Top SAP Trends for 2026 That SAP Customers Need to Be Aware of

We’re now more than halfway through the decade, which is baffling for many reasons, but if we look back on it so far, the scale and pace of change have been incredible. The developments from these previous years tell us that 2026 will be a year all about execution, capability and readiness.

Deadlines are closer than ever, cloud adoption is accelerating, AI is moving from novelty to necessity, and the pressure on data, skills and integration is intensifying. For many organisations, the challenge will not be access to technology, but their ability to utilise it.

Here is our SAP Horoscope for top SAP trends that will shape 2026, and what they mean in practical terms for SAP customers.

Continued march towards deadlines

The long-discussed S/4HANA migration deadlines are now firmly within the planning horizon of most SAP customers. Similarly, the planned end of maintenance for SAP Process Integration / Process Orchestration (PI/PO) is forcing organisations to confront integration strategies that may have been deferred for years.

By 2026, organisations that have not made tangible progress will feel the increased pressure of these actions as costs and demand for partners start to rise, but also so do the risks associated with falling behind proactive competitors. The market is already seeing a shift from exploratory assessments to decisive programmes with clear scopes, timelines and landing zones.

Importantly, these deadlines are not just technical milestones. They expose weaknesses in data quality, custom code, integration landscapes and internal skills. Successful programmes are increasingly those that treat S/4HANA and integration modernisation as business transformation initiatives, not technical upgrades.

RISE with SAP as the preferred migration landing zone

By 2026, RISE with SAP is expected to be the default landing zone for the majority of SAP ECC to S/4HANA migrations. While alternative models will continue to exist, momentum is clearly moving towards SAP-managed cloud environments that simplify infrastructure, contracts and lifecycle management.

This does not mean RISE removes complexity altogether. Customers still need to make critical decisions around architecture, extensibility, integration and data governance. However, RISE provides a standardised foundation that allows organisations to focus more energy on process optimisation and innovation rather than infrastructure maintenance.

As adoption increases, expectations will also rise. Customers will demand clearer value from RISE environments, tighter integration with SAP BTP, and faster enablement of new services rather than “cloud for cloud’s sake”.

AI as an enabler of transformation, not an add-on

By 2026, AI within SAP landscapes will no longer be positioned as a bolt-on capability. It will be embedded across processes, analytics and user experiences, particularly through SAP’s AI assistant strategy and the wider use of intelligent automation.

However, one constraint will remain non-negotiable: AI is only as effective as the data it relies on.

Poor master data, inconsistent governance and fragmented landscapes will limit the value of AI initiatives, regardless of how advanced the tools become. This is already visible in early AI deployments that struggle to move beyond pilots due to unreliable inputs.

Organisations that invest early in data quality, governance frameworks and harmonised processes will be best placed to take advantage of AI-driven insights, automation and decision support as these capabilities mature.

Faster, simpler ways to build: Accelerating Developer Productivity

The way SAP solutions are built is evolving. This year, the focus will be on dramatically improving how quickly and safely solutions can be delivered. Low-code and no-code tools, AI-assisted development and SAP BTP services are reducing repetitive effort, accelerating build cycles and lowering the barrier to extending SAP systems – all great news.

This shift does not reduce the need for professional development expertise. Instead, it increases its impact. Developers spend less time on boilerplate code and technical plumbing, and more time on architecture, security, integration, performance and complex business logic. Business users and functional experts may contribute through guided tools and pre-defined patterns, but always within frameworks designed and governed by IT.

This said, the organisations that succeed will be those that treat these tools as accelerators, not shortcuts. Clear standards, architectural guardrails and enablement are essential to ensure faster delivery without creating technical debt, security exposure or fragmented landscapes.

Skills gaps as a critical risk

One of the most significant threats facing SAP customers by 2026 will not be technology availability, but skills scarcity.

S/4HANA, SAP BTP, integration modernisation, AI enablement and cloud operations all require capabilities that many internal teams do not yet have at scale. At the same time, demand for experienced SAP professionals continues to outstrip supply.

As a result, organisations will rely more heavily on outsourced expertise and strategic partners. The challenge will be choosing partners who can do more than deliver isolated projects.

Customers should look for SAP partners who:

• Have deep, hands-on experience across S/4HANA, BTP and integration
• Combine technical delivery with strong UX and process understanding
• Provide ready-to-deploy accelerators rather than starting from scratch
• Focus on long-term capability building, not just short-term delivery
• Understand data governance as a foundation, not an afterthought

Correct partner selection will increasingly be a board-level risk decision rather than a procurement exercise.

Supply chain pressure and the importance of trusted data

Global supply chains continue to face volatility from tariffs, geopolitical uncertainty and shifting regulatory requirements. By 2026, organisations will rely even more heavily on real-time visibility, predictive analytics and scenario modelling to manage risk.

This places renewed emphasis on data governance. Forecasting and predictive tools are only valuable if the underlying data is accurate, consistent and trusted across systems.

SAP customers will prioritise initiatives that improve end-to-end data flows across procurement, manufacturing, logistics and finance. In many cases, this will expose the need to rationalise master data models and integration patterns that were never designed for real-time decision making.

BTP Value Realisation

SAP Business Technology Platform adoption continues to accelerate, and by 2026 it is expected that more than half of the SAP user base will be using BTP in some form.

One unintended consequence is already emerging: large volumes of unused cloud credits. Many organisations have committed to BTP commercially but lack the clarity, skills or use cases to consume it effectively.

This will create a growing focus on value realisation. Customers will look for pragmatic use cases that deliver measurable outcomes, whether through extensions, automation, integration or analytics, rather than experimental proofs of concept.

Partners who can quickly turn BTP entitlements into tangible business capability will stand out.

A more balanced SAP and non-SAP landscape

Finally, 2026 will see a more realistic balance between SAP and non-SAP systems. Few organisations operate a purely SAP landscape, and attempts to force all capabilities into a single stack have often proven costly and inflexible.

SAP Integration Suite and event-driven architectures are enabling cleaner, more sustainable integration between SAP and best-of-breed non-SAP solutions. The focus is shifting from system dominance to orchestration, data consistency and experience.

Successful organisations will treat integration as a strategic capability, not an afterthought, ensuring that SAP remains at the core without becoming a constraint.

Looking ahead

The SAP landscape in 2026 will reward organisations that act decisively now. The technology foundations are largely in place, but outcomes will depend on data quality, skills, governance and execution.

For SAP customers, the question is no longer what SAP will deliver next, but whether they are ready to take advantage of it.