SAP has announced a major AI-focused development push designed to accelerate innovation, improve productivity, and empower more than 12 million people globally with AI-ready skills by 2030. The technology company unveiled new AI-driven capabilities across its SAP Build solution, expanded data partnerships, and next-generation Joule Agents aimed at enabling developers to move ideas to impact faster and with greater confidence.
SAP says the updates will give developers across enterprise and emerging markets including Africa’s growing MSME digital ecosystem more freedom to build, automate and integrate using the tools they already use daily. “SAP’s announcements today give developers the tools they need to deliver at the speed of AI,” said Muhammad Alam, member of the Executive Board of SAP SE. “Innovations across SAP’s unique flywheel of applications, data and AI put developers in the driver’s seat where they belong.”
The upgraded SAP Build platform will now support developers using agentic tools such as Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf and Cline, while a new extension will allow Visual Studio Code users to access SAP Build capabilities directly inside their environment. SAP also plans to make this extension available through Open VSX Registry, expanding access to more developer communities.
To improve the quality and reach of enterprise data, SAP is expanding SAP Business Data Cloud with stronger integrations. A new SAP Snowflake solution extension will connect SAP customers directly to Snowflake’s fully managed data and AI capabilities, while a new SAP Business Data Cloud Connect partnership with Snowflake complements existing ties with Databricks and Google Cloud. This gives developers more flexibility in choosing compute, storage and AI workflow options without compromising governance or business context.
SAP is also introducing its first enterprise relational foundation model, SAP-RPT-1 a new class of AI designed to predict business outcomes such as delivery delays and payment risk. In addition, new Joule Agents and AI assistants will help automate complex tasks across finance, HR, supply chain and business process management.
The company is also launching a free playground environment where developers can experiment, test and build with these new AI tools.
As AI rapidly reshapes work globally, SAP is committing to equip 12 million people with AI-ready skills by 2030. This will be delivered through expanded hands-on training and certification programs, including through Coursera and other learning partnerships.
For African MSMEs, developers and tech talent pipelines the new initiative offers wider access to enterprise-grade AI infrastructure, more flexible data environments and faster product build capabilities. The increased focus on skills development also creates new upskilling opportunities for young African developers and digital creators aiming to build globally competitive solutions.
