SAP, a leading business software company, has announced the appointment of Walter Sun as the Global Head of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
This strategic move highlights SAP’s commitment to advancing its position in the realm of Business AI and reinforces its dedication to delivering innovative solutions to address critical customer challenges.
A New Leader in AI
Walter Sun officially assumes his role at SAP on September 1, bringing with him a wealth of experience and expertise. He joins SAP from Microsoft, where he served as the Vice President of Copilot Applied Artificial Intelligence for business applications. In his new capacity, Walter Sun will play a pivotal role in driving AI innovation within SAP.
A Strong Endorsement from SAP Leadership
Thomas Saueressig, Member of the Executive Board of SAP SE for SAP Product Engineering, expressed confidence in the appointment, stating, “As SAP builds on its pole position in Business AI, Walter Sun is the perfect person to ensure we continue innovating to help our customers solve their most pressing problems.”
A Career Steeped in AI and Innovation
Walter Sun’s career at Microsoft spans nearly two decades, having joined the company in 2005. During this time, he steadily progressed through various scientific and product development roles, culminating in his recent leadership position. Notably, he led an interdisciplinary team focused on developing AI and machine learning capabilities tailored for business applications.
Founding Bing Predicts and Pioneering AI Features
Walter Sun’s contributions to the field of AI extend beyond Microsoft. He is the founder of Bing Predicts, an initiative that harnessed anonymized and aggregated data for predictive analytics. Moreover, he played a pivotal role in delivering AI features across Microsoft’s diverse portfolio, including Bing Search, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Dynamics 365, and Microsoft Power Platform.
Diverse Background and Academic Contributions
Before his tenure at Microsoft, Walter Sun worked as a quantitative portfolio analyst at BlackRock Financial Management and as a senior software engineer and scientist at Apple Inc. His research spans a wide range of AI-related areas, including stochastic processes, signal processing, machine learning, deep learning, operations research, and large language models.
Walter Sun’s dedication to the field of AI extends to academia, where he served as an adjunct professor at Seattle University and an affiliate faculty member at the University of Washington. Currently, he is an advisory board member at Georgia Tech.
PhD from MIT and a Vision for the Future
Walter Sun earned his PhD in statistical signal and image processing and computer vision, with a focus on applications in medical imaging, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
His appointment as the Global Head of Artificial Intelligence at SAP marks an exciting chapter in the company’s journey towards advancing AI-driven solutions for its global customer base. Walter Sun’s extensive experience, innovative mindset, and academic contributions position him as a driving force in SAP’s continued AI endeavors.
