SAP News and Trends That Every Business Leader Must Know [Updated 2026]

This article was updated in February 2026 to reflect the latest SAP trends in 2026 and what they mean for business leaders making long-term technology decisions.

SAP is flipping the script on business transformation. And in the coming years, companies leveraging these SAP innovations will process data dramatically faster than those stuck on legacy systems.

Back in 2024, we said that:

“By 2026, SAP will be defined by the intelligent use of AI, a strong push towards cloud adoption, and a stronger focus on leveraging data to drive business outcomes, with sustainability and GRC taking centre stage.” 

Now that we’re in 2026, that statement has proven accurate.

SAP is quietly but decisively becoming an AI-first execution platform. It’s no longer positioning itself only as a system of record, but as a platform where data, AI, and business processes converge to drive real-time decisions.

Cloud adoption is no longer the end goal. Clean core is no longer the whole story. And UI modernisation alone won’t deliver competitive advantage.

The organisations seeing real value from SAP today are the ones rethinking how work actually gets done using AI agents, integrated data platforms, and event-driven architectures that sit on top of SAP’s trusted business processes.

Unmissable SAP Trends 2026 Shaping the Future of Businesses

1. 60% of Companies Are Still on ECC, and SAP Is Changing How They Decide

The end of SAP ECC maintenance in 2027 continues to loom large (extended to 2030 with an additional 2% maintenance cost). And yet, nearly 60% of SAP customers are still running ECC.

Many teams continue to rely on spreadsheets, emails, and manual workarounds to solve daily SAP operational issues, not because better options don’t exist, but because making changes in a legacy system feels risky, expensive, or irreversible. There’s also a lingering fear that years of customisation will simply disappear during migration.

However, SAP is actively pushing customers to migrate. Rather than only applying deadline pressure, SAP is now actively reducing decision friction. One example is the introduction of S/4HANA trials, which allow organisations to explore what their system would look like in S/4HANA Cloud without committing to a full transformation. 

For many ECC customers, this “try before you commit” approach is lowering the psychological barrier to change. It’s not a full migration test, but it’s a meaningful shift in how SAP invites customers to engage.

At the same time, RISE with SAP has matured. Strong SLAs, private cloud options, and tighter hyperscaler integration give organisations more flexibility in how and when they modernise. SAP also appears far more pragmatic about hybrid landscapes, recognising that regulatory and governance realities don’t disappear overnight.

2. SAP Fiori Has Become the Execution Layer

SAP GUI remains deeply embedded in many organisations, especially for experienced users who value speed and familiarity. That hasn’t changed.  

What has changed is SAP’s intent for Fiori. Numerous large-scale organisations are increasingly adopting a strict Fiori-first strategy and activating Fiori apps on S/4HANA not just to modernise UI, but to enable role-based execution. 

Today’s Fiori apps are designed to surface insights, recommendations, and next actions directly within workflows, something that becomes essential as AI moves closer to day-to-day operations.

While debates around power-user efficiency and performance still exist, the strategic direction is clear: innovation happens in Fiori, not in legacy interfaces. The real question for leaders is no longer “SAP GUI or Fiori?” but “How quickly can teams adapt to new ways of working?”

Suggested Reading: What’s New In SAP Fiori for the S/4HANA 2025 Release

3. Clean Core Is Now Mandatory

The latest SAP direction is clearly centred around the Clean Core A–D extensibility model, which means keep S/4HANA standard, move extensions out of the core, and use SAP BTP for custom logic and innovation.

This shift is a response to what customers have experienced over the last decade. Heavy customisation inside the core might solve short-term problems, but it almost always creates long-term pain. Upgrades become risky, innovation slows down, and even small changes start to feel expensive and disruptive.

That’s why even non-SAP industry voices are now describing clean core as mandatory, not optional. Without it, continuous innovation simply doesn’t scale.

4. Business Data Cloud Is the New SAP Battleground (and It’s Bigger Than “Analytics”)

The most meaningful SAP shift in 2025–2026 is SAP’s push toward SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC), and the strategic point is simple:

SAP is moving away from “copy all your SAP data into one analytics layer” and toward a model where semantics, governance, and business context travel with the data.

BDC is designed to reduce data duplication, fragile pipelines, context loss, and governance gaps. 

This becomes critical as AI adoption increases. AI doesn’t fail because of models; it fails because data is fragmented, context is lost during replication, governance becomes messy, and teams spend months doing “data plumbing” instead of building value. 

BDC is SAP’s attempt to make trusted business data easier to use across the enterprise without forcing everyone into the same stack.

5. AI Innovation: Smart Features and AI Agents

It’s truly inspiring to see the strides SAP is making in AI innovation. From predictive analytics and process automation to improved customer experiences, AI integration across SAP solutions is making organisations more agile and responsive.

SAP projects are increasingly being shaped, and in many cases dominated, by AI feature adoption. Recent announcements across SAP Fieldglass, SAP Business Network, and finance and supply chain solutions show a clear pattern: AI is being embedded where decisions are made, not just where data is analysed. From generating job descriptions to optimising RFIs and forecasting outcomes, AI is now tightly linked to execution.

Moreover, SAP is moving beyond isolated AI features toward AI agents that can reason, recommend, and act within business processes. 2026 SAP trends increasingly frame “agentic AI” as a core capability, not optional, and link it to clean core principles, SAP BTP readiness, and disciplined Cloud ALM practices.

Many organisations are now actively building AI agents to automate approvals, adjust plans in real time, handle exceptions, and support operational decision-making.

One point needs to be very clear, though: AI agents don’t replace processes; they amplify them. If the underlying processes are strong, AI can accelerate outcomes. 

If data quality is poor or workflows are fragmented, AI simply scales the mess.

Organisations struggling with inconsistent governance, fragmented data, or heavy customisation won’t magically unlock AI value by adding another layer of intelligence. In many cases, they’ll only accelerate existing problems. The key is to prepare the foundation first and then use AI wisely.

6. Joule Is Actively Playing A Role Across the SAP Ecosystem

Joule is the generative AI copilot with over 1,600 skills and 40+ agents live, covering finance, SCM, talent, HR, and more to revolutionise user interactions within the SAP ecosystem. Initially rolled out in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, Joule is designed to be a seamless companion that provides transparent, role-based access to relevant processes from any location. It quickly sorts and contextualises data from multiple systems. 

Joule’s capabilities extend across SAP’s portfolio; it also operates in SAP BTP environments like Cloud Foundry, Kyma, and Kubernetes. It is a multi-tenant application that ensures data isolation and independent provisioning for different consumers. It helps developers with AI-powered code suggestions, test data creation, and also helps optimise cloud resource allocation for peak efficiency by analysing usage patterns.

Integrating Joule into your organisational suite offers numerous advantages, including:

• Simplified access to applications.
• Rapid retrieval of business object data, for instance, purchase orders.
• Condensed user enablement content for more efficient execution of tasks.
• Access SAP Help Portal content 95% faster.
• Complete control over AI-driven tasks, ensuring the highest standards of data privacy and security.
• With Joule, end users can work 20% more efficiently and with higher-quality results.

7. SAP’s Partnerships with Databricks and Snowflake

SAP is no longer trying to do everything alone, and that’s a good thing.

Last year, SAP announced collaborations with AWS, Microsoft Azure (including 99.95% SLA Cloud ERP Private), Microsoft 365 Copilot, Google Cloud, Palantir, and NVIDIA to deliver real, measurable value to its customers. 

In November 2025, at SAP TechEd Berlin, SAP announced collaborations with Snowflake, Databricks and several third-party tools. Together, these alliances allow SAP customers to combine trusted enterprise processes with best-in-class data platforms, AI infrastructure, and cloud services without sacrificing governance or control.

SAP + Databricks is now generally available as a fully managed service within SAP Business Data Cloud. This enables teams to work with SAP and non-SAP data using fewer duplicate pipelines, less data replication, and stronger governance and security. Databricks positions this as supporting end-to-end analytics and AI/ML within SAP BDC, including “agentic systems,” with secure data sharing powered by Delta Sharing.

At the same time, SAP’s collaboration with Snowflake introduces zero-copy data sharing between SAP Business Data Cloud and Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud. This gives customers real compute choice, a significant shift from earlier, more closed architectures. Snowflake is available as an SAP solution extension for BDC customers, enabling bidirectional access to harmonise SAP and non-SAP data for analytics, AI, and agent-based applications.

SAP is no longer trying to own the entire data and AI stack. It’s orchestrating an ecosystem and giving customers the flexibility to innovate on their own terms.

8. Sustainability and SAP: Not Just PR Greenwashing

As global ESG regulations become more stringent, companies are under increasing pressure to accurately report their environmental and social impacts. SAP has developed AI-enabled ESG tools to facilitate ESG compliance and performance monitoring. These solutions are designed to integrate ESG metrics into core business processes to meet regulatory requirements and drive sustainability.

With ESG integration, companies can generate audit-ready reports, maintain compliance with international standards, and adapt quickly to new regulations as they are introduced. 

One of the most popular sustainability trends in the SAP user community is SAP’s ESG tools, which include:

• Sustainability Control Tower: It provides a comprehensive view of a company’s ESG data so that businesses can monitor and manage their sustainability performance in terms of carbon emissions, waste management, and social impact.
• Advanced Carbon Calculator: It can be integrated into the SAP ecosystem so that companies can quantify their environmental impact, meet carbon reduction targets, and comply with regulations like the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol.
• SAP Green Ledger: It will allow companies to connect their financial data with environmental metrics, offering a way to report on sustainability with the same rigour as financial reporting. 

Is Your Business Ready for the Latest SAP Trends? 

The world of SAP is evolving at a fast pace, helping businesses break free from outdated methods. If your company is still playing it safe, it’s time to shake things up. Embrace these SAP trends not just to keep up, but to lead.

If you’re concerned that your business isn’t ready for this transformation or worried it might disrupt current operations, let us help. We’ll conduct a thorough audit of your tech stack and identify areas for improvement.

If you’re looking for a reliable S/4HANA implementation company in Europe, we can have a chat.

Stop playing it safe and start embracing these SAP trends to drive real, impactful change. Because the biggest risk in this era is not taking any risks at all.