People still ask
what is SAP Leonardo, but the honest answer is that it is a retired SAP innovation brand. SAP Leonardo bundled AI, IoT, blockchain and analytics on SAP Cloud Platform from 2017, and SAP retired the brand around 2018-2019, moving its capabilities into SAP Business Technology Platform, SAP AI Core and SAP AI Launchpad.
If you are researching SAP Leonardo today, you are most likely looking at older SAP documentation, a legacy project, or a competitor comparison that still references the name. This guide explains what SAP Leonardo was, its four original pillars, why SAP retired the brand, and where to find the same capabilities in SAP's current product line.
What Is SAP Leonardo? A Historical Overview
SAP Leonardo was an innovation platform offered by SAP that worked with blockchain, IoT, analytics, big data and machine learning technologies. It was named after Leonardo da Vinci and launched in 2017 to help organizations innovate in their business processes using SAP Cloud Platform as the underlying infrastructure.
SAP positioned Leonardo less as a single product and more as an umbrella brand and a design-thinking approach, backed by "Leonardo Labs" that ran fast-track pilot projects with customers. That broad, shifting scope was one reason the brand struggled to gain traction with buyers.
What Were the SAP Leonardo Technologies?
SAP organized SAP Leonardo around four main pillars:
- AI and Machine Learning: Human-centered machine learning for business processes such as customer service and sales, including predictive maintenance and predictive governance.
- Blockchain: Used blockchain to help companies automate contracts between multiple parties while maintaining trust in shared data.
- Internet of Things (IoT): Used sensors and connected devices to collect data from machines or wearables, which AI systems then analyzed for decisions such as supply chain management or performance monitoring.
- Digital Supply Chain Management: Combined blockchain and digital twins (digital representations of real-world objects) to track products through a supply chain.
SAP Leonardo also encompassed named products such as SAP Leonardo Digital Innovation System (built on SAP Cloud Platform, HANA Enterprise Cloud, Business Warehouse and Predictive Analytics), SAP Leonardo Machine Learning, and SAP Leonardo Blockchain, an infrastructure-as-a-service offering based on Hyperledger Fabric.
What Was SAP Leonardo Supposed to Achieve?
SAP's stated aim for Leonardo was to help businesses with digital transformation: increasing productivity and efficiency through AI and machine learning automation, helping companies get more value from their data, and enabling a "smart factory" where physical assets connect to digital systems for faster decisions, such as flagging a machine issue before it caused downtime or lost revenue.
Why Did SAP Retire the Leonardo Brand?
SAP Leonardo's branding was effectively retired around 2018-2019, after leadership changes at SAP and a broader reset of its product strategy. Industry coverage at the time, including from e3 Magazine and Forrester, described adoption as far below expectations, with one survey cited by analysts putting planned Leonardo usage at only around 2% of SAP customers. SAP shifted its IoT strategy toward partnerships, such as with Microsoft Azure, rather than continuing standalone Leonardo development.
The name did not disappear all at once. SAP continued to reference Leonardo in some materials for a period, and SAP Leonardo Machine Learning Foundation has since been formally discontinued in favor of SAP AI Core. Today SAP does not market new products under the Leonardo name, and there is no active Leonardo roadmap.
Where Do SAP Leonardo’s Capabilities Live Today?
The table below maps each original pillar to where its functionality sits in SAP's current portfolio.
| | Where its capabilities live today |
| Human-centered machine learning for customer service, sales, predictive maintenance | SAP AI Core, SAP AI Launchpad, and embedded AI in SAP applications |
| Automating multi-party contracts while preserving data trust | Discontinued as a standalone SAP offering; SAP does not actively market a blockchain platform today |
| Collecting sensor and device data for supply chain and performance decisions | SAP Business Technology Platform IoT capabilities and partner solutions |
| HANA-based analytics, Business Warehouse, predictive analytics | SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP Datasphere and SAP Business Data Cloud |
For a closer look at where AI and machine learning now run on SAP's platform, read our article on
what SAP Business Technology Platform is. For automating business workflows, see our guide to
SAP Process Automation, now SAP Build Process Automation.
Should You Still Reference SAP Leonardo in a New Project?
If you are scoping a new SAP AI, IoT or analytics project today, avoid designing around the Leonardo name or its old architecture diagrams. Instead:
- Ask your SAP account team or partner which current BTP service maps to the capability you need (AI Core, AI Launchpad, Datasphere, and so on).
- If you inherited a Leonardo-labeled deployment from an earlier project, plan a migration assessment rather than extending it, since patching and support for Leonardo-era components are limited.
- Treat any vendor material that still markets "SAP Leonardo" as a current product with caution, and verify directly with SAP.
At MDP Group, we help businesses map legacy SAP AI and integration components, including old Leonardo-era projects, onto current SAP BTP services. If you are unsure whether a system you inherited still depends on retired Leonardo components, we recommend an assessment before your next SAP upgrade cycle.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is SAP Leonardo still available?
No. SAP retired the Leonardo brand around 2018-2019. Some legacy Leonardo-labeled deployments may still run, but SAP does not sell or actively support new implementations under that name.
What replaced SAP Leonardo?
Its capabilities split across current SAP products: SAP AI Core and SAP AI Launchpad for AI and machine learning, SAP Datasphere and SAP Business Data Cloud for data and analytics, and SAP Business Technology Platform for IoT and application development.
Why did SAP Leonardo fail?
Analysts point to low adoption, a confusing and shifting scope that spanned AI, IoT, blockchain and analytics under one name, and high total cost of ownership. SAP also underwent leadership changes that shifted its innovation strategy away from a standalone Leonardo brand.
Does SAP still use blockchain technology?
SAP does not actively market a standalone blockchain platform today. The blockchain capabilities once positioned under Leonardo are not part of SAP's current core roadmap.
Conclusion
SAP Leonardo was a real, launched innovation brand, not a rumor, but it is a retired one. If you are planning a new AI, IoT or analytics project on SAP, look at SAP BTP, AI Core, AI Launchpad and Datasphere instead. For help mapping a legacy SAP AI or integration project onto current SAP technology,
contact MDP Group.
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