SAP acquires AI-powered human resources platform SwoopTalent

SAP today announced it has acquired the intellectual property of SwoopTalent, a platform that automatically connects companies’ talent systems and data for analytics, migrations, and machine learning. As a part of the deal, SAP says it will embed SwoopTalent’s technology throughout its own SuccessFactors Human Experience Management Suite, providing SAP customers with a view of human resources initiatives, including projects, fellowships, internal jobs, mentorships, and courses.

People analytics — also known as talent analytics or HR analytics — refers to analytics that can help managers and executives make decisions about their workforce. While people analytics is a new domain for most HR departments, 70% of company executives cite people analytics as a top priority, according to McKinsey.

Founded in 2012 by Satish Sallakonda and Stacy Chapman, San Francisco, California-based SwoopTalent provides a platform powered by natural language processing, AI, and machine learning that combines, analyzes, and trains data from disparate human resource systems and workflows. SwoopTalent provides continuously updated views of an organization’s people, from skills and capabilities to interests and learning preferences, enabling employers to match employees to internal initiatives, learning courses, and more.

According to Chapman, who serves as SwoopTalent’s CEO, the platform’s talent and AI algorithms build profiles of employees by gathering information from different sources, keeping in mind local regulations and employees’ consent and preferences around the kinds of information they’d like to share. Later this year, the profiles will power a new solution that will serve up opportunities like recommendations for learning content and assignments, becoming more individualized as the profiles develop.

“Organizations are at a pivotal moment as work is being redefined around agility, purpose, and culture,” Chapman said in a statement. “With human experience management, SAP has the right vision and strategy to deliver technology that enables individuals to upskill and create a career that aligns to their interests and skills. SAP and SwoopTalent are a great cultural fit and share the same values. We are excited to continue advancing human experience management together.”

Latest acquisition

SwoopTalent is SAP’s newest acquisition following the German firm’s roughly $1 billion buyout of Signavio, a collaborative business process design, management, and analysis company. In 2020, SAP bought omnichannel marketing startup Emarysis, a deal that closed after the firm’s $8 billion purchase of Qualtrics, a platform for creating web surveys.

“Delivering individualization at scale requires a sophisticated, powerful data platform that extends across multiple systems,” SAP SuccessFactors chief product officer Meg Bear said in a press release. “By making workforce data more reliable and accessible, we can help our customers gain powerful insights about their people to effectively upskill, reskill, and redeploy talent and future-proof their business. The founders of SwoopTalent are industry thought leaders with proven expertise using data, machine learning, and analytics to elevate human resources and make organizations more competitive. We are thrilled to have them join SAP to further our human experience management strategy.”