Cloud and AI become strategic priorities for East African enterprises

SAP presents its latest business AI and cloud technologies to East African leaders, highlighting the urgent demand for AI skills and showcasing customer success stories like Bidco Africa.

SAP Innovation Day Kenya brought together East African business leaders, technology partners and SAP experts in Nairobi to explore the growing impact of business AI and cloud computing in accelerating digital transformation across the region. The event is part of a global SAP initiative to highlight how technology drives innovation, operational efficiency and sustainability for organizations navigating emerging challenges.

According to Shiraz Khota, Managing Director for Emerging Africa at SAP, companies across East Africa are increasingly adopting data-driven and cloud-based solutions to embed AI into their operations. “With the expansion of SAP’s Joule AI assistant, organisations can now unlock up to 30% productivity gains by optimizing systems and processes with intelligent automation,” he said.

The event served as a platform to introduce SAP Business Data Cloud and SAP Business AI as key enablers of value within the broader SAP Business Suite. Attendees received exclusive insights into how AI and cloud solutions are helping businesses future-proof their enterprise application strategies, unlock data-driven insights and enhance decision-making capabilities.

SAP also highlighted recent findings from its Africa’s AI Skills Readiness Revealed report, which revealed that 90% of African companies are already facing negative consequences due to a lack of AI skills. In Kenya, 43% of organizations surveyed expect a significant increase in demand for AI expertise in 2025, leading many to explore upskilling strategies and partnerships with specialized technology providers.

“Workplace transformation is accelerating,” said Khota. “Businesses must rethink how they develop and reskill talent to meet long-term AI-driven needs. In the short term, collaborating with our robust ecosystem of implementation partners can help bridge immediate gaps and maintain momentum.”

One of the event's highlights was the customer success story from Bidco Africa, a leading FMCG manufacturer in East Africa. The company is migrating its legacy SAP ECC systems to SAP S/4HANA Cloud as part of a major transformation initiative. Bidco, which manufactures over 800 SKUs across eight factories, is embedding AI across business processes to boost agility and product development.

“AI presents tremendous opportunities to improve our speed, creativity and customer experience,” said Vimal Shah, Chairman of Bidco Africa. “Our move to the cloud reflects our commitment to innovation and continued market leadership.”

As part of its ongoing implementation, Bidco plans further digitalization efforts across procurement and manufacturing in upcoming phases.

Khota concluded by reinforcing the value of adopting a clean core strategy. “This approach not only accelerates innovation but also ensures organizations are better positioned to extract meaningful business value from reliable data and AI. In this new era of intelligent enterprise, agility and readiness for change are essential.”