities.
Last month, SAP deepened its commitment to the technology with investments in three generative AI companies: Aleph Alpha, Anthropic and Cohere. The goal, SAP CEO Christian Klein said during a July earnings call, is to deliver “new AI solutions and capabilities across our portfolio” before the end of the year.
The automotive industry solution enables companies to build and train models that can analyze supply chain and customer data for anomalies and potential problems, such as product defects. The sustainability tool uses generative AI to create ESG reports, issue supply chain alerts and perform environmental impact and cost analytics.
Google Cloud announced several other generative AI partnerships Tuesday. DocuSign is piloting a contract assistant using Vertex AI, and Workday plans to enhance enterprise finance and human resource management tools already available via Google Cloud with natural language AI capabilities, said Philip Moyer, global VP, AI & business solutions at Google Cloud, during a Friday press conference.
