SAP appoints Lee Marshall to drive AI adoption in ANZ region

SAP has appointed Lee Marshall as Head of AI for Australia and New Zealand, aiming to accelerate the adoption of business-focused artificial intelligence in the region.

The company stated that the appointment is designed to strengthen its local leadership at a time when organisations in Australia and New Zealand are increasingly seeking to leverage AI technologies to enhance productivity and long-term competitiveness.

Marshall brings more than 35 years of experience in digital transformation to SAP, including significant work in AI-led business transformation. His expertise spans diverse sectors, including financial services, government, telecommunications, transport, and logistics.

Angela Colantuono, President and Managing Director, SAP ANZ, commented on the appointment, highlighting the importance of AI in the current economic climate and Marshall's suitability for the role.

"In uncertain economic conditions, AI is one of the clearest levers organisations have to lift productivity and secure long-term competitiveness. At SAP, we champion a practical, responsible approach by building on trusted data, embedding AI into everyday workflows, backed by strong governance. Lee's deep private and public sector relationships and experience will prove instrumental in helping customers move from experimentation to production, to deliver measurable outcomes and realise their potential."

The press statement outlines Marshall's previous advisory roles, which include nearly two decades in solutions engineering and pre-sales, as well as leadership and senior positions with Microsoft, Salesforce and PWC. It notes that, for the past two and a half years, his work has focused on generative AI-powered business applications.

Marshall spoke about the opportunities presented by his new role at SAP and the company's core positioning within enterprise operations.

"I'm incredibly excited to join SAP, which I like to say is the company that runs other companies and organisations. Utilising SAP's Business AI, embedded in the most critical business processes, we have the unique ability to support organisations to derive the most value with minimum friction. I don't see anyone else with as strong a business value proposition when it comes to AI, so it's very exciting to join SAP at a time when the speed of innovation is staggering. The opportunity to deliver transformative, measurable outcomes which change the face of business and industries is immense," said Lee.

SAP currently integrates Business AI into its enterprise cloud portfolio, which the company says aims to bring intelligence at scale to mission-critical business processes. The approach involves uniting SAP Business Suite, SAP Data Cloud, and SAP Business AI into a cohesive system where applications generate data, data is used to train AI, and AI is used to optimise applications in a continuous loop.

According to SAP, more than 34,000 customers globally are presently using its Business AI offerings, with over 130 generative AI use cases developed across the SAP cloud portfolio. The company also reports that its AI assistant, Joule, is now part of 80% of the most-used tasks in its system, with more than 1,300 embedded skills available.

The company's current strategy, as outlined in the statement, emphasises embedding AI directly into enterprise workflows, focusing on both measurable outcomes for customers and governance considerations.

Marshall's experience is expected to assist organisations in Australia and New Zealand to move from experimentation with AI to scaling real-world implementations, according to SAP. The company indicates that the appointment is part of ongoing efforts to support regional businesses as they evolve their digital capabilities and operational models.