A few days ago, in “SAP PI/PO vs. Integration Suite: What’s Next for SAP Integration in 2025?”, we explored SAP’s integration roadmap and why Integration Suite is becoming the strategic successor to PI/PO. That post compared capabilities, deployment models, and the reality that many enterprises will run PI/PO and Integration Suite in parallel for years.
This time, the focus shifts from “What’s next?” to “Why it matters now”—and specifically, why SAP Integration Suite has moved beyond being just middleware to become a growth engine for AI-driven enterprises.
AI Needs More Than Data — It Needs the Full Story
Most companies already have the data AI needs, but it’s spread across CRMs, ERPs, HR systems, shared drives, ticketing tools, and messaging platforms. Some of it lives in the cloud, some in on-premise servers, and some in systems that have been running for decades.
When those systems don’t talk to each other, AI ends up working with gaps. It might give an answer that looks reasonable but ignores half the relevant context.
Integration Suite closes those gaps by:
- Connecting SAP and non-SAP systems so they exchange information automatically
- Pulling data from both cloud and on-prem environments
- Handling formats and protocols that let older systems participate in newer workflows
- Giving AI a single, consistent view of what’s happening right now
This is what allows AI models, whether they’re embedded in SAP or running in external services, to act on current and complete information.
Four Real Paths to Adopting Integration Suite
Depending on your current architecture, team skills, and AI goals, there are four common ways we see organizations bringing Integration Suite into play:
1. Targeted use for specific AI or cloud projects
Use Integration Suite for a defined project — for example, connecting S/4HANA to Salesforce to support AI-driven sales forecasting, or linking ERP to an AI-powered service desk.
- Pros: Quick results, minimal disruption, small initial investment.
- Cons: If kept isolated, can become another silo.
2. Hybrid with PI/PO
Run Integration Suite alongside PI/PO. PI/PO continues to handle mission-critical on-prem integrations, while Integration Suite manages cloud apps, API-led connections, and AI data pipelines.
- Pros: Stability for existing processes, modernization where it matters most.
- Cons: Two integration platforms to govern and maintain.
3. Full migration
Replace PI/PO entirely, consolidating all integrations in Integration Suite. More common when the SAP core is already in S/4HANA Cloud or there’s a broader data center exit strategy.
- Pros: Unified governance, reduced platform complexity, API-first architecture.
- Cons: Higher upfront effort, complex migration for certain flows.
4. Integration Suite as the AI-first data and process layer
Design Integration Suite not just as middleware, but as the central “fabric” for data and process orchestration across the enterprise — the single entry point for AI, analytics, and automation to access trusted data.
- Pros: Consistent context for all AI use cases, maximized reuse of integration assets.
- Cons: Requires a strategic redesign of architecture and strong business-IT alignment.
The Legacy Factor
Legacy systems still matter. They hold valuable historical data, run critical processes, and often require skills that are in short supply. Integration Suite doesn’t replace that expertise — it makes it easier to surface legacy data for AI and other modern applications without risking stability.
Whether you keep PI/PO for years, phase it out gradually, or replace it in one move, the goal is the same: give AI the complete picture so it can make accurate, reliable decisions.
Why This Matters for AI-Driven Growth
When Integration Suite is part of your architecture:
- AI works with context — understanding customers, actions taken, and the systems involved
- Data silos shrink — everyone operates on the same, current information
- Workflows scale — processes span multiple platforms without manual effort
- Governance improves — security and compliance are easier to enforce with unified flows
Cost and Payback
Regardless of the path you choose, budgeting for Integration Suite means considering:
- Licensing and subscription
- Building or migrating connectors
- Training teams in API-led and event-driven patterns
- Ongoing monitoring, optimization, and governance
The return is in faster AI adoption, reduced integration backlog, and fewer one-off builds that slow down innovation.
Inclusion Cloud’s view
We’ve seen each of these four paths work — the “right” one depends on your risk tolerance, technical debt, and business priorities.
- Some start with targeted AI projects to prove value.
- Others go hybrid to get immediate reach into cloud platforms.
- A few go straight to full migration to simplify and modernize faster.
- The most forward-looking use Integration Suite as a central AI-first layer for data and processes.
In every case, the companies that succeed are the ones that treat integration as the foundation for AI.
Inclusion Cloud + SAP: A Long-Standing Partnership
At Inclusion Cloud, our journey with SAP spans nearly two decades. As an official SAP partner, we’ve worked across industries to design, implement, and optimize solutions that connect the entire enterprise.
Our SAP practice covers:
- Integration Expertise – Deep experience with SAP Integration Suite, PI/PO, and hybrid scenarios.
- Certified Talent – Access to top 1% SAP-certified developers, integration architects, and consultants through inMOVE™, our AI-powered recruiting engine.
- Full-Stack Delivery – From functional consulting and middleware engineering to data integration, automation, and AI enablement.
- Platform Synergy – Integrations that connect SAP to Salesforce, ServiceNow, Oracle, and industry-specific systems, unlocking unified workflows and AI-ready data.
- Modernization Guidance – Helping CIOs choose between targeted use, hybrid deployments, full migrations, or AI-first integration strategies — aligning SAP landscapes with business goals.
This partnership means we bring more than technical skill. We bring proven methods, real-world lessons from complex migrations, and a direct line into SAP’s evolving roadmap — all of which help our clients move from siloed systems to connected, intelligent enterprises.
Final Word:
If AI is your growth engine, Integration Suite is the system that fuels it with accurate, contextual data — from both modern platforms and decades-old systems. Whether your path is targeted, hybrid, full modernization, or AI-first, Inclusion Cloud and SAP work side by side with you to design, execute, and sustain an integration strategy that turns AI from an isolated initiative into part of how your business operates every day.
Executive Q&A: SAP Integration Suite and AI-Driven Growth
How to quantify the ROI of moving to SAP Integration Suite if AI outcomes are still uncertain?
To build a robust ROI case, organizations must focus not just on future AI benefits but also on near-term value from improved integration maturity. This includes faster deployment of connectivity assets, reduced one-off builds, and quicker enablement of AI prototypes.
So, in practical terms, you can use a total cost of ownership (TCO) model that factors in subscription costs, migration effort, and governance overhead, balanced against accelerated time-to-market for AI initiatives, reduced backlog, and asset reuse.
What are the biggest risks of delaying Integration Suite adoption while still running PI/PO?
The main risks are opportunity cost and talent scarcity. By delaying, companies often find themselves locked out of AI use cases that require cloud-native APIs or real-time data orchestration. At the same time, PI/PO-skilled developers are becoming harder to hire, which increases dependency risk. A hybrid strategy mitigates this, but waiting too long often means higher migration costs and slower AI adoption later.
What competitive advantage does Integration Suite provide compared to point-to-point APIs?
While point-to-point APIs can offer quick fixes, over time they lead to tangled “integration sprawl,” redundant efforts, fragile data flows, and governance fragmentation. In contrast, SAP Integration Suite supports API-led connectivity, encourages asset reuse, and embeds centralized governance, enabling organizations to scale AI and digital use cases enterprise-wide without repeatedly reinventing the wheel.
Research shows integration maturity correlates strongly with ROI: IDC reports that organizations actively integrating AI-generative capabilities into operations achieve an average of 3.7× ROI, with top performers seeing up to 10.3× return on every dollar invested. Now, while these figures focus on AI integration, the underlying principle applies to integration platforms like SAP Integration Suite: mature, strategic integration reduces duplication, accelerates deployments, and multiplies long-term value.
What KPIs track to measure success after adopting Integration Suite?
Executives should move beyond technical uptime and measure KPIs that connect integration performance to enterprise value. Key metrics include:
- Integration Backlog Reduction: How quickly IT clears pending integration requests.
- API Reuse Rate: The percentage of new projects leveraging existing APIs; a high rate indicates scalability and governance maturity.
- AI Time-to-Value: The average time from identifying an AI use case to deployment; critical for proving AI isn’t just experimental but operational.
- Business Process Automation Coverage: Percentage of workflows automated end-to-end across SAP and non-SAP systems.
- Compliance and Audit Readiness: Number of compliance incidents or failed audits linked to integration flows; lower incidents mean stronger governance.
How to connect SAP data to external AI tools?
SAP Integration Suite acts as a centralized hub that unifies data from SAP and non-SAP systems, making it straightforward to feed consistent, high-quality information into external AI services. For example, customer service data from SAP Service Cloud can be seamlessly enriched with insights from an external AI model, like sentiment analysis from Azure AI or a generative model from OpenAI, and then integrated back into SAP workflows for real-time action.
By providing API management, event-driven orchestration, and secure data governance, Integration Suite ensures these external AI models operate on accurate, trusted data. This way, it allows enterprises to leverage best-of-breed AI tools without fragmenting their IT landscape.
