SAP SE  announced new innovations and embedded artificial intelligence (AI) across the SAP SuccessFactors HCM suite that provides organizations with greater efficiencies and unparalleled experiences.

The announcements were made at SuccessConnect, SAP’s annual human resources customer event, October 28-30 in Lisbon, Portugal.

“Our announcements today represent a major leap toward a future where every organization has a single source of truth for its people data and skills intelligence, enabling data-driven decisions across the entire business,” said Dan Beck, President and Chief Product Officer, SAP SuccessFactors solutions. “We are not embedding AI in a vacuum. These innovations will activate unparalleled insights and reliable results for SAP SuccessFactors customers.”

Building an Open Skills Ecosystem to Fuel AI-Based Career Recommendations

Skills continue to be a top concern for business leaders. According to Gartner®, “Uncertainty about skills needs and assets – only 8% of organizations have reliable data on the skills the workforce currently possesses and those that have the greatest impact on business success.”*

SAP today introduced enhancements to the talent intelligence hub, which provides organizations with a centralized system for skills that drive career development and strategic workforce planning. Customers now can aggregate and harmonize data from third-party solutions in the talent intelligence hub to ensure a single view of skills for each employee and for the organization. The first partners to integrate with the talent intelligence hub will include Beamery, Degreed, IMOCHA INC,  Korn Ferry, Lightcast, Phenom, TalenTeam and TechWolf, with more in the coming months.

SAP also has launched the SAP SuccessFactors Career and Talent Development solution, a fully integrated offering, which combines the robust features of the SAP SuccessFactors Succession & Development solution with the SAP SuccessFactors Opportunity Marketplace solution, powered by skills data from the talent intelligence hub. This innovative solution empowers employees to set career growth goals aligned with personal aspirations and organizational needs. Through career path exploration, employees can map their skills to current and target roles and improve their readiness for their next opportunity. Learn more about our learning and talent strategy here.

These updates are complemented with dozens of new generative AI capabilities that improve the employee experience across the entire talent lifecycle. With the help of AI, for example, managers receive support in developing AI-assisted 360-degree reviews, which provide employees with actionable insights and a feedback summary that highlights their strengths and areas for improvement. SAP’s AI copilot Joule can now guide employees through the onboarding process, such as providing recommended meetings and nudging them to complete data review, forms and e-signatures.

AI Boosts SAP’s Core HR and Payroll

SAP leads the market with strong global core HR solutions, providing customers with country-specific compliance, content and support in more places than any other cloud HR vendor – 104 for the SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central solution and 52 for the SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll solution. By embedding AI throughout these products, organizations can deliver a better experience for employees while freeing up time HR professionals now spend addressing service tickets.

In the first half of 2025, employees will be able to ask Joule complex questions about their pay slip and receive contextually relevant information. Additionally, SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll will include enhanced Payroll Control Center capabilities to manage payroll process activities and improve budgeting and control for public sector customers.

Accelerating Time to Value for Customers

In September, SAP successfully acquired WalkMe Ltd., the leading digital adoption platform company. At SuccessConnect, SAP announced its intent to add pre-built WalkMe content into SAP SuccessFactors solutions which will be commercially available in the first half of 2025, allowing customers to improve employee experience and adoption across common workflows.

“HR and people managers must deliver excellent, lasting and personalized employee experiences,” said Zachary Chertok, Senior Research Manager for Employee Experience at IDC. “Both leaders need to continuously align employee growth, goals, and motivators to ever-evolving sets of business OKRs. SAP SuccessFactors is furthering employee experience management while supporting HR and people managers to better partner with employees to mutually value their growth and engagement. From AI modeling and forecasting to dynamic skills and value framing, SAP SuccessFactors newest releases raise the bar for how to optimize and align employee experiences with the goals and needs of the enterprise.”