SAP Future of Work Trends Report identifies three major areas relevant to work that are undergoing massive changes with the diffusion of artificial intelligence (AI): the future of the workforce, the future of human practices, and the future of HR.
Christian Schmeichel, Chief Future of Work Officer at SAP SE, discusses these transformations here.
Q: The second half of 2024 has begun and SAP is positioning itself as a company specializing in professional AI, including offering an AI assistant for its professional software. What do SAP employees think about the company’s increased focus on AI?
A: AI AI is no longer a new topic for SAP employees. According to an internal study from the end of 2023, 80% of respondents are optimistic about AI. This is confirmed. This is also because we are a software company. There are certainly industries in which employees are more cautious about AI, but this is less the case at SAP, partly because we attach great importance to privacy and data protection. Our employees also see the great opportunity that SAP has with enterprise AI to open the next stage of development of our portfolio. This excites many.
Q: As the Future of Work Leader at SAP, your team is responsible for predicting and managing changes in the workplace. How is the spread of AI currently impacting the future of employees?
A: The race to the future is heating up with AI. Our customers want to know how their workforce structure needs to evolve and what steps they need to take as a company to ensure that current and future employees have the skills and qualifications needed to collaborate effectively with AI.
Major global trends such as climate change and the entry of younger generations into the world of work are additional challenges that interest us at SAP. Like other companies, we are also looking at scenarios to determine what skills we will need in 5-10 years, how roles and activities will evolve, and what level of AI and robotics will be required in different teams. It is not easy for anyone to imagine where we will be in five years, which makes it exciting.
Q: What impact does the increased diffusion of AI have on daily work?
A: Unlike other technological changes in the past, the current development in the field of AI is a fundamental change in the interaction between humans and machines. I believe that it is necessary to learn how to work with AI, including how to delegate tasks. We are already seeing generative AI being used in all areas of work, and the topic is becoming very concrete. This ranges from data research and analysis to creating reports, presentations, and meeting minutes. We may be dealing with tasks with a completely different focus in the future. For example, we may be able to perform tasks that cannot or should not be entrusted to AI because they require decisions that are currently beyond its capabilities, such as creativity, strategic thinking, or moral judgment.
Q: Can we talk about a shift from purely role-specific work to skills-based tasks?
A: Sure. Depending on the role, whether it’s development, sales, consulting or something else, there are specific and typical applications of AI. But it also involves developing a certain mindset that involves a lot of introspection: What am I best at and what can I do better than AI in the future? Where can I better apply my skills? I think this will become increasingly important. By putting more emphasis on broadly applicable skills rather than rigid role profiles, there is a certain fluidity in the organization. Employees will be increasingly flexible and will not need to change roles or departments to take on tasks that match their skills and interests. I see this as a great opportunity to increase job satisfaction.
The second major area is related digital application skills. These include practical skills, such as the ability to give instructions so that AI can deliver what is needed, as well as knowledge of ethics and compliance.
Q: Such radical changes in a short period of time demand a lot from employees. How can good HR practices support them?
A: An important first step is to be aware of the changes that are happening. We live in an era where technological changes are increasingly rapid and impactful. Employees need a toolbox to successfully cope with this massive change that they experience every day. Topics such as mental health have been important at SAP for some time and we see that practical techniques for stress management and adaptation to changed work situations are in high demand. However, the use of AI also offers great opportunities to promote good work-life integration.
Q: How does the application of AI today and in the future affect HR work?
A: There are already many interesting use cases for AI in HR, which aim to make processes more efficient. For example, in recruiting, AI can generate job offers faster and create personalized interview guides. In the field of learning, there are already good opportunities, such as providing personalized information and individual training.
In addition to the potential efficiency gains, AI will help the HR department become even more strategic in the future. Transactional tasks can be increasingly automated and supported by AI, giving HR professionals more time for strategic tasks. For example, they could focus more on providing personalized advice to employees, which is often difficult to do today given the many daily demands on HR professionals.
Q: What does the use of AI mean for the work of the People & Culture organization at SAP in particular?
A: The goal is to fully exploit the potential of AI as part of our transformation in order to better support our leaders and employees in their daily work. At the same time, it is about continuously improving efficiency in certain areas of the People & Culture organization. Our employees are showing great interest in working with AI applications. To date, more than 50,000 employees have used the AI Generative Experience Lab tool and have submitted more than 5 million requests. It can now be said that AI is seen not only as a collaborative tool, but also as a work partner. Thinking “AI first” is an important aspect of continuing to succeed and achieving our goal of becoming the leading commercial AI company.
In addition, future-oriented HR aims to create an attractive working environment in which employees can perform their tasks with a high level of motivation and enjoyment. In the age of AI, it will become increasingly easier to recognize employee performance and possible problems in a timely manner in order to act accordingly. Survey and feedback formats developed and controlled by the People & Culture organization should, with the help of AI, enable results to be obtained much faster in the future, thus helping to respond quickly to employee developments and needs.
Q: How does the spread of AI influence your own work?
A: As Chief Future of Work Officer at SAP, I am delighted to have the opportunity to be at the forefront of the major changes that AI is bringing to HR work. Within the SAP People & Culture Board, we are actively promoting this topic as a showcase for our own SAP solutions. In my role, this means actively shaping the influence of AI on the development of our workforce and the entire HR department alongside my team. This includes strategic workforce planning, modern working methods and impulses for the further development of the HR organization in order to steer the future of work at SAP towards an exciting and digitalized future. AI will fundamentally change the way employees work, and the next few years will certainly be among the most innovative in HR and the technology world in general. This is a great opportunity to significantly shape the evolution of the world of work at SAP.
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