Unlocking Data Potential: What I Learned from SAP Sapphire
Hi everyone! I’m Kara Reed, Senior Director of Product Marketing at SAP. At this year’s SAP Sapphire, I had the privilege of co-presenting a session with Brian Suk from Databricks on a topic that’s very close to my heart: how organizations can unlock the full value of their data through the combined power of SAP Business Data Cloud and Databricks.
Our session—" SAP and Databricks open a bold new era of data and AI"—highlighted how businesses can build trusted, AI-powered applications with SAP Databricks, a fully SAP-managed solution that combines industry leading AI/ML, data science, and data engineering capabilities with semantically rich, business-ready data from SAP applications. Let me take you behind the scenes and share a few insights from the session—and what I took away from the event overall.
Driving Value with Data + AI
Our goal was to help attendees answer three key questions:
It’s no secret that data and AI are reshaping the future of business. Companies that can turn their data into actionable insights—quickly, securely, and at scale—are the ones that will lead in their industries. But too many are still held back by siloed data, inconsistent quality, and tools that don’t talk to each other.
The Trust Gap is Real
One of the most striking stats we shared was from a recent survey of 1,200 business and IT leaders: only 34% have high trust in their data capabilities. That’s a wake-up call. Organizations are investing heavily in data platforms, yet many still struggle with aligning IT and business needs or ensuring data is ready for AI-driven use cases.
What SAP and Databricks Are Doing Differently
What stood out most in our session was showing how SAP and Databricks are partnering to change that. This is more than just a technical integration—it’s a strategic shift.
With SAP Business Data Cloud, customers can:
SAP Databricks in Business Data Cloud enables a zero-copy architecture that reduces time, effort, and risk when building production-grade AI solutions.
What Customers Told Me
One of my favorite parts of SAP Sapphire was speaking with customers one-on-one. Many were excited about how SAP-managed data products could drastically reduce the time and complexity of their data engineering tasks. The idea of getting "AI-ready" data out of SAP systems, without writing hundreds of custom pipelines, really resonated.
Several clients mentioned how this approach could help close the gap between IT and business teams, giving analysts and data scientists quicker access to meaningful, governed data. That’s a huge win for productivity and innovation.
My Takeaway
SAP Sapphire reminded me that we’re at a tipping point: data and AI are no longer "nice to have"—they’re critical to staying competitive. But what makes the difference isn’t just technology. It’s trust. Trust in the data. Trust in the platform. And trust that the tools will work together.
SAP Business Data Cloud and Databricks are helping organizations make that leap.
Let’s Keep the Conversation Going
One of the best parts of the event? Meeting new people—partners, customers, colleagues—and hearing how you're tackling data and AI challenges in the real world. Let’s not stop here.
👉 Introduce yourself in the comments! I’d love to hear what you're working on and how you see data + AI evolving at your organization.
And if you're looking to go deeper, here are some helpful resources:
Let’s keep learning from each other.
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Data and Analytics SAP Datasphere SAP Business Data Cloud
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