When ChatGPT was publicly launched on November 30, 2022, its impact was immediate. Within one week, the site had more than one million users. Since then, the topic of AI, and generative AI in particular, has dominated news cycles and generated more buzz than any technology in recent memory.
Earlier today, SAP made a
major announcement about a collaboration that will introduce use cases based on generative AI to SAP SuccessFactors customers. In the announcement, SAP and Microsoft detailed planned integrations between SAP SuccessFactors and
Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot for Microsoft Viva Learning, and Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service, that will harness the power of generative AI to improve how our customers attract, retain, and upskill their people through responsible and ethical AI practices.
These use cases are focused on streamlining employee and manager processes, using SAP SuccessFactors data to quickly generate information directly in everyday tasks.
The initial use cases announced today include:
- Recruiting: Within SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting, this use case will allow recruiters and hiring managers to use Microsoft 365 Copilot to create a hyper-tailored job description based on both SAP SuccessFactors data and external data. An additional use case leverages Azure OpenAI Service to enable interviewers to be prompted within Microsoft Teams before an interview to provide interview questions based on the candidate’s resume/CV, the job description, and similar jobs. Both use cases have built in bias checks to help organizations with inclusive hiring practices.
- Learning: Employees can use Microsoft Viva Learning and Copilot to find personalized learning plans which include courses from SAP SuccessFactors Learning, along with other sources. As learning is completed, the skills gained will be reflected in an employee’s growth portfolio within SAP SuccessFactors, providing employees and organizations an up-to-date view of their skills. The growth portfolio is a dynamic library of employee attributes, including skills, strengths, workstyles, passions and aspirations that are an integral part of the whole self model.
By building these processes into the flow of work, employees can access them without having to leave their work environment. This not only saves time but helps to make processes more effective. For example, collecting feedback after interviews is critical to inclusive hiring practices but remains an area where recruiters struggle to get consistent and measurable feedback. Prompting interviewers within Microsoft Teams simplifies this process and can help ensure feedback is delivered more consistently.
We have already put AI into the hands of our customers by way of SAP AI Business Services. More than 500 customers use our recruiting job analyzer which detects bias in job postings. We have customers using AI-based learning recommendations, career path recommendations, and natural language processing-based digital navigation assistant in production. We are also taking a big leap forward in AI delivery this year with our talent intelligence hub. Lastly, innovation is coming to the SAP Digital Assistant, as it was recently announced that it will soon be
powered by IBM Watson.
So, why collaborate with Microsoft on these use cases? Creating a
large language model (LLM) like GPT-4 can be a complex and challenging task that entails a significant amount of expertise, resources, and time. It requires powerful computing infrastructure, large datasets, and sophisticated algorithms. By collaborating with Microsoft, SAP can leverage one of the most advanced LLMs in the world to bring value to our customers and the market faster.
With these new integrations, SAP SuccessFactors is delivering greater value to customers from solutions they already own, providing a better employee experience, and helping leaders more quickly address critical skills gaps.
Generative AI is already influencing the future of technology and the future of work. SAP remains committed to investing time and resources to ensure that we play a critical role in this evolution,
ethically and responsibly.
