Databricks and SAP unleash end-to-end data & AI capabilities to level up enterprise AI transformation

SAP and Databricks have introduced the SAP Application Data Foundation, designed to provide simpler and more performant access to SAP application data within SAP Databricks. This solution spans cloud and on-premises environments, addressing a key challenge for enterprises that rely on SAP systems for core business processes. The partnership aims to bridge the gap between AI models and the business context stored in SAP systems, which is critical for data-driven decision-making. Over 90% of Fortune 500 companies use SAP solutions, making this integration particularly significant for large-scale enterprise adoption.

The collaboration builds on the existing SAP Databricks platform, which natively embeds the Databricks Data + AI Platform in SAP Business Data Cloud (SAP BDC). Since its general availability, customers like Adidas, Zalando, Mondi, and CAF have leveraged SAP Databricks and SAP BDC Connect for Databricks to analyze, govern, and build AI models using live, semantically rich SAP Data Products. The new phase of the partnership expands this integration, enabling customers to more easily and efficiently work with SAP enterprise data to derive AI-driven insights.

At SAP TechEd, SAP and Databricks announced the next phase of their partnership, which brings the full range of Databricks data and enterprise AI capabilities to SAP Databricks within SAP BDC. This expansion simplifies access to SAP application data, reducing the need for custom extraction pipelines that often fragment governance and lose business context. The goal is to lower total cost of ownership and accelerate time to value for customers looking to harness their SAP data for AI and analytics.

For SAP Databricks customers, the expanded partnership offers practical benefits such as the ability to bring years of order history into SAP Databricks for demand forecasting, without relying on custom pipelines. SAF-Holland, a global manufacturer, uses SAP BDC and SAP Databricks to unify over 100 million records of customer, delivery, and material data, applying machine learning to predict delivery reliability. The company reports generating analyses five times faster than traditional methods and transforming complex SAP data into actionable insights in minutes rather than weeks.