SAP CEO Christian Klein: keyboard ends at SAP in 2–3 years

The keyboard has been the default way people interact with computers since Henry Mill patented a forerunner of the typewriter in 1714. Now Christian Klein, CEO of SAP, is predicting that inside his own company, typing data into SAP systems will end within the next two to three years. He points to voice recognition from large language models as already strong, and says the remaining work is translating voice into business language and business data.

Klein frames the shift as part of a broader move from theoretical AI discussions to applied AI—where software companies are generating billions of dollars in profitable revenue. He draws a distinction between businesses that say AI is changing how they run their operations and those that invested heavily but see low value. The difference, he argues, is whether AI is applied horizontally across the whole business rather than vertically in one division. He cites a consumer goods company linking demand planning, financial planning, and inventory control, where an agent predicts demand more intelligently than human planners but the months-long inventory adjustment process remains a bottleneck. SAP is now building an end-to-end planning scenario with agents that helps optimize inventory by 20%.

The geopolitical backdrop at Davos adds another layer. Klein says two superpowers are using their influence, and the world has shifted from a belief in globalization to a "my country first" approach. Companies ask him how to operate in over 100 countries amid new sovereignty requirements—cloud servers located in-country, different data protection rules, or cutting a country from the global network. Klein says SAP must ensure it can port its platform to another cloud infrastructure in days or weeks when sanctions or export controls hit. He also argues Europe is a superpower in regulation but not in unity, lacking a banking union, trade union, or digital union. Whether SAP's voice-first prediction becomes reality may hinge on how quickly it executes, and on whether customers are willing to change long-standing habits of typing into business systems.