SAP CEO: AI Won't Kill Software, But It Will Change Your Job — With Christian Klein

Enterprise software is undergoing a fundamental shift as agentic AI moves from experimental pilots to mission-critical operations. Achieving this requires more than foundational models; it demands deep process context, data quality, and strict governance to ensure 100% accuracy in sensitive areas like financial closing and supply chain management. SAP’s AI assistant, Joule, demonstrates this by embedding business logic directly into the workflow, allowing for autonomous task execution while maintaining human oversight. As companies face a "token reckoning," they are increasingly optimizing costs by switching between frontier and open-source models based on price-to-outcome ratios. Meanwhile, European regulatory frameworks, such as the AI Act, risk hindering competitiveness by focusing on technological constraints rather than societal impacts, necessitating a shift toward more flexible, outcome-based oversight to foster innovation.