A recent analysis by SAP Southeast Asia highlights a significant surge in the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) among companies in the region, marking AI as a central pillar in business transformation. The findings, based on SAP customer data from May 2024 to May 2025, reveal that businesses are leveraging AI in diverse ways to streamline operations and enhance productivity. Common applications include automating expense reports by extracting data from photos of payment receipts, verifying expenses for compliance, assisting employees in drafting concise and accurate HR narratives, setting performance targets, and integrating critical documents into AI co-pilots to improve question-and-answer capabilities.
Liher Urbizu, President & Managing Director of SAP Southeast Asia, emphasised the role of AI not as an experimental technology but as a fundamental component driving operational efficiency and business growth. During the SAP NOW AI Tour Southeast Asia event, he illustrated this with a collaboration between SAP and Singapore Airlines supported by Digital Industry Singapore. The project successfully automated the extraction of contract rates from procurement documents, achieving near-perfect accuracy for simple contracts and notable performance with complex contracts. The AI’s capability to process multilingual documents also expedited translation and validation workflows, underscoring the adaptability of AI solutions to dynamic business needs.
This growing trend is reflected across Southeast Asia with companies like DKSH Performance Materials and Indonesia’s Amman Mineral adopting SAP’s AI-enabled solutions. DKSH has integrated SAP S/4HANA and SAP Business AI to enhance its eCommerce operations, providing personalised and efficient customer experiences that align with the broader digital transformation wave in the region. Similarly, Amman Mineral’s choice of RISE with SAP, SAP Business Technology Platform, SAP SuccessFactors, and SAP Ariba underscores the region’s increasing reliance on AI to boost operational efficiency and business innovation.
A defining feature of SAP’s approach in the region is its collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS). Together, they have launched the AI Co-Innovation Program, which encourages partners to develop generative AI solutions to address real-time business challenges. The partnership combines SAP’s industry expertise with AWS’s cloud technology flexibility, powering faster decision-making, improved operational efficiency, and enhanced customer experiences. Kirsten Gilbertson, AWS ASEAN Partner Organization Leader, noted that integrating Amazon Bedrock with SAP’s platforms transforms AI from a mere trend into a substantial driver of competitive advantage and growth.
Alongside technological advancements, SAP is committed to building human capital to support AI-driven transformation. The recent major update to SAP Skills University introduces 15 new AI-focused courses, developed in partnership with SkillsFuture Singapore and Temasek Polytechnic. This initiative aims to equip graduates and professionals with cutting-edge skills in cloud computing, data analytics, business AI, and other advanced SAP technologies through practice-based learning.
These developments collectively underscore an accelerating shift in Southeast Asia towards embracing AI as a cornerstone of business innovation. Companies are harnessing AI not only to automate routine tasks but also to generate strategic insights and foster growth in an increasingly competitive landscape. Yet, as industry leaders emphasise, the integration of AI complements rather than replaces human roles, ensuring that technology enhances creativity, decision-making, and operational resilience.
Source: Noah Wire Services
