As of early September 2025, SAP has doubled down on artificial intelligence, sovereign cloud services, and high-profile acquisitions in an effort to strengthen its position as a global enterprise software leader. The company’s latest announcements highlight its ambition to combine innovation with digital sovereignty, while addressing ongoing customer concerns about cloud migration.
Driving AI Innovation
SAP’s generative AI copilot, Joule, is expanding rapidly across its business application portfolio. The newest updates introduce AI agents for supply chain, finance, and procurement, while also embedding Joule into Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 Copilot. These integrations aim to streamline workflows and enhance everyday productivity for users.
For developers, SAP is enhancing its Business Technology Platform (BTP) with AI-assisted tools. Additions to SAP Build and SAP HANA Cloud are designed to simplify the creation of custom AI applications and strengthen data integration, giving development teams more flexibility and speed.
Reinforcing Cloud and Data Sovereignty
A central theme of SAP’s strategy is sovereign cloud expansion in Europe. The company announced an investment of over €20 billion to boost digital independence and foster AI innovation in the region.
SAP also unveiled a new “Sovereign Cloud On-Site” service, enabling customers to run cloud workloads directly in their own data centers. Managed by SAP-certified staff, this offering promises greater control, compliance, and data sovereignty.
At the same time, SAP continues to push its S/4HANA Cloud migration agenda. While customers have been given more time to transition from on-premise solutions, challenges around costs, complexity, and readiness persist.
Expanding Through Acquisitions and Partnerships
In August, SAP confirmed plans to acquire SmartRecruiters, an AI-driven talent acquisition platform. The move will strengthen SAP SuccessFactors HCM by enhancing recruiting and hiring capabilities.
SAP is also entering the fast lane with a partnership with the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula 1 team, which will leverage SAP’s Cloud ERP to improve performance and data-driven decision-making.
Other recent collaborations include:
Alibaba – hosting SAP cloud workloads in China
AWS and NVIDIA – joint initiatives to accelerate enterprise AI adoption
Other Key Developments
Maintenance Fee Adjustments: Beginning January 1, 2026, SAP will link support contract fees to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), with a maximum annual increase of 5%.
Security Updates: In August, SAP released patches for several critical vulnerabilities, including high-severity issues affecting its Graphical User Interface (GUI).
Customer Sentiment: Despite SAP’s AI and cloud-first vision, many customers remain cautious. Concerns center on pricing transparency, migration difficulties with RISE, and reduced focus on on-premise solutions.
