SAP (SAP) SAP Connect Virtual 2025 Keynote summary

Key themes and strategic direction

• Loyalty-led growth is emphasized as a core strategy, focusing on building deep, lasting customer relationships that drive advocacy and profitable growth.

• True loyalty is under pressure, with a notable decline in B2C and a focus on strategic loyalty in B2B, where customers become brand advocates.

• Four building blocks for loyalty-led growth are identified: understanding, connection, relationships, and value, all underpinned by data and empathy.

• Customer experience excellence requires harmonizing front-office and back-office operations, leveraging enterprise-wide data and AI for seamless, personalized engagement.

• AI is positioned as the conductor, orchestrating systems, people, and data to deliver memorable, context-rich experiences.

Product innovation and announcements

• Launch of a new customer loyalty management application enabling global, cross-brand, and multi-channel loyalty programs, integrated with ERP and the CX suite, available November 2025.

• Introduction of SAP Engagement Cloud for orchestrating customer journeys across all touchpoints, with beta available next month and full release in early 2026.

• SAP WalkMe is now available for CX applications to enhance user adoption and engagement.

• New AI-native applications announced: SAP CX Revenue Intelligence for predictive sales forecasting and Consumer Products Intelligence for trade spend and claims management, both leveraging SAP Business Data Cloud.

Customer experience in action

• Demo showcased how harmonized data and AI-driven insights enable sales, marketing, and service teams to deliver personalized, omnichannel experiences that drive loyalty and revenue.

• Integration of loyalty management, engagement, and commerce platforms allows for real-time, tailored offers and seamless customer journeys.

• Human agents remain critical for exceptions and empathy, with AI learning from these interactions to improve future service.