Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the public Cloud are redefining the potential of SMEs in Africa, offering unprecedented possibilities to increase their performance and competitiveness. With innovative solutions like those offered by SAP, these companies can fully exploit the benefits of AI and Cloud, strengthening their agility, productivity and ability to deliver exceptional customer and employee experiences.
General manager
SAP Francophone Africa
The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and public Cloud in businesses has accelerated exponentially across Africa in recent years. Considered as true technological catalysts, these innovative tools offer as many advantages to medium-sized companies as to large organizations operating in all sectors of activity.
Despite significant challenges, African companies have shown that they are not left behind when it comes to cloud and AI adoption. According to the United Nations, Artificial Intelligence is a rapidly evolving technology that harnesses the intelligence of machines or software, thereby transforming economic, social, and environmental ecosystems on a global scale. Research shows that this technology has the potential to contribute $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030, of which $1.2 trillion could be generated in Africa, representing an increase of 5.6 % of the continent’s Gross Domestic Product by 2030. Separately, McKinsey recently conducted a study of IT leaders from more than 50 large African companies, who said that about 45% of their workloads were today in the public Cloud. Although based on a relatively small sample, this figure is equal to or higher than adoption rates in North America and China.
For more than 50 years, SAP has supported companies of all sizes and from different sectors of activity, in Africa and around the world, in their digital transformation by providing them with its portfolio of innovative solutions combining artificial intelligence, big data, predictive analysis, and digital assistance in order to best meet their specific business needs in constantly evolving markets. These same solutions have the particularity of reducing the dependence of companies, in particular SMEs, on traditional resources and equipment in order to significantly increase their productivity while reducing their investment costs. In order to maximize these competitive advantages, here are 5 strategic advantages of deploying AI and public cloud technologies from which SMEs in Africa could benefit:
- Increased agility & flexibility of processes
Agility is a key characteristic for SMEs wishing to maximize their growth potential. By their nature, these companies operate in industries with vertical segments such as professional services and maintain close relationships with their customers. To develop their business, they must be attentive to opportunities in their market, sometimes requiring the acquisition of a new site, or the introduction of new products and services. With solutions converging AI and Cloud, SMEs can transcend industry boundaries and consider a multitude of possibilities in different areas ranging from healthcare to manufacturing, finance and many others. The ability to store, process and understand significant amounts of data using AI-powered cloud solutions provides significant competitive advantages, namely improving operational efficiencies, optimizing supply chains production, as well as predicting certain financial trends. By offering this transformative dynamic based on AI and Cloud to SMEs, SAP positions itself as a leader in innovation and the creation of an agile and interconnected technological future.
- Performance and productivity
By integrating AI into its Cloud solutions, SAP not only provides tangible benefits for data management and security for SMEs, but also enables them to have access to more intelligent and predictive operations, ensuring increased efficiency and better responsiveness to different operational threats. SAP-developed tools use cloud data and AI to enable SMBs to make smarter decisions about their customers, operations and markets, which can lead to better profits, optimized customer satisfaction and reduced costs. In addition, the synergy of AI and Cloud data allows SMEs to identify opportunities to develop new products and services to better meet the requirements of their customers and their markets.
- Improved customer experience
In this context of rapid digital development, the customer journey has become one of the major priorities for SMEs seeking to remain competitive. SAP solutions enable these SMEs, true vectors of economic growth, to optimize their experiences by exploiting the possibilities offered by AI and the Cloud. SMEs have access to predictions about their customers’ behavior, a fluid and intuitive customer experience to build their loyalty, as well as a tailor-made offer to meet their specific needs. Smart decisions, based on the right customer experience intelligence and technology, help SMBs stay ahead of the competition.
- A better employee experience
AI can improve and modernize the employee experience by enhancing employee skills, eliminating repetitive and sometimes time-consuming tasks, and much more. SAP solutions put AI at the service of the employee experience to improve all aspects of the employee journey, namely their onboarding, performance management, HR development, as well as access to information. as part of their daily tasks. Using SAP AI-enabled tools at work can simplify various business processes by automating workflows, thereby creating a work environment conducive to employee productivity and satisfaction, transforming them into real employer brand ambassadors.
Integrating sustainable and ethical practices into business activities is essential to help build a sustainable future across Africa. This is the reason why Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become an essential imperative. As a global leader in business solutions, SAP is committed to promoting these values not only through its business practices, but also through offering tailored solutions using AI and the Cloud to manage data environmental, social and governance; the footprint of GHG (Greenhouse Gas) emissions and the weight of plastic in products and packaging in order to better meet the requirements of sustainable economic performance.
Thanks to the deployment of SAP solutions combining AI and Cloud, SMEs across Africa can also benefit from next-generation technology more cost-effectively and standardize their processes by adopting solutions that only large companies could afford previously. SMEs wishing to follow the steps above have a good chance of increasing their potential for performance, resilience, and agility in the long term.
