SAP Connect 2025: AI ushers in new era for work, putting HR at the centre of disruption

The age of business AI has arrived, and it is redefining what it means to work, lead, and grow. At SAP Connect 2025, SAP unveiled its vision for a world where AI and people work hand in hand to drive smarter decisions and more meaningful outcomes. By weaving AI into its data and application ecosystem, SAP is laying the foundation for a future of work that is intelligent, agile, and deeply human.

For Tim Bryant, Head of SAP SuccessFactors, Asia-Pacific, this evolution marks a fundamental shift in how HR leaders across Asia-Pacific think about people and performance.

“The way that we do things today is not going to be the way that we do things tomorrow,” Bryant told HRM Asia. “AI is having a massive impact across all elements of an organisation—and because people touch every part of the business, that impact is most deeply felt in HR.”

Across key markets such as Singapore, South Korea, and Australia, Bryant noted that organisations are dealing with unprecedented levels of disruption while striving to stay agile. This has put the spotlight squarely on skills-based workforce planning.

“Many of our customers are really looking at how they skill and reskill across the organisation,” he said. “Around 40% of jobs will have their skills impacted in the next five years—and that figure may even be understated.”

The pace of technological change has also turned traditional workforce planning on its head. “We used to plan three or four years out,” Bryant added. “Now, organisations are asking how to become more agile, how to deal with the new normal of resiliency and uncertainty. It’s forcing everyone to rethink how HR technology supports that change.”

Tools like SAP SuccessFactors’ Talent Intelligence Hub play a pivotal role here, helping organisations move towards a common skills taxonomy and maintain visibility across roles and capabilities. “It’s about managing a shared language of skills and evolving it systematically,” Byrant added.

AI in action across Asia-Pacific

SAP Business AI is already being used across industries and regions to enhance HR operations and employee experiences. “Globally, we have more than 34,000 customers using SAP Business AI,” Bryant noted. “From a SuccessFactors perspective, adoption in Asia-Pacific is really high.”

Among SAP’s regional success stories is PT Bank Danamon Indonesia, one of Indonesia’s leading financial institutions. The bank has integrated SAP Business AI—including SAP’s generative AI (GenAI) co-pilot, Joule—into its HR processes to enhance efficiency across planning, recruitment, and decision-making.

With more than 8,000 employees across 34 provinces, Bank Danamon required a scalable and secure talent management. Having used SAP SuccessFactors since 2017, the bank’s integration of SAP Business AI now enables it to leverage AI-generated insights for personalised candidate matching and employee engagement, all within a single HR platform.

Bryant said Bank Danamon’s success reflects a broader trend among organisations in Asia-Pacific that are adopting AI not only to optimise HR processes but also to empower their workforce. “We’re seeing tangible results—greater agility, smarter decision-making, and more empowered managers,” he noted.

That same shift is evident in how organisations across the region are embracing AI and cloud transformation, said Verena Siow, Head of Business Suite, SAP Asia-Pacific.

“Asia-Pacific has been our fastest-growing region globally for the last few years,” she shared. “There’s a strong impetus to change—not just from an AI perspective, but because organisations now understand that change itself is constant. They’re learning to build resilience.”

Siow pointed out that large enterprises such as Standard Chartered Bank and National Healthcare Group in Singapore are already using SAP end-to-end, from HR and procurement to ERP and supply chain management. “There is a real openness to change,” she added. “Some are early adopters, others take longer, but everyone realises that either you change and disrupt yourself, or you get disrupted.”

While global brands lead the way, Siow emphasised that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) stand to benefit most from AI adoption. “SMEs are the backbone of Asia’s economy,” she said. “They have fewer resources, so they can truly leverage technology in all its forms to scale more efficiently.”

Making work more meaningful

In the central keynote at SAP Connect 2025, Gina Vargiu-Breuer, SAP’s Chief People Officer, spoke about what makes work meaningful in the age of AI—a theme Siow believes lies at the heart of SAP’s strategy.

“AI and technology should remove administrative tasks so that people can focus on value-added and strategic work,” she explained. “That’s the power of the SAP Business Suite—when applications like HR, finance, supply chain, and customer experience are seamlessly integrated, it helps everyone make better decisions and deliver better outcomes.”

Siow highlighted SA Power Networks in Australia as an example. By using SAP Business AI and mobile tools, the South Australian electricity distributor enabled its field employees to access 50 years of asset data through natural language queries, improving accuracy, safety, and productivity. “They save about A$1 million a year,” she said. “But more importantly, AI helped make their work safer and more meaningful.”

But as AI becomes more embedded in workforce management, questions about trust naturally arise—especially when AI is used for performance evaluation.

Siow acknowledged this concern and explained that SAP’s three principles for Business AI—relevant, reliable, and responsible—guide its design and deployment. “Enterprise use is very different from consumer use,” she said. “It has to be accurate and reliable. The AI may provide recommendations, but the decision still lies with the manager.”

She added that AI brings the benefits of objectivity to performance management, and explained, “It helps provide data-based insights that complement human judgment. The combination of human understanding and data-driven objectivity creates a more balanced and fair approach.”

And for organisations navigating rapid transformation, continuous learning must become part of everyday change management.

“Change management can’t be a one-off,” Siow said. “We’re in a dynamic environment, so we must constantly evolve to assess workforce skills, review plans, and stay ahead of what’s next.”

READ MORE: SAP Connect 2025: SAP positions AI as a ‘teammate’ for employee agility and growth

She highlighted SAP’s People Intelligence app on the Business Cloud Data as a tool to help organisations gain insights into workforce trends and learning needs. “It allows leaders to understand what changes are needed, what roles are being reshaped, and what kind of learning programmes must be put in place,” she added.

Across Asia-Pacific, Siow sees growing momentum in upskilling and reskilling, as she elaborated. “India, for example, is leveraging AI to empower consultants and improve project outcomes. In Indonesia and Brunei, organisations like Bank Danamon and Darussalam Assets are using Joule to accelerate recruitment and drive productivity. AI is helping emerging economies leapfrog ahead.”

Looking ahead: AI with a human touch

As organisations move from pilots to full-scale AI deployments, Siow said the next phase will focus on using AI to build safer, more inclusive, and more fulfilling workplaces.

“AI can drive inclusion when leveraged in the right way,” she said. “It can help protect employees, improve wellbeing, and free people to focus on more value-added work. At the end of the day, it’s AI with a human touch—the decision still lies with the person.”

Bryant agreed, noting that AI’s potential in HR lies not in replacing people, but in empowering them. “Our role is to help customers become more resilient—using technology to navigate change with confidence,” he said. “Ultimately, it’s about AI that partners with people.”