Keynote speech of Professor Steininger on the strategic value of artificial intelligence at SAP Chapter

Under the patronage of Dominik Asam (CFO of SAP), Professor Steininger gave a keynote talk at the SAP Chapter of the Mannheim Business School on July 10. In front of around 50 SAP executives, he highlighted the various facets of value creation through artificial intelligence. 

He presented current research findings and case studies that illustrated the enormous economic potential of AI. In particular, he emphasized that the biggest obstacles to the use of AI in German companies are a lack of knowledge about potential use cases, high costs, and security concerns.

A key topic was the importance of data quality and availability as well as the need for a clear AI strategy that is aligned with overarching business goals. Professor Steininger presented two strategic approaches: a top-down approach, initiated by senior management, and a bottom-up approach, which focuses on the gradual integration of AI into existing processes.

The keynote concluded with the outlook that digitalization and artificial intelligence should be considered together as part of the “digital intelligence transformation” in companies in order to avoid the emergence of further isolated solutions and silos and to develop a holistic strategy.