LONDON / ISTANBUL

Agentic artificial intelligence (AI) has taken over bots and simple workflows in businesses as the adoption of AI becomes increasingly widespread through end-to-end business transformation, a sector representative told Anadolu.

Manos Raptopoulos, chief revenue officer for European tech firm SAP in Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, said companies worldwide are seeking to achieve business results through end-to-end transformation by expanding the use of AI.

Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, Raptopoulos said AI adoption differs from region to region, but the pace of adoption is largely similar globally.

“The most popular companies—you could say Microsoft or OpenAI—are driving the consumer part of AI,” he said.

“When it comes to businesses though, the demand is quite substantial and quite consistent, so companies want faster ways to close the books, they want better liquidity, they want a better forecast, (and) they want to balance supply and demand, which becomes more difficult sometimes because of different events happening here and there—and that is what is driving the business AI,” he added.

Raptopoulos said agentic AI has become a key topic in discussions with customers across regions, as agentic AI solutions can cover a wide range of processes and handle large amounts of data.

“Therefore, the business value that can bring in terms of either automation, reduction of errors, or streamlining an otherwise complex process is bigger,” he said. “Therefore, companies are looking at this particular way, so I would say that bots or simple workflows have given way to agentic AI completely.”

He said one of the biggest challenges tech companies face is the speed of innovation while trying to reduce technological debt.

“It’s the speed that we can bring innovation to be consumed by customers—somehow customers do have the need,” he said. “On the other side, there is a level of inertia; there is technological debt sometimes in companies, and they need to leapfrog.”

“The other topic that we need to address is that we need to make that in short time frames, (as) companies these days do not have a long time to wait for—they want results in weeks or months; therefore, combining the two, cleaning up technological debt while accelerating the pace of innovation is definitely top of the agenda,” he added.

Raptopoulos said geopolitical tensions and their impact on AI were also discussed at Davos, where the 56th World Economic Forum (WEF) was held this year, as demand grows for faster and more accurate decision-making tools during periods of uncertainty, crisis, or economic volatility.

“We have to look at it both ways: every leader that we speak to these days, every leader that is a business leader, wants stability—this is what makes economic growth,” he said. “You need stability, you need collaboration, and while I do believe there are some discussions right now that are quite tense in that respect, economic collaboration is what we should be looking for—and as SAP, this is what we are advocating for.”

Türkiye makes up ‘very big part' of SAP’s plans in region

Raptopoulos said Türkiye remains “a very big part” of SAP’s plans in the region.

“Although I cannot share specific plans, I can reassure you that (Türkiye) is a very big part of our expansion going forward as well in the future,” he said.

“What I've always found fascinating is the adaptability of the companies in Türkiye, specifically because they've been able to grow and expand in very difficult circumstances, sometimes economic circumstances, sometimes competitive pressures, but they've always been able to come through,” he added.

Raptopoulos said Turkish companies are seeking ways to derive value from technology but want it at an affordable price.

“They want it at an affordable price specifically,” he said.

“We’re always looking into Türkiye in order to find that element because it’s a very vibrant community, and also, we have very important partnerships there, and we continue to drive growth,” he added.

SAP provides advanced technology and applications to companies of different sizes and across multiple sectors, working with partners in enterprise software and business-focused AI.

SAP Türkiye, which has been operating for 25 years, has more than 60 domestic and global business partners and accounts for about 9% of total IT employment in Türkiye.

The Turkish subsidiary serves more than 1,600 organizations seeking to digitize their businesses.

The Turkish cloud market is expected to grow by about 35% annually, according to SAP Türkiye projections.