by Julia Zinovieva (Customer Officer Cloud ERP SCM)

Cloud ERP SCM Product-centric Customer Council – Shaping the Future of AI-Powered Supply Chain

On April 14–16, the Cloud ERP SCM team presented the latest developments and AI innovations at the Product-centric Customer Council in Berlin. Over 2.5 days, customers and SAP experts came together for an exciting and inspiring exchange of insights across key solution areas including SAP Integrated Product Development (IPD), Advanced Variant Configuration (AVC), Available-to-Promise (ATP), Asset Management, and PP/DS.

The agenda combined strategic perspectives, product deep dives, and interactive formats. Product Management did an excellent job explaining the roadmaps in their respective areas, demonstrating AI use cases, and enabling deep, fruitful discussions during breakout sessions. These sessions created a valuable opportunity to hear firsthand from customers – their perspectives on the presented functionality, as well as their concerns, expectations, and ideas around AI use cases and future innovations.

The council was opened with an executive overview of the Cloud ERP SCM strategy from Vatsan Govindarajan (CPO Cloud ERP SCM), setting the strategic direction and context for the innovations and discussions that followed.

AI was a central theme throughout the event. Sessions such as:

• Insights into Combined Orders and AI-supported Backorder Processing led by Andreas Krause and Sarah Deser
• Driving Efficiency in Inventory Management Through AI led by Darius Nowak, Stefanie Bierbach and Bernd Rödel
• AI Support for Supplier Certificates and Complaint Processing  led by Stefan Resag

illustrated how SAP is moving beyond traditional automation toward intelligent, outcome-driven supply chain execution.
The sessions demonstrated how agents can replace manual, time-intensive, and reactive work across multiple applications through proactive assessments and intelligent recommendations – freeing up capacity to focus on higher-value, critical tasks.

Customer contributions, including “Acceleron – AI Use Case Test Automation”,  further reinforced the importance of co-innovation and real-world validation.

At the same time, core business capabilities remained in focus where colleagues presented updates in AVC such as Solution Bundling app, innovations for Asset Management​ and the direction for Advanced Production Planning ​in cloud.

Breakout sessions enabled open dialogue and deeper collaboration, ensuring that customer feedback directly shapes SAP’s product direction. In my interactive AI Talk, we gathered valuable insights into customer entry barriers for AI adoption such as cost and licensing model, agent accountability, received immediate feedback on the demonstrated AI use cases, and gained a deeper understanding of customers’ vision and expectations for AI capabilities across the supply chain.

Thanks to all participants for their openness, engagement, and valuable contributions. 

And a big thank you to the core organizational team Markus Oertelt and Fernanda Rodrigues for the smooth organization, a well-curated agenda, a picturesque venue, and outstanding ongoing support that made this event a truly seamless and inspiring experience!