{"id":15395,"date":"2026-04-07T08:32:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T08:32:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/?p=15395"},"modified":"2026-04-07T08:39:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T08:39:44","slug":"software-enters-its-strongest-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/?p=15395","title":{"rendered":"Christian Klein, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Executive Board of SAP SE: Software enters its strongest stage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The recent sell-off in SaaS shares reflects a misinterpretation of the actual disruptions. In fact, it shows why enterprise software is more essential than ever.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Artificial intelligence is the most important technological change since the advent of the internet, as well as the most profound transformation for enterprise software. Not because AI poses a threat to software, but because it needs it. Advances in reasoning, code generation, and autonomous agents are real and will reshape every industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I see this directly. Artificial intelligence is driving double-digit efficiency gains in our own operations. In more than two-thirds of our recent fourth-quarter contracts, customers opted to include AI capabilities. Manufacturers are using AI agents to automate bidding processes, significantly reducing response times. Consulting teams recover a quarter of their working time for higher-value activities. It’s not just hype \u2014 it’s already happening, on an enterprise scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every major platform change follows the same pattern. At first, the value accumulates at the basic levels of the stack: infrastructure, computing power, models. Over time, sustainable value is seen in the application layer, where technology turns into business outcomes. The Internet has proven this, and cloud computing has confirmed it. Artificial intelligence will be no exception. The software does not reach the end of the road, but is just beginning. In other words: software is becoming the superpower of AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where is the real value<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across industries, companies are investing billions in AI, driven by real advances in capabilities and productivity. However, many face difficulties in turning experiments into measurable, enterprise-scale outcomes. The causes are well known: fragmented data landscapes, siloed processes, inconsistent governance, and the integration of AI over outdated legacy systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless of industry or size, all the customers I talk to want the same thing: an artificial intelligence that deeply understands their business and operates safely and reliably. This means integrated applications, harmonized business data and clear control mechanisms. Without them, AI operates in a vacuum and disconnected from operational reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If it doesn’t understand how finance relates to procurement, how the supply chain interacts with production, what compliance rules govern a transaction, or how exceptions should be handled, artificial intelligence can’t reliably support the operation of a business. The slightest error, such as using outdated, incomplete, or incorrect data, can lead to a chain of wrong decisions, erroneous transactions, and significant losses, before anyone notices. So, AI doesn’t eliminate software, but highlights how indispensable systems that coordinate work at scale are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enterprise AI succeeds where agencies and governance meet<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building an agent is getting simpler and simpler \u2013 it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Implementing it in end-to-end processes, such as supply chains or financial closure, with full compliance requirements and audit trails, is the part where most of the effort is actually focused. Orchestration, policy enforcement, and determinism of workflows are the elements that ensure trust. The more autonomous agents you deploy, the more valuable the governed systems that limit and oversee them become \u2013 and this is where the platforms that already manage the world’s critical operations really prove their relevance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Agencies Need to Operate At Scale<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To deliver real results, reliably, agents need three things. First, deep knowledge of the field and industry, integrated into the systems, so that agents understand the context, relationships and end-to-end processes. Second, accurate, semantically rich business data that provides a single, reliable source of truth. And third, enterprise-level governance: validation rules, compliance checks, approval flows, identity management, and audit trails that keep autonomy in check.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are the elements that make the difference between an AI that can truly and reliably run a business and one that only impresses in a demo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What changes \u2013 what remains valid<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Artificial intelligence makes software faster and cheaper to build. Large language models (LLMs) will become commons. Business models will evolve as usage moves from users to agents. Completely new interfaces will appear. Users will increasingly interact through conversations with AI, instead of navigating applications, and interfaces will be dynamically generated, in real time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the need for continuously updated and governed systems is growing. Artificial intelligence raises the bar for secure updates, telemetry-based enhancement, and common controls \u2013 all strengths of mature SaaS solutions. AI agents are not a replacement for enterprise software. It is based on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The winners will not be those with marginally better fundamental models, but those who deliver value at the application level: business outcomes based on deep domain expertise, integrated across departments, and governed for large-scale deployment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Software becomes the operating system of reliable autonomy. Companies that understand this will integrate AI into systems that support the global economy. The others will continue to experiment, generate prototypes and wonder why the results don’t keep up with the hype.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The recent sell-off in SaaS shares reflects a misinterpretation of the actual disruptions. In fact, it shows why enterprise software is more essential than ever. Artificial intelligence is the most important technological change since the advent of the internet, as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19,18,6,3,8,5,17,317],"tags":[306],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15395"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15395"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15399,"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15395\/revisions\/15399"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}