SAP: How Women are Reshaping Culture and Innovation in Tech

Amidst the global talent shortages in technology sectors, with estimates suggesting millions of unfilled tech positions by 2025, the industry is recognising that its future success depends on tapping into previously underutilised talent pools. 

As organisations across the world navigate complex digital transformations, the demand for diverse skill sets and perspectives is only increasing.

This evolution is creating new pathways for women to enter and lead in technology, challenging long-held assumptions about what constitutes "tech talent."

SAP’s study, "More Women in Tech: Industry Fuels Trend to a New Innovation Culture," comes at a crucial moment when the tech industry faces both challenges and opportunities in fostering diversity and innovation.

The report investigates how women are not just joining the tech workforce but actively reshaping its culture and innovation practices.

It examines fundamental changes in how technology roles are conceived, executed, and valued in modern organisations.

Through interviews with women leaders across various tech sectors, the report uncovers emerging patterns in career trajectories, leadership styles and innovation approaches that are transforming the industry's DNA.

Changing dynamics in tech workforce

SAP’s findings paint an optimistic picture for women in technology.

Kira Marrs from ISF Munich says: "The digital transformation is opening up new opportunities for women.”

This shift is not just about increasing numbers, but about rethinking how technology roles are defined and valued.

Christine Regitz, Cofounder of the Business Women's Network from SAP, emphasises the need for a broader set of skills in the tech industry: "We need digital sovereignty to make conscious decisions. It's about more than programming.

"We also need the skills and expertise to make digital technologies work for us.”

This perspective is echoed by Anja Bultemeier from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, who notes: “Seeing technology through this new lens has created opportunities for women who do not have a technical background” and that the focus is shifting from technology itself to how people interact with it.

This change has created opportunities for women who do not have a traditional technical background.

Diverse paths to tech leadership

The research highlights how non-traditional career paths are becoming increasingly valuable in the tech industry.

For instance, Eva Bacon, who studied literature, now works as a Senior Program Manager at Google.

Her role involves overseeing transformation projects, demonstrating how skills in organisation and abstract thinking can be crucial in tech leadership.

Part of her work involves motivating and guiding her employees.

At a workshop, she recalls the instructor saying to her: “You need to be the glue that holds everything together. We have enough people building houses. We now need someone who can make a city out of them.”

Similarly, Sarah Mang-Schäfer, who heads a public cloud engineering team, combines her background in computer science with creative problem-solving skills honed through her interest in art.

Although Sarah now studies computer science, she found that art and technology were not so different after all.

“To solve problems, you need to be creative,” she told SAP. 

Her experience in neuroscience and cancer research taught her the importance of understanding customer needs, a skill increasingly valued in the tech industry.

Meanwhile Fiona Taylor, a scientist by training, now leads manufacturing strategy at BSH, one of Europe's largest home appliance manufacturers.

She emphasises the importance of gender diversity in the industry and is working to attract more women into manufacturing roles: “Being one of the people who determines where we invest and where we build new manufacturing plants, I can help ensure that we remain competitive as a German company. And it means I can influence our corporate culture.”

AI and the future of women in tech

The study also explores how AI is creating new opportunities for women in tech.

Eva Zauke, an Executive Vice President at SAP, notes that AI is leading to new roles beyond traditional programming, such as data scientist, prompt engineer, ethics expert and user experience designer.

These roles appeal to a wider range of applicants, including those with backgrounds in graphic design, humanities and psychology.

However, Eva also warns of the potential for AI to perpetuate gender biases, as the data used to train AI systems often reflects existing societal imbalances: “AI inherits bias from the humans who program it, who, more often than not, are white men.”

She argues that having more women working on AI would not only reduce data bias but also help address the talent gap in Europe's tech sector.

The research underscores the importance of visibility and confidence for women in tech.

Furthermore, Verena Laumayer, a member of SAP's Women in Tech strategy team, encourages women to have more confidence in their expertise and increase their visibility in the industry.

SAP reports: “She often finds herself at business events where not one speaker is a woman.

"Whenever she mentions this to the organisers, invariably the answer is that they simply could not find one, which is why she calls on women to have more confidence in their expertise and to increase their visibility.”

As the tech industry continues to evolve, the study suggests that diverse perspectives and skills will be increasingly valuable: "I don't sell technology; I sell solutions," one study participant noted, encapsulating the changing nature of work in the tech sector and the opportunities it presents for women from all backgrounds.

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