Generative AI Innovations Supercharge Developers

At SAP TechEd 2023, SAP unveiled a series of generative AI capabilities to empower developers and make their workloads faster and easier. As Juergen Mueller, SAP's CTO, stated, "Today’s dynamic technology and business landscape means every developer needs to be an AI developer."

SAP is meeting this need by launching tools and platforms infused with the power of AI, specifically tailored for developers across skill levels.

SAP Build Code Boosts Productivity for Pro Developers

SAP introduced SAP Build Code, AI-powered solutions optimized for Java and JavaScript developers. SAP Build Code integrates with low-code SAP Build solutions, promoting collaboration between pro developers and less technical business users.

Uniquely designed for SAP applications and the ecosystem, SAP Build Code leverages SAP's new AI assistant, Joule, to boost productivity. Joule's generative AI can help developers by generating code, data models, and test scripts.

SAP Build Code draws on Joule's power to "further boost productivity, embedding code generation capabilities for the data model, application logic, and test script creation."

SAP Build Code also provides a cloud-hosted integrated development environment based on Visual Studio, further simplifying development. It offers in-context guidance and recommendations on extending SAP applications based on best practices.

With SAP Build Code, developers can build apps rapidly, integrate systems seamlessly, and collaborate effectively across roles in fusion development teams. SAP Build Code solutions include robust governance and lifecycle management capabilities as well.

HANA Cloud Gets Vector Database to Enhance AI Apps

Good data is key for effective AI, and SAP HANA Cloud now adds vector database features for managing unstructured data like text and images. This provides memory and context to improve AI models.

The vector capabilities in HANA Cloud enable semantic similarity-based searches, such as finding similar suppliers based on contract text. This combines the strengths of large language models with real-time enterprise data.

According to Yogen Gill, SAP's Head of AI, the vector engine in HANA Cloud helps "combining these capabilities of actual data, which the large language models, like ChatGPT, have no idea of because their training data has a cutoff date. And the capabilities of large language models."

Developers can build smarter AI apps by reducing hallucinations in model outputs with relevant structured data. HANA Cloud's vector engine works alongside relational databases, giving a full context for generative AI.

SAP notes this innovation in HANA Cloud helps developers be at the forefront of new intelligent data applications.

AI Foundation: One-Stop Shop for Building Business AI

SAP also announced the AI Foundation, a unified platform for developers to create AI and generative AI extensions and apps with the SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP).

AI Foundation offers pre-built components developers need AI services, access to top language models, vector databases, and AI lifecycle management based on SAP AI Core.

The AI Foundation generative AI hub gives instant access to various large language models. Developers can easily try different models and combine outputs for improved results.

Gill emphasized that with the hub, "companies now can use SAP BTP to access language models in an SAP context."

With AI Foundation and HANA Cloud's vector engine, developers get the tools to develop industry and task-specific AI that interoperates with live business data.

New Training Prepares Developers for AI-Powered Future

With technology evolving rapidly, SAP unveiled new learning resources on the SAP Learning site for ABAP Cloud developers. This aims to upskill developers on emerging technology like generative AI.

The new materials include free self-paced courses on ABAP development for SAP BTP and SAP S/4HANA aligned with agile, cloud-based business transformation.

This accompanies a new ABAP Cloud certification. Together, the training helps developers gain skills to build cloud-native extensions following SAP's clean core strategy.

As Gill explained, the prompt libraries can help ABAP developers "explain, review, and troubleshoot existing ABAP code and assist in refactoring and optimizing existing classic ABAP code for ABAP Cloud."

Empowering Developers to Pioneer Business AI Revolution

In conclusion, SAP TechEd 2023 showcased various innovations that empower developers to unlock the potential of AI, specifically generative AI.

With SAP Build Code and AI Foundation, pro-developers get new tools that boost productivity. Vector capabilities in HANA Cloud better support building intelligent data apps. And SAP is upskilling the workforce through new learning resources.

As Mueller stated, "generative AI is changing the way developers work." SAP is pioneering ways to help every developer become an AI developer, turning them into trailblazers of the business AI revolution.

Michael Nilles, CDO of Henkel, explained how SAP's AI Foundation allowed them to quickly build an AI-powered trade promotion management application that delivered tremendous value.

Thomas Saueressig, SAP's Chief Product Officer, also highlighted the integration capabilities that break data silos and align information across applications - critical for effective AI.

The AI-infused innovations presented at TechEd aim to simplify technology for enterprises so they can innovate and transform using the power of AI with ease. SAP is providing developers the tools to drive the business AI revolution and maximize its benefits for organizations.