SAP Strengthens Recruitment with AI, SmartRecruiters

SAP SuccessFactors is a cloud-based human resources management (HCM) solution designed to “enable every employee to succeed.” In recent years, the company has been actively adopting technologies such as SAP Business AI and SAP Business Data Cloud to enhance employee experience and operational efficiency. In this article, we spoke with Dan Beck, Chief Product Officer (CPO) and President of SAP SuccessFactors, about the solution’s latest initiatives, particularly its use of AI, and the recently announced agreement to acquire SmartRecruiters, a talent acquisition company. First, please tell us about SAP SuccessFactors’ direction and recent innovations. Our goal is to “enable every employee to succeed.” To achieve this, we utilize the latest technologies, including SAP Business AI, SAP Business Data Cloud, and People Intelligence.

Currently, SAP SuccessFactors has 178 AI use cases running in production. One recently implemented use case is the “Ask My Payslip” feature. This was developed in response to the fact that approximately half of all HR inquiries worldwide are related to payroll. By allowing employees to directly ask questions about payroll and deductions to the system, we could potentially reduce these inquiries by approximately 90%. We are also pursuing innovations specifically tailored to the Japanese market. For example, our digital copilot, Joule, was previously available only in English. As of March 31, 2025, it will be available in 11 languages, including Japanese. We plan to expand this number to 30 by the end of the year. We currently support 38 large language models (LLMs) and partner with leading global partners to provide our users with the best possible service. An “open spirit” is at the core of our strategy. Based on this philosophy, all of the technologies our engineers use to develop use cases are available directly to users through Joule for Consultants and Joule for Developers. More than 350 SuccessFactors-related software partners are available on the SAP Store digital marketplace, providing them with access to this technology. This system creates an ecosystem where users and partners can create their own innovations. –What kind of results have customers who have actually implemented AI reported? One good example is Standard Chartered Bank. This bank, with a 150-year history and 85,000 employees across 50 countries, introduced our generative AI to performance management and goal setting, achieving company-wide deployment in just under four months. Notably, this initiative achieved a 20-30% productivity improvement.

The fact that a long-established bank in a highly regulated industry was able to achieve results in such a short period of time will surely serve as a great inspiration to other users. –Please also tell us about your future strategy and outlook. Let’s talk about upcoming features. At the annual SAP Sapphire conference held in Orlando, Florida, in May, the concept of “Joule Everywhere” attracted particular attention. This concept aims to extract more information and provide value by enabling Joule to be used in a variety of environments beyond the boundaries of SAP. The first step in this effort is the planned release of the “Joule Action Bar” in November. This will enable users to launch the Joule Action Bar while using Gmail, scan their inbox, extract feedback about team members, and automatically fill out a SuccessFactors performance evaluation form based on that information. This initiative will enable us to continue providing value even when users are not using SAP applications. Based on the concepts of “insight to action” and “inference to action,” we are also planning to introduce at least one agent into each SuccessFactors module. For example, we plan to introduce a learning agent into the learning module and a reward agent into the reward module. The performance and goal agent announced at Sapphire will also be released in November. –Please tell us about People Intelligence.

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This service is provided on SAP Business Data Cloud and is unique in that it combines AI and analytics. Joule aims to go beyond simply answering analytical questions like “What was the turnover rate last year?” to address more strategic and broader questions like “Do we have the necessary talent to achieve our goals?”, “How much are we spending on labor?”, and “How much are we paying for specific skills?”.Intelligence has already begun rolling out to some users and is scheduled for general availability on September 1st. –You recently announced the acquisition of SmartRecruiters. Please tell us the background to this. The talent acquisition space is a very important and competitive market. We want to provide our users with faster, higher-quality services, and we were very attracted to SmartRecruiters’ capabilities.

In particular, they have excellent technology and a proven track record in automating recruitment and optimizing the candidate experience. This acquisition is a strategic decision to complement SuccessFactors’ existing capabilities and provide new value to our users. We believe the synergies created by integrating with SmartRecruiters will be significant. SuccessFactors also supports integration with recruitment agents, which many companies use. By integrating these features into SuccessFactors, we will be able to more powerfully support companies’ entire recruitment activities. Following regulatory review, we expect the acquisition to close in the fourth quarter of 2025. After that, we will develop an integrated roadmap and maintain our core policy of providing the best technology. “Japan is a very important market for SAP, with half of our major customers using our HR products. We will continue to provide the best possible service, meeting both Japanese practices and global standards.”

SOURCE: Yahoo