312 years after first ‘typing’ patent, SAP CEO says prepare for 'Death of Keyboard'

In 1714, English engineer Henry Mill filed a patent for a "machine transcribing letters", marking an early step towards the development of the typewriter and keyboard. Nearly three centuries later, SAP CEO Christian Klein foresees a potential transformation in the way employees interact with business data, anticipating the demise of the keyboard within the next two to three years.

Klein attributes this shift to the increasing capabilities of voice recognition and artificial intelligence (AI) agents, which he believes will allow employees to utilize voice commands to ask analytical questions, trigger workflows, and input information into enterprise software. For SAP, this change could revolutionize how businesses engage with their core systems.

Currently, AI-powered voice recognition has matured to the point where it can adeptly handle various tasks. However, the next challenge lies in seamlessly connecting spoken instructions with business language and data. Klein stated, "The future will be, for sure, that you are not typing any data information into an SAP system. You can instead ask certain analytical questions with your voice.

You can trigger operational task workflows. You can also make entries in the system with your voice—performance feedback, pipeline entries, etc." The company is investing in enhancing its AI tools to handle increasingly intricate workplace tasks.

Klein also envisions AI agents bridging different facets of a business, as evidenced by a consumer goods company that is collaborating with SAP to link demand planning, financial planning, inventory management, procurement, and manufacturing. This AI-driven planning system has the potential to optimize inventory by 20%. By amassing a wealth of financial analysis PowerPoints, employees can query AI models to derive insights and derive recommended actions, thus streamlining business decision-making.

However, Klein warns of another impending challenge for businesses: evolving geopolitical issues. As various nations enact data, cloud, and sovereignty regulations, global technology firms must remain adaptable and flexible in managing their platforms across different cloud providers to mitigate potential disruptions caused by sanctions, export controls, or other geopolitical shifts.