As a finance professional, you are facing increasingly complex forecasting needs driven by today’s fast-paced business world. Traditional processes often fall short, leaving room for errors and inefficiencies. We see the solution in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) for your planning.

Modern AI-augmented forecasting processes leverage powerful algorithms to enhance your planning, reporting and decision processes – seamlessly integrated into your SAP BTP platform. 

While the need for efficiency is clear, many organizations still struggle with outdated, manual, slow and error-prone financial forecasting processes. If you’ve ever found yourself working through spreadsheets late into the night or second-guessing your revenue forecast for the next quarter, you’re not alone. 

The traditional approach to financial forecasting is like trying to hit a moving target while wearing a blindfold. The consequences are serious: Missed market opportunities, process inefficiencies and high cost and a compromised quality of strategic decision-making. This begs the question: Isn’t there a better way to perform this critical business function? 

Advanced AI-based forecasting solutions which are seamlessly integrated into your SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) are a game-changer for your approach to financial forecasting. These sophisticated solutions bring several key advantages which optimize the decision-making process. Get to know the advantages of planning with AI:

Unparalleled precision 

At the core of modern AI solutions like our AIVIAN Advanced Forecasting module is a powerful yet flexible machine learning pipeline. Equipped with automated data, processing capabilities and state-of-the-art forecasting algorithms, it generates accurate, reliable and transparent predictions for key financial indicators like revenue, cost and cash flow. This high precision allows you to make data-driven and well-informed decisions, drastically improving the quality of your financial forecasts. 

Flexible adjustments and simulations 

AI-based forecasting methods are very flexible and can quickly provide updated predictions based on new data or changes in the business environment. This agility and the possibility to simulate future developments can be particularly beneficial in volatile markets or during seasonal fluctuations. AI-augmented forecasting therefore enables quick course corrections and proactive strategy discussions. 

Comprehensive insights 

Beyond just numbers, AI-based solutions offer comprehensive insights into your financial performance by aggregating data from multiple sources. This ensures a holistic approach to decision-making, in which the context supports the interpretation of the provided KPIs. 

Scenario planning 

The ability to create, discuss and compare multiple scenarios supports your company during the preparation for unknown future outcomes. Whether you’re considering an investment, a market entry or a cost-cutting measure – AI-driven scenario planning will provide the tools for evaluating different paths before making a commitment. 

Operational efficiency 

The scalability and automation potential of AI for planning solutions reduces the time your team spends on data entry and preparation. The streamlining of financial planning processes through AI enables your team to focus on value-adding activities like strategic discussions, impact analysis and business partnership. This fundamental change increases the whole value generation of your finance department while simultaneously reducing operating cost. 

Figure 1: The five benefits of effective AI-driven decision-making 

By utilizing AI-based forecasting solutions within your SAP BTP environment, you’re not only enhancing your forecasting capabilities – you’re supercharging the entire decision-making process! By optimizing strategic intelligence and operational efficiency, you can allocate your resources more efficiently, improve your cash management process and invest into growing markets. 

In an era where precision and speed are non-negotiable, AI-based forecasting isn’t just an upgrade – it’s a prerequisite for strategic success.

To showcase the possibilities of advanced AI-driven forecasting in SAP BTP, we outline the integration of our AIVIAN Advanced Forecasting module with the core components of the SAP Business Technology Platform. AIVIAN is our AI Platform for Finance. With its cloud-agnostic architecture and its modular structure, AIVIAN provides solutions for different use cases and can be integrated into your existing planning and reporting architectures and processes. 

Figure 2: The key components of an AI-enabled environment in SAP BTP 

SAP AI Core: Create AI-driven insights and forecasts 

AIVIAN builds on the computational capabilities of SAP AI Core for training and optimizing its sophisticated forecasting algorithms. Based on the tailor-made prediction models, AIVIAN creates forecasts for product sales, cost centers, cash flows and other relevant KPIs which can be integrated for example as pre-fill values into SAC planning applications. Furthermore, AIVIAN, provides a variety of metrics, insights and analyses which can be used by SAC reports to gain a deep understanding of the company’s current performance. By deploying the prediction models as REST endpoints, AIVIAN can also be leveraged directly in SAC planning applications for user-driven simulations and on-demand forecasts. 

SAP Datasphere: Your single source of truth 

SAP Datasphere addresses a key obstacle in financial forecasting: The integration of disparate data sources. It streamlines and unifies these data streams, infusing them with essential business logic. The benefit for you? You can set aside concerns about isolated data pockets or mismatched information. Acting as a comprehensive data repository, SAP Datasphere seamlessly merges data across different departments, geographical areas or product lines. This ensures your forecasting is grounded in data that is both clean and reliable. 

SAP Analytics Cloud: Turn AI-driven forecasts into decisions 

The crucial element lies in the presentation and utilization of these forecasts. AIVIAN’s outputs are seamlessly integrated with SAP Analytics Cloud, offering more than just a visual display but also an engaging, interactive exploration of your financial forecasts. The predictive insights from AIVIAN are presented in easily navigable dashboards, allowing for real-time analysis and comparison with past data or various key performance indicators (KPIs). This goes beyond mere numerical data, providing actionable intelligence that can be effectively incorporated into your strategic decision-making processes. 

Figure 3: Exemplary management summary for a sales forecasting report in SAC 

By seamlessly interacting with the core components of SAP BTP, AIVIAN provides a great user experience during the whole end-to-end planning and reporting workflow. AIVIAN is not about adding another tool to your tech stack – AIVIAN enhances the capabilities of your existing SAP BTP environment and supercharges all steps of your planning, reporting and decision-making processes. 

Ready to supercharge your financial forecasting and decision-making? 

Don’t just keep up – lead the transformation of finance with AIVIAN, our AI platform for finance. AIVIAN on BTP is the result of cutting-edge research and development by our seasoned team of data engineers, data scientists and SAP BTP experts. Benefit from modern AI solutions while keeping your data inside your existing SAP environment.