SAP SE announced at the SAP Sapphire event that Ericsson is moving from AI experimentation to enterprise-wide execution by building a unified business data fabric with the SAP Business Data Cloud solution.
The approach enables the company to scale AI use cases across the business, accelerate decision-making and deliver measurable operational impact. By combining a governed data foundation with the Joule solution and this foundation, Ericsson is creating the enterprise architecture needed to make AI trusted, repeatable and scalable across its global operations.
Ericsson, which celebrates its 150th anniversary this year, provides mobile network infrastructure across 180 countries, with more than 40% of the world’s mobile traffic passing through its networks. As AI becomes central to both its technology road map and how it runs the business, Ericsson has prioritized building a strong, governed data foundation to support scalable and trusted AI.
“Once you scale AI, it stops being an AI problem—and becomes a data problem,” said Esra Kocatürk Norell, Vice President, Customer Experience, Enterprise IT at Ericsson. “That’s why we invested early in a business data fabric. With SAP Business Data Cloud, we can define what data means once—from revenue to market structures and access rules—and apply it consistently across the enterprise. That’s what allows us to scale AI in a way that is trusted, repeatable and delivers real business value.”
At the core of Ericsson’s approach is a federated data architecture that allows data to remain in place while centrally managing business semantics, governance and lifecycle policies. This reduces duplication, simplifies integration and ensures that consistent business definitions can be applied across both SAP software and non-SAP environments.
By focusing on high-impact use cases and organizing around end-to-end business processes rather than isolated solutions, Ericsson has moved beyond pilot projects to scaled deployment. Today, more than 85,000 users are live on unified Joule, supported by strong executive sponsorship and governance.
Ericsson is advancing its transformation on two parallel fronts. The first is modernization, including its transition to the RISE with SAP journey, the use of side-by-side extensions on SAP Business Technology Platform and a clean core approach that enables faster innovation without disrupting its ERP backbone. The second is what the company defines as “innovate and transform,” focused on unlocking tangible business value from data and AI to improve decision-making, increase efficiency and enable new forms of value creation.
SAP and Ericsson are also collaborating on AI co-innovation initiatives. One example is an intelligent goal recommendation capability developed within the SAP SuccessFactors portfolio. The solution generates contextual, business-aligned goals for employees, improving execution and reducing administrative effort. The capability is now being scaled more broadly, demonstrating how co-innovation can create value beyond a single organization.
“Ericsson’s approach shows how leading companies are moving from AI experimentation to execution by focusing on data, governance and business context,” said Manos Raptopoulos, Global President Customer Success Europe, APAC, Middle East and Africa at SAP SE. “Together, we are helping organizations unlock the full potential of AI at scale.”
Looking ahead, Ericsson expects its business data fabric to support increasingly advanced AI scenarios, including automated decision-making, improved productivity and new digital business models, while continuing to strengthen customer experiences in a rapidly evolving telecom landscape.
