SAP Development Chief Pushes Artificial Intelligence

Smart machines and digitalization will boost rather than cut employment -- but people must get used to constant retraining to keep pace with change, the development chief of German software giant SAP tells Handelsblatt. SAP is the world's biggest supplier of business software and is shifting its business model towards cloud computing services. People are too negative about digitalization and artificial intelligence and should embrace new technologies as job creators rather than job killers, Bernd Leukert, the head of development at German business software giant SAP told Handelsblatt at the Davos World Economic Forum last week. Mr. Leukert, 49, who has worked at SAP since 1994 and joined the management board in 2014, said the German education system, the government and firms weren't doing enough to prepare people for a future in which there will be a constant need for new job training. "I think there's there's too much talk of negative scenarios in the discussion about digitalization and new technologies," he said.