Our Keynote at the Next Generation SAP Enterprise Architecture Forum

On behalf of Nova AI, Emma Qian (CEO) and Alexander Zeier (Chief Scientist) recently had the privilege of delivering a bonus keynote at the Next Generation SAP Enterprise Architect Learning Forum in Newtown Square, PA, an event graciously hosted by Paul Kurchina.

This conference brought together top industry leaders, enterprise architects, and technology enthusiasts with 400+ attendees from 13 countries. The Nova AI team was honored to share our experiences, showcase how AI-driven systems can tackle the most pressing SAP challenges, and delve into the exciting work we’re doing around clean core transformations and S/4HANA migrations.

Our goal with this keynote was to inspire transformations—it was centered around the personal journey of our co-founders, Emma and Alexander, and how their experiences shaped our vision for AI-driven enterprise software.

Recapping the Journey of Emma and Alexander

At Nova AI, our founding team unites unique backgrounds to tackle the most pressing and complex enterprise software problems with cutting-edge AI.

Alexander, Chief Scientist Officer, has devoted more than three decades to SAP and enterprise architecture. He worked alongside Hasso Plattner in developing the earliest foundations of SAP HANA and later served as CTO of Accenture’s SAP Business Group—overseeing large-scale S/4HANA projects around the globe. Alexander repeatedly heard CIOs voice the same challenges: painstaking code rewrites, tangled data landscapes, and migration efforts that stretched on for years.

While Alexander’s roots are firmly in SAP, Emma, CEO, comes from a different world. She is an AI/ML researcher, who previously conducted research at Google DeepMind, tackling advanced AI for solving math problems. She later founded a startup centered on foundational models.

Initially, Emma and the Nova AI founding team set the record on the key AI coding benchmark, SWE-bench, surpassing Amazon, IBM, and others in June 2024. The team realized that general-purpose coding agents often struggled to keep pace with messy, large-scale real-world engineering tasks. Realizing the enterprise world was overdue for purpose-built AI solutions, they turned her attention towards implementing AI agents for SAP.

Nova AI was born when these two paths converged. Introduced by Paul Daugherty (former Accenture Technology CEO and angel investor in Nova AI), Alexander and Emma recognized the synergy of their combined expertise. Their shared conviction was that specialized AI agents can automate the bulk of manual work currently slowing down SAP modernization, significantly cutting both costs and time.

Upgrading Mental Models

The keynote speaker, Rishad, framed the conference around a striking prediction: over the next few years, AI will deliver more change to enterprise technology than we’ve seen in the previous five decades. At Nova AI, we share that sense of urgency and possibility.

In the SAP world, breakthroughs in intelligence hold tremendous promise. Many organizations grapple with thousands—even millions—of lines of custom code. Historically, analyzing, refactoring, and modernizing these extensive codebases was a massive undertaking performed manually by teams of consultants. Not only is this resource-intensive, but it also presents significant risk—errors in code rewrites can cost millions and derail go-live dates.

Addressing Custom Code and Clean Core Transformations

This core problem led to Nova AI’s focus on building AI agents designed specifically for SAP landscapes—particularly for S/4HANA migrations and clean core transformations. Rather than merely providing incremental developer tools, our AI agents operate as autonomous systems that can analyze, refactor, and validate large codebases with minimal human oversight. The aim is not just a small boost in productivity; we target an end-to-end solution that can tackle up to 90% of the total manual effort in a typical modernization project.

Even at our current stage, Nova AI’s technology handles about half of modernization tasks autonomously, and we’re on a clear trajectory toward 90% or higher. As self-learning systems evolve, our AI agents will only become more precise and more adept at optimizing complex SAP transformations.

Looking Ahead

For those that attended the Next Generation SAP Enterprise Architect Learning Forum, the energy and engagement around AI’s role in enterprise software was incredible. AI is quickly becoming fundamental in reducing technical debt and transforming core systems—particularly within the SAP ecosystem.

At Nova AI, we’re continuing to advance our autonomous AI agents to help enterprises rapidly modernize their systems. With each iteration, we aim to reduce the manual burden on SAP project teams, accelerate project timelines, and free businesses to focus on innovation.

We extend our gratitude to Paul Kurchina for hosting a forum that sparked meaningful conversations about AI’s transformative impact on SAP.

Whether you’re an SAP enterprise architect, a CIO overseeing complex S/4HANA migrations, or simply curious about how AI can reshape enterprise technology, we invite you to join us.

Ready to Transform Your SAP Environment?