India melting pot of innovation, scale and execution; SMBs here prioritising AI: SAP India head

New Delhi: India is among the fastest-growing markets for SAP globally and Europe's largest software maker is upbeat about the demand pick-up from small and medium businesses that are keen on adopting technology and AI for driving scale and efficiency needs.

The German firm - whose software is used by some of the largest and well-known companies across the globe to streamline business processes from inventory management to supply chains - is scripting a "phenomenal story" in India, Manish Prasad, President and MD of SAP Indian Subcontinent told PTI in an interview, describing the market as a "melting pot of innovation, scale and execution".

The Indian market is growing at a faster rate than expected, Prasad said adding small and medium businesses (SMBs), which are an important cog in that, are prioritising AI in a big way.

A tech veteran and seasoned business leader, Prasad is leading the charge on SAP's growth and innovation strategies in the Indian subcontinent.

"We are extremely bullish about the adoption and consumption of technology...India is one of the fastest-growing markets, and it kind of mirrors what is happening in the country. So that piece is very well-established," he said.

SAP India began its operations in 1996, and currently caters to both large enterprises and SMBs. Demand, Prasad says, is across industries.

"We passionately say that 60 per cent of India's GDP touches the SAP system in some form and shape. But our story doesn't stop here. I think over the last few years, we have doubled down on what we call as our mid-market segment. Today, if you look at it, about eight of our 10 customers are essentially coming from the mid market," he said.

SMBs are focusing on accelerating their growth through technology, and keen to embrace the transformative power of AI.

"...they also need to make sure they have a lot of talent available to accelerate that growth. And this is where the impact of technology starts coming in, right? Because when you bring business AI and get it to work along with the human capital, I think that's where the efficiency starts coming in. So it is also about scale and speed, and the only way by which SMBs can probably cater to that is through a combination on both," he said.

According to SAP's latest midmarket AI research, 96 per cent of Indian organisations with 250-1,500 employees are prioritising generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI), ahead of the rest of the world (91 per cent). The survey questioned 12,003 businesses around the world including 800 in India.

Over half of Indian midmarket businesses surveyed place a high priority on AI to transform privacy and security (55 per cent) and improve decision-making (52 per cent), ahead of business from the rest of the world (50 per cent and 49 per cent, respectively).

Indian midmarket businesses are also prioritising AI to improve training and skills development (51 per cent), customer experience (50 per cent), and to optimise supply chains and logistics (50 per cent).

With India offering large and growing pool of STEM-qualified resources, SAP is also doubling down on talent in the country.

"...you would have heard about the R and D capabilities that we have through SAP Labs...there is a lot of product development, a lot of product engineering happens from India, where we take inputs from Indian customers...across the region...in Asia Pacific and Japan and even from a global footprint standpoint," he said.