AI is everywhere , but it can be difficult for enterprises to cut through the hype to understand how to leverage the latest innovations to gain a real, measurable competitive advantage.

I addressed this challenge in a conversation with Dan Newman at The Six Five Summit: AI Unleashed 2025, hosted by The Futurum Group and Moor Insights and Strategy. We spoke about the blockers that leaders face when determining where to apply generative AI to move their businesses forward and what SAP Business AI is uniquely bringing to market to help.

Flowing from that conversation, here are four steps you can take, among others we touched on, that will help you become an AI front-runner.

1. Prioritise use cases with the most promise

First, focus on areas of your business in which you can use AI to deliver fast, measurable value. Finance, HR, supply chain, and customer experience are among those AI front-runners often start with. As you assess your options, set aside the idea of a “proof of concept.” Instead, develop “proofs of value” by using your and your team’s expertise, data, and imaginations to find areas where more value can be unlocked using automation or AI agents.

By the way, the term “proof of value” was first coined by AI front-runner Philippe Lalumiere, vice president of IT at Cirque du Soleil, in reference to an AI agent for accounts payable that his team designed in partnership with SAP. The key is to pinpoint what outcomes matter most to your business and choose use cases that quickly prove the value.

2. Deploy intelligent agents to simplify complex tasks

Another practice of AI front-runners is the use of AI agents that span departments and systems to solve end-to-end problems. Their autonomous abilities to handle whole processes is one of the differences between an AI skill and an AI agent. A skill is a single ability, such as the ability to write a message or analyze a spreadsheet and trigger actions from that analysis. An agent independently handles complex, multi-step processes to produce a measurable outcome. We recently announced an expanded network of Joule Agents to help foster autonomous collaboration across systems and lines of business. This includes out-of-the-box agents for HR, finance, supply chain, and other functions that companies can deploy quickly to help automate critical workflows.

AI front-runners, such as Ericsson, Team Liquid, and Cirque du Soleil, also create customized agents that can tackle specific opportunities for process improvement. Now you can build them with Joule Studio, which provides a low-code workspace to help design, orchestrate, and manage custom agents using pre-defined skills, models, and data connections. This can give you the power to extend and tailor your agent network to your exact needs and business context.

3. Embed AI into daily workflows

To truly become an AI front-runner, you need AI woven seamlessly into how your teams work every day. You also need to ensure it works across your broader technology ecosystem. Because of these critical business needs, we created Joule to be your natural language AI interface, built right into your SAP systems. And we’re adding a new Joule action bar to make it even more context-aware and better integrated with third-party tools like ServiceNow and Microsoft Copilot. It doesn’t wait for you to tell it what you need. Instead, it can proactively follow your behavior and suggest helpful next actions in context across multiple SAP and non-SAP applications. This helps remove friction, so your team members don’t have to toggle between tools or relearn interfaces.

4. Foster an ecosystem of interoperable, leading AI tools

Another way to become an AI front-runner is to tackle fragmented tools and solutions by putting in place an open, interoperable ecosystem. After all, what good is an innovative AI tool if it runs into blockers when it encounters your other first- and third-party solutions? This is why we recently announced a tighter integration with Microsoft Copilot for productivity and partnerships with Mistral AI and Perplexity for flexible access to leading AI models. These, and many other partnerships, help teams combine multiple AI capabilities, share trusted data across systems, and drive business outcomes faster, without the headache of manual connections.

Ready to lead? Here’s how to get started

I want to encourage you to lead, not follow, in the AI era. If you’re ready to do that, there are a few ways to get started. First, go deeper on these subjects in the full Six Five Summit conversation. Then see how other companies are innovating with AI and learn what’s possible through SAP Business AI.