Weekly AI Recap: SAP AI Lead Joins Homebase Community - Exclusive Insights on SAP's AI Strategy

AI FOUNDER SPOTLIGHT
Our interview with Ben from SAP Global!
The Rise of AI partnerships between Enterprise companies and startups

We recently caught up with Ben Smokovich, who's building an AI platform at SAP for enterprise sales, pre-sales, and marketing. Our chat covered a lot of ground in the fast-changing world of enterprise AI.

Ben shared his thoughts on new ideas like 'agent swarms' and the challenges companies face in making money from AI. We discussed how the tech industry is teaming up in unexpected ways. The conversation also touched on the potential economic impact of AI. Ben offered some practical advice for businesses looking to use AI effectively.

His insights give a real-world look at where AI stands in business today and where it might be headed.

Key points from our conversation:

💼 Ben is building an AI platform at SAP for enterprise use cases across sales, pre-sales, and marketing
🏗️ SAP is collaborating with tech giants like IBM, Amazon, Google, and OpenAI on AI initiatives
🌐 Many startups are struggling to monetize AI, often replicating similar use cases
📊 The best opportunities lie in creating small, purpose-driven AI models
🔮 'Agent swarms' are predicted to cause significant market disruption

Ben discussed the concept of "agent swarms" - groups of AI agents working together on complex tasks. He believes these could potentially change how businesses operate, boosting efficiency and providing more comprehensive solutions than traditional single-agent approaches. Ben emphasized the importance of understanding this concept as it could significantly disrupt the market in the near future.

Challenges and opportunities:

• High costs of running large language models (LLMs)

• Need for more companies to develop purpose-driven AI models

• Market oversaturation with "AI-washing"

• The AI market is compared to the dot-com era, with a predicted cycle of rapid growth followed by a market correction

• AI implementation is expected to lead to a reshuffling of the workforce rather than massive layoffs

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Advice for companies leveraging AI? The importance of data engineers in AI development was emphasized, stating that their skills are crucial for harnessing AI's true capabilities.

Ben advised smaller companies to train their own models on their servers, focusing on purpose-driven AI for their specific needs. He cautioned against the hype, urging companies to thoroughly test and understand AI before making investment decisions. The importance of connecting various tools and APIs to create comprehensive AI solutions, rather than relying on simple wrappers for existing AI models.

Key Highlights:

• The tech industry is experiencing a shift, with traditionally competitive companies now partnering on AI initiatives

• 'Agent swarms' are predicted to cause significant market disruption

• The importance of data engineers in harnessing AI's true capabilities for businesses

• The AI market is compared to the dot-com bubble, with a predicted boom followed by a significant correction

• AI implementation is expected to lead to workforce reshuffling rather than widespread layoffs

Full interview and story here! 🔥🔥🔥

P.S. Have questions for Ben? Join our community below, and he’ll happily answer them in our Slack!