845: Inside the AI Foundation Behind Next-Gen Procurement W/ Fang Chang

In this episode of the Art of Procurement podcast, Philip Ideson interviews Fang Chang, EVP and Chief Product Officer at SAP, about rebuilding SAP Ariba with an AI foundation. Fang discusses the decision to rebuild Ariba from the ground up to weave AI into the entire platform, rather than layering it on top, to optimize user experience and enable AI to take actions on behalf of users. They explore the technical aspects of this rebuild, including leveraging SAP's Business Technology Platform and Business Data Cloud. Fang emphasizes the importance of agility in development, continuous learning, and the interplay between applications, data, and AI. The conversation also covers use cases such as the bid analysis agent, the importance of contextual insights, and the future roadmap, including AI assistants and unified services procurement.