Building AI Skills for SAP: 7 Practical Steps for IT and Developers
AI is changing how work actually gets done. Investment is high, agentic AI is moving fast, and the bottleneck isn't tools-it's skills. For SAP customers and partners, meaningful adoption depends on teams who can apply AI in real projects. Without the right capabilities, the best software sits idle.
Use these seven steps to upskill your team with a clear, repeatable process-specifically for SAP.
1) Learn the fundamentals of AI
Start with the basics: core AI concepts, prompt quality, model behavior, evaluation, and responsible use. SAP offers free e-learning and webinars covering AI, Joule, and SAP Business AI. Add an ethics track early to avoid rework later.
- Begin with a fundamentals course on SAP Learning.
- Bookmark a governance standard such as the NIST AI Risk Management Framework.
- Make sure everyone knows what Joule is and where it shows up in SAP products.
2) Run a self-assessment: Where do you stand?
Once the basics are covered, assess your current state. The SAP Business AI self-assessment helps you gauge awareness, knowledge, and application skills across areas like Joule (copilot and agents), embedded AI, ML services on SAP BTP, SAP Build and Joule Studio, responsible AI, and implementation.
- Score yourself as an individual and as a team; repeat quarterly.
- Turn gaps into a simple backlog you prioritize in sprint planning.
Early results often show strong motivation, but hands-on application still needs work. Plan for more labs than lectures.
3) Go deeper by topic and role
Use your assessment to create a focused learning plan. Map topics to roles and to the SAP products you use.
- ABAP and application developers: embedded AI patterns, Joule integration points, and AI-aware UI flows.
- Integration engineers: SAP Build automations, AI-enabled workflows, and event-driven patterns.
- Data engineers/scientists: SAP BTP ML services, vector stores, feature pipelines, and evaluation.
- Architects/Platform teams: security, cost controls, observability, and responsible AI guardrails.
- Project leads: value cases, KPI design, adoption, and change enablement.
4) Set learning goals and document wins
Put learning on the calendar like any other deliverable. Keep the goals small, time-bound, and tied to real use cases.
- Schedule two 45-minute blocks per week for targeted courses or labs.
- Log "aha" moments in a shared doc or post in SAP Community to spread practical tips.
- Plan for a certification cycle to benchmark progress; browse options via popular AI certifications.
5) Learn from and with peers
Peer learning accelerates everything. Use barcamps, workshops, study groups, and promptathons where teams solve real tasks with AI tools.
- Join SAP Community discussions on SAP Business AI and ask questions openly.
- Attend SAP Learning Hub live sessions to clarify blockers with experts.
- Host a monthly promptathon with challenges pulled from your backlog.
6) Learn by building: projects and workshops
AI is a hands-on domain. Short, scoped projects reveal what works in your context and where the friction is-data access, security, or UX.
- Run a 2-3 hour team workshop using the SAP AppHaus innovation toolkit: Joule agent discovery, AI agent design, and SAP Business AI exploration.
- Spin up a sandbox on SAP BTP; pair it with practice systems from SAP Learning Hub to experiment with Joule and embedded AI features.
- Document what to productionize and what to retire; keep the loop tight.
7) Keep skills current
AI moves fast, so make updates a habit. Curate sources, test new features in a sandbox, and share what sticks.
- Follow SAP events and product updates; review monthly with your team.
- Track a short list of podcasts and newsletters; run a quarterly skills refresh.
- If helpful, set up a small news agent to pull updates for your stack.
Your next steps
Make this concrete: complete a self-assessment, pick one learning path per role, and schedule two learning blocks this week. Run a small workshop, ship a prototype, and capture the lessons. Repeat and level up across teams.
If you want a curated view by job role or skill, browse AI courses by job or courses by skill to speed selection and keep momentum.
Your membership also unlocks:
