SAP taps Microsoft AI Copilot to streamline hiring and upskilling for enterprises

As generative AI goes mainstream, industry majors are looking to make the most of it to solve key business challenges. Case in point: ERP leader SAP’s latest move to integrate Microsoft’s AI Copilot and Azure OpenAI Service to streamline talent management for its customers. 

The collaboration, as SAP explains, will enhance its SuccessFactors suite of applications with large language models that analyze and generate natural language, enabling new AI-driven experiences to improve how organizations attract, retain and skill their people.

This comes a week after data management giant Informatica announced Claire GPT and Salesforce announced Slack GPT and Tableau GPT, making their respective bets on generative AI to target different use cases.

How exactly will Microsoft’s AI smarts help SAP?

Launched in 2001, SAP’s SuccessFactors suite includes cloud-based human capital management applications that support functions like core HR and payroll, talent management, HR analytics and workforce planning, and employee experience management.

The solutions make talent management easier, but even with these, certain bits of the process continue to remain manual, such as writing up job descriptions, keeping them in line with changing market and skill needs, and delivering the right programs to help existing employees prepare for the future.

With the integration of SuccessFactors with Microsoft AI Copilot and Azure OpenAI service, SAP is looking to end these challenges for its customers.

For instance, using the OpenAI service API (which includes GPT-4) and data from the SuccessFactors recruiting solution, teams will be able to generate highly targeted and market-relevant job descriptions through simple natural language prompts. Then, using the integration with Microsoft 365, they will be able to run Copilot in Word to fine-tune and publish these job descriptions.

The Azure OpenAI API will also offer prompts to interviewers within Microsoft Teams, suggesting questions based on a candidate’s resume, the job description, and similar jobs, SAP said.

Meanwhile, to assist with smarter career development, SAP SuccessFactors offerings will loop in Microsoft Viva Learning. This will allow employees to use Copilot in Viva Learning and get personalized learning recommendations, based on data and courses in SAP SuccessFactors that align with their career and development goals. As the courses are completed, the SuccessFactors portfolio will be updated automatically, giving leaders a glimpse of the current skills landscape in their organization.

“SAP has long embedded AI into our solutions, and we’re very excited about the opportunities generative AI unfolds for our industry and our customers. Today’s announcement is one example of how we are bringing the power of generative AI to business, building on 50 years of trusted innovation for companies worldwide,” Christian Klein, CEO and member of the executive board of SAP, said.

The AI race is on

The partnership with SAP is the latest one from Microsoft to drive the adoption of its AI Copilot and Azure OpenAI Service. Just a few days back, the company announced a partnership with Aisera to transform the enterprise service experience with these tools. The end goal here is to make these AI capabilities as widely available as possible, as Google makes its move in the space.

According to Goldman Sachs Research, the total addressable market for generative AI software is estimated to be $150 billion. And as these tools make their way into businesses and society in general, they could drive a 7% (almost $7 trillion) increase in global GDP and lift productivity by 1.5 percentage points over a 10-year period.