Independent perspectives

Sometimes I wonder whether the move to cloud was ever just about infrastructure. Perhaps it also changed the balance of control.

Now, in the era of AI, that question becomes even more relevant. Historically, SAP’s strength was openness – integrating with diverse systems, tools and ecosystems. Today, the conversation increasingly seems to shift toward preferred platforms, proprietary ecosystems and tighter integration models.

Why?

For decades, enterprise applications combined data, business rules and transaction execution in a single platform. But by separation of those layers and (temporary) AI solutions increasingly becoming the primary interface to enterprise data & software – and AI agents become its primary consumers – the value shifts from the application itself to something more fundamental: the business knowledge that gives data meaning.

Recent Sapphire announcements illustrate this well. Beyond AI agents and the Autonomous Enterprise, SAP introduced concepts such as Organizational Memory – capturing not just transactions, but the relationships, decisions and business knowledge that AI needs to act intelligently.

Perhaps that also explains why topics such as data access, API and MCP governance, semantic models and business knowledge are suddenly becoming strategic battlegrounds – not just for SAP, but across the enterprise software industry.

As AI becomes the primary interface to the enterprise, the question is no longer just who owns the applications – but who shapes the ecosystem that AI depends on.

Can organizations embrace the Autonomous Enterprise without compromising their own autonomy?

Not just the autonomy to adopt AI. But the autonomy to choose their AI models, hyperscaler, integration strategy, commercial model and future technology direction.

Innovation and future integration undoubtedly create enormous opportunities. But preserving customer choice and strategic flexibility may become just as important.