Contracts. Invoices. Portals. Mobile apps. Every business needs tailored digital tools, but traditional development is often costly, slow, and difficult to maintain. SAP Build, SAP’s next-generation application development solution, responds to this challenge with a powerful, unified platform that helps teams build faster without compromising on quality or control.
In a recent episode of the CLARITY.SHOW Podcast, host Karyna Mihalevich sat down with Diana Roesner, Head of Product Enablement for SAP Build, to explore how this platform is transforming low-code solutions, development speed, and AI integration across the SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP).
Roesner’s team supports customers, partners, and internal SAP stakeholders, helping them understand and fully leverage the SAP Build suite. As she puts it, “Every company is unique, and SAP Build is what allows them to express that uniqueness without compromising stability or creating technical depth.”
What is SAP Build?
SAP Build is a unified application development solution designed to support innovation across a wide range of user needs and technical backgrounds. It sits on SAP BTP and includes tools for SAP application development, workflows, and business sites – all designed to integrate natively with SAP solutions.
What sets SAP Build apart is its layered structure and flexible tooling. Users can choose between no-code, low-code, or pro-code development paths depending on their skill level and business needs. For example, SAP Build Apps allows users to design mobile or web applications without writing code, while SAP Build Code offers a professional development environment for Java, JavaScript, or ABAP-based projects. These tools are not siloed but interconnected, allowing developers and citizen users to collaborate and build on each other’s work.
The SAP Build Lobby serves as the central entry point where projects are initiated, managed, and monitored. From this interface, users can manage lifecycle processes, enforce governance, and collaborate across roles and departments. Importantly, it’s also where different types of development – whether it’s app creation, process automation, or portal design – come together as part of a coherent system.
Diana notes that this “clean core” approach is essential. Businesses can build what makes them unique while staying compliant, upgrade-ready, and integrated with their existing systems.
AI in SAP Build: From Acceleration to Extension
The most exciting frontier for SAP Build is arguably its deep integration with AI, specifically through Joule, SAP’s generative AI assistant. Diana describes the AI offering as having two sides. On one side, AI accelerates development. On the other hand, AI becomes extendable through tools like Joule Studio.
On the development side, Joule is embedded directly into SAP Build Code, enabling developers to generate entire app structures – including data models and test scripts – by simply describing them in natural language. In SAP Build Apps, AI can generate multiple UI proposals based on business objects, reducing the need to wireframe or prototype from scratch.
This human-AI collaboration makes development faster and more intuitive, especially for users who may not have a traditional coding background. “Low code is one stage,” Diana explains. “Managing your development with AI and natural language is the next stage.”
On the flip side, Joule Studio – a low-code design environment – enables users to teach Joule custom skills. For example, a company might integrate Joule with a third-party service like ServiceNow to retrieve ticketing data. Once created, that skill becomes available to the entire organisation, enabling smooth conversational access to otherwise siloed systems.
Simple Deployment, Zero Prerequisites
A key strength of SAP Build is its accessibility. There are no strict prerequisites for adoption. Organisations don’t need to be on S/4HANA – SAP Build also supports ECC environments and can evolve alongside the customer’s journey to the cloud. There are multiple ways to get started, including a free trial, a free tier, or entitlement through existing S/4HANA or SAP BTP subscriptions.
Training is also highly accessible. SAP offers detailed learning journeys, tutorials, and certifications through its online platform, allowing both technical and non-technical users to onboard at their own pace. Karyna confirms, “The platform is intuitive, and the learning experience is designed to help you start building right away.”
Case Studies: Automating Employee Portals and Financial Processes
SAP Build is already proving its value in real-world scenarios. One example comes from Piller Blowers, a German industrial manufacturer. Facing a fragmented ERP landscape, they used SAP Build Work Zone to create a unified employee portal. This led to an 80% improvement in speed when accessing and completing daily tasks.
Another strong use case comes from SAP itself. Embracing its “drink your own champagne” philosophy, SAP has deployed SAP Build internally, empowering business units to develop over 60 workflows using SAP Build process automation. In the finance department alone, the team automated 80% of their invoice processing in the order-to-cash flow – developed not by IT, but by domain experts supported by an internal centre of excellence.
SAP Build represents a shift in how businesses approach digital transformation. It combines the freedom of custom development with the structure of SAP-native governance. By offering AI-powered tools, flexible development models, and smooth integration with existing SAP systems, it gives organisations the power to innovate without the complexity.
In Diana’s words, “We don’t expect our customers to start from scratch. SAP Build is about creating business value from day one, within your own context, on your own terms.”