AI Co-Innovation: SAP and AWS Address Market Volatility and Supply Chain

Introduction: 

At SAP Sapphire 2025, tech leaders SAP and Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced a bold new collaboration: the AI Co-Innovation Program. Designed to help organizations solve real-time business challenges, this program combines SAP’s deep industry knowledge with AWS’s generative AI capabilities, offering a unique and scalable approach to enterprise transformation.

This blog explores the strategic partnership, key benefits, real-world implications of this initiative, and why it’s a game-changer for businesses ready to harness the power of generative AI.

Why the SAP-AWS Partnership Matters  

The digital economy demands intelligent, agile, and data-driven operations. With increasing data volumes and complex workflows, companies need AI that is not only powerful but also context-aware and industry-aligned.

SAP, the leader in enterprise application software, and AWS, the pioneer in scalable cloud infrastructure and AI/ML services, have teamed up to offer a practical path to AI adoption:

• SAP brings the business context: decades of industry expertise, ERP data, and mission-critical workflows.
• AWS brings the AI infrastructure: tools like Amazon Bedrock, SageMaker, and advanced LLMs that fuel innovation.

Together, they provide a framework where generative AI is not just theoretical—it’s operational.

What is the AI Co-Innovation Program? 

The AI Co-Innovation Program is a collaborative initiative enabling customers to build and scale generative AI applications that solve specific, high-value business challenges. It’s not a generic solution; it’s tailored to each company’s needs and goals.

Core Capabilities:

1. Build and Scale Generative AI with Amazon Bedrock and SAP BTP
   • Amazon Bedrock makes it easy to tap into powerful foundation models from some of the top names in AI, like Anthropic, Meta, Mistral, Amazon Titan, and more, so teams can build more innovative applications faster.
   • SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) ensures seamless integration with SAP systems and data.
2. Purpose-Built AI Agents
   • AI agents are designed to understand your enterprise's unique context and data models.
   • Built to handle tasks like automated procurement, intelligent finance reporting, and predictive maintenance.
3. End-to-End Co-Innovation Support
   • Strategy to implementation: co-develop, test, validate, and deploy.
   • AWS and SAP experts work closely with businesses to break down implementation barriers and turn ideas into tangible results.

Why This Program Out: Key Benefits

Faster Time to Value

• No need to build from scratch—leverage pre-trained foundation models and SAP integrations.
• Minimize experimentation time with battle-tested, scalable infrastructure.

Real-Time Business Impact

• Use AI to address immediate pain points, such as supply chain disruptions, service inefficiencies, or compliance risks.

Move beyond dashboards to actionable, AI-powered workflows.

Secure and Responsible AI

• Data stays protected with enterprise-grade compliance on AWS.
• Built-in AI governance and observability tools to track model behavior and ensure ethical use.

Custom AI, Not Just General AI

Most AI tools today are generic. This program ensures that AI is contextualized to your business processes, KPIs, and rules.

Use Cases: From Theory to Impact

Smart Procurement with AI Agents

Imagine an AI agent that understands your procurement workflows within SAP S/4HANA and monitors supplier delivery patterns. It can proactively recommend alternate vendors, negotiate prices, and even automate reordering—all using secure LLMs via Amazon Bedrock.

Finance Insights in Real Time

With SAP data and AWS AI models, CFOs can automate financial reporting, generate variance analysis, and receive AI-generated forecasts—all in natural language, tailored to business goals.

Predictive Maintenance for Manufacturing

Sensor data analyzed via AWS IoT and combined with SAP’s asset management systems enables AI to predict equipment failures before they happen, reducing downtime and optimizing inventory.

Customer Service Automation

AI agents can analyze customer interactions, tickets, and feedback data within SAP Service Cloud and suggest the next best actions, improving resolution time and satisfaction rates.

Amazon Bedrock + SAP BTP: A Powerful Stack

Let’s break down the power of this integration:Together, they allow you to infuse intelligence directly into your SAP landscape, rebuilding systems or losing control of sensitive data.

How the Co-Innovation Model Works

1. Discovery Workshop
   • Identify business problems with the highest potential for AI impact.
2. Rapid Prototyping
   • Co-develop AI models and agents using SAP and AWS tools.
3. Testing & Feedback Loop
   • Validate results with real data and iterate fast.
4. Deployment & Scaling
   • Use SAP BTP and AWS cloud services to scale the solution across business units.
5. Continuous Improvement
   • Measure outcomes, gather insights, and optimize models continuously.

Who Should Consider This Program?

This program is ideal for:

• CIOs & CTOs looking to lead digital transformation.
• Enterprise Architects focused on integrating AI into existing landscapes.
• Line-of-business leaders in finance, supply chain, and customer service are aiming to automate and optimize.
• Innovation Teams seek fast experimentation and validation.

Whether you're exploring your first AI use case or scaling successful pilots, this co-innovation model removes the barriers.

Future-Proofing Enterprise AI Strategy

With this program, businesses don’t just adopt AI—they evolve:

• Cloud-native design: Solutions scale globally and elastically.
• Open model choice: No vendor lock-in with Amazon Bedrock’s multi-model support.
• SAP alignment: Solutions built with SAP’s future roadmap in mind (e.g., SAP Joule, AI Copilots, etc.).

It’s not about chasing hype. It’s about building real, responsible, results-driven AI.

Customer Success Stories (Coming Soon)

SAP and AWS will showcase customer success stories in the coming months, showcasing how companies are:

• Reducing supply chain disruptions by 30%
• Cutting invoice processing time by 40%
• Improving forecasting accuracy with real-time LLM insights

Stay tuned as these case studies validate the program's long-term value.

Conclusion: Ready to Co-Innovate?

The SAP and AWS AI Co-Innovation Program represents a significant step forward in the evolution of enterprise AI.

By integrating SAP’s reliable enterprise solutions with AWS’s advanced generative AI technologies, organizations can:

• Deliver faster business outcomes
• Automate intelligently with context
• Scale AI without compromising on governance

Now is the time to move from exploration to execution. The tools are ready, the partners are aligned, and the opportunity is here.

Learn More and Take the Next Step

Explore the official announcement: SAP & AWS AI Co-Innovation Program 

FAQs

1. What is the SAP and AWS AI Co-Innovation Program, and how does it benefit enterprises?
   Answer:
   The SAP-AWS AI Co-Innovation Program helps businesses create smart, tailored AI apps that fit their unique needs. By combining SAP’s industry know-how with AWS’s AI power, it speeds up digital transformation, making workflows smarter and faster while fitting smoothly into existing SAP systems. It’s about real AI solving real problems, not just theory.
2. How do SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) and Amazon Bedrock work together in this program?
   Answer:
   SAP BTP and Amazon Bedrock team up to make AI simple and impactful. BTP integrates AI directly into SAP applications, while Bedrock offers access to top AI models without heavy infrastructure work. This combo lets companies quickly create AI tools that fit right into their SAP systems for real-time, practical use.
3. What types of business challenges can be addressed using this AI Co-Innovation initiative?
   Answer:
   This program tackles tough challenges like supply chain delays, automating procurement, speeding up finance reporting, predicting equipment failures, and improving customer support. It uses AI agents to automate tasks and provide insights, helping businesses adapt quickly to market ups and downs while boosting efficiency.
4. Who should consider participating in this program within an organization?
   Answer:
   CIOs, CTOs, enterprise architects, and line-of-business leaders in finance, supply chain, or customer service will find this program valuable. It’s perfect for those leading digital change or looking to experiment and scale AI solutions without the usual hurdles. Innovation teams will also benefit from its fast, hands-on approach.
5. How does this program ensure secure, responsible, and scalable AI deployments?
   Answer:
   Security and ethics are built in. AWS provides enterprise-level data protection, while tools monitor AI behavior to keep it fair and compliant. The program scales effortlessly in the cloud and offers flexibility in AI models, so businesses stay secure, responsible, and future-ready without being locked into one vendor.