SAP Labs India announces collaboration with IIM Bangalore to launch AI for Managers programme. The initiative aims to make the knowledge of Artificial Intelligence and its components such as Statistical Learning, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning accessible to a pool of interested managers who aspire to become competent Decision Makers.

Commencing from April 22, 2022, it is a 16-month long certification programme comprising 11 online modular courses stacked together based on the order of their sequence in a learning curve. Each module is enriched with concepts, applications, and case studies to ensure participants learn and apply AI techniques and machine learning algorithms such as supervised learning, unsupervised learning, and reinforcement learning algorithms to solve problems across various functional areas of management.

Some of the key objectives of the AI for Managers programme are to help participants:

• Recognize the emergence of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning as a competitive strategy.
• Understand foundations of data science on which the AI models are built.
• Learn descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analytics and their applications in generating solutions for business problems.
• Learn the functioning of artificial neural networks (ANN) and deep learning algorithms such as recurrent neural network (RNN) and Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) with applications.
• Application of AI techniques to solve problems in various sectors such as Aerospace, Banking financial services and insurance (BFSI), E-commerce, Manufacturing, Retail, Sports and Services.

Sindhu Gangadharan, SVP, SAP User Enablement & MD, SAP Labs India said, “At SAP, we believe in continuous learning and offer our colleagues immersive experiences for upskilling, reskilling and newskilling. In order to realize SAP’s vision to help the world run better and support our half a million customers in their journey to become intelligent and sustainable enterprises, it is imperative our workforce remains agile and constantly reinvents itself to fuel unfettered innovation. The AI for Managers programme, in partnership with IIM-B, is a step forward in this regard and is designed to upskill our managers in the fast-evolving business landscape. The 16-month long programme focuses on action-oriented approach where SAP colleagues can bring in their current problem statements and explore solutions. As we start with the AI for Managers programme, we are keen to expand this to our developer community, Product owners and Product managers in the near future to become an AI-first organization.”

Vasanthi Srinivasan, Chairperson, MOOCs and Digital Learning, IIM Bangalore said, "Research estimates that AI will result in increasing the global GDP by about 1.2% annually by 2030. The program 'AI for Managers' being launched by IIMBx is designed to impart industry ready skills to the participants in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and enhance computational thinking to solve business problems and facilitate effective decision making."
Instructors of the programme come with a combined experience of over 70 years across teaching and consulting in the AI domain. Prominent names include Professor U Dinesh Kumar, Decision Sciences and Chair of Excellence; Professor Rajluxmi V Murthy, Decision Sciences; Kumar Rahul, Alumnus of IIMB and Research Scholar of IIMK; Manaranjan Pradhan, Alumnus of IIMB; Naveen Kumar Bhansali, Adjunct faculty and alumnus of IIM Bangalore; and Sharada Sringeswara, IIM Bangalore and BITS Pilani alumni, among others. 

Interested candidates applying for the programme will be subjected to a comprehensive admission procedure to ensure that the learners’ goals are oriented towards a challenging experience. To earn a programme completion certificate, participants are expected to score 60% and above in all the 9 individual courses.

Present in India for the last 25 years, SAP’s purpose is “to help the world run better and improve people’s lives” serving more than half a million customers in their quest for digital transformation and the journey for sustainable growth. SAP Labs India is SAP's largest Research and Development center outside its headquarters in Germany and a part of a connected lab network of 21 Labs in 18 countries. It is one of the earliest R&D centers of a global company to have a footprint in India and has over the period of more than two decades grown in strategic importance for SAP.