Upcoming SAP CX features to focus on content and marketing AI

SAP launched its own entry into the electronic payments market, and it plans to release content and marketing AI agents early next year.

The moves come in conjunction with the SAP Connect user conference this week in Las Vegas, which focuses on CX technologies as well as other SAP clouds, including HR, ERP and finance.

SAP Pay is built on Tereina, a subsidiary launched last April that serves as a regulated payment-service provider. It supports payments using EFT (including ACH), wire and check, as well as stablecoin-based settlement for cross-border transactions.

The electronic payments market is quite mature and has many established players. However, as marketing and commerce increasingly become AI-powered, SAP customers could use payment technology that integrates more easily than third-party providers, said Constellation Research analyst Liz Miller.

In theory, SAP Pay could reduce IT stack complexity caused by systems that are currently required, such as middleware and post-payment reconciliation tools. As SAP goes after more midsize businesses and startups, customers likely will prefer payments set up right out of the box.

"SAP Pay is more about SAP's maturing space and place in the midmarket," Miller said.

Content, marketing AI to come

SAP also previewed two CX tools planned for early next year: Campaign Assistant and Content Assistant. Campaign Assistant is a marketing AI that can spin up campaigns based on business data, such as ERP inventory data. Content Assistant can develop copy, imagery and other assets customized to different customer channels and personalized to the buyer.

Joule Assistants planned for next year in the sales realm will automate customer service billing and let sales reps open and manage incentive compensation disputes. Other Joule tools to automate order management and create sales quotes, as well as a B2B shopping assistant, are in the works.

SAP underscored that people are still in charge and responsible for defining business needs. AI is there to handle the increasing volume of customer signals across many channels, organize and respond to them, handle data-entry tasks and otherwise automate the lowest-level work, said Balaji Balasubramanian, president and chief product officer of customer experience and consumer industries at SAP.

"It's important to say that humans set the goals and what they want, and the AI will execute," Balasubramanian said. "Now, the question is, how much of this AI executes on its own, and where does a human have to get involved? We think of them as autonomously drawn processes. Any time you set the goal, you set the agenda -- and you set the guardrails and thresholds. And if AI can execute within those boundary conditions, it will just fully execute autonomously."

SAP's AI rollout for CX might appear more deliberate and pragmatic than competitors' rush to agentic-first business management, Miller said.

The company touts the "autonomous enterprise," but it isn't nearly as aggressive in its push to turn over every business process to agents as, for example, Salesforce is. SAP is carefully integrating and unifying data, applications, AI and workflows in ways that make sense to its customers' typically complex IT outlays.

"What we're starting to learn is that this big [AI] idea of 'opening a magical jewel box and everything just happens' is over-promised and under-delivered," Miller said. "It's not just a matter of 'Let's put AI on it'; it's about the ability to get all that data, all that process, and all that business context into one place."

Don Fluckinger is a seasoned B2B technology journalist with over 30 years of experience specializing in enterprise IT, digital experience and content management. As a senior news writer at Informa TechTarget, he delivers award-winning analysis that helps IT and business leaders navigate complex technologies to enhance customer and employee experiences. Got a tip? Email him.