SAP sets timeline to replace SuccessFactors recruiting module with SmartRecruiters

Now that SAP has completed its acquisition of SmartRecruiters, executives are talking about their plans to replace the recruiting module of SuccessFactors, SAP’s cloud-based HR management tool.

When SAP announced its acquisition of SmartRecruiters in August 2025, SuccessFactors president Daniel Beck said that SuccessFactors users would benefit from SmartRecruiters’ user-friendly interface and its AI and automation functions, while SmartRecruiters would continue as a standalone business under its CEO, Rebecca Carr.

At the time, analysts wondered whether SmartRecruiters would be merged into the existing SuccessFactors Recruiting module, or offered as a separate product.

Now, Beck has revealed that SmartRecruiters will entirely replace the recruiting component of SuccessFactors. Customers will have 3 to 5 years to complete their migration, he said.

“I’m hoping we can pull this forward, [but] our timeline right now is, the end of Q1 we’re going to signal that we have an SAP contract that current clients can migrate to,” he said in an interview. “And then what Rebecca and I are doing is investing in migration tooling from SuccessFactors recruiting into SmartRecruiters, so that those configurations, that data composition can very elegantly move over.”

SuccessFactors will also bring the SmartRecruiters AI assistant, Winston, “into the family,” where it will interact with SAP’s Joule AI products, he said.

SAP is continuing to add Joule features across its product range, with four more Joule HR agents scheduled for release next year: a Career and Talent Development Agent will help with succession planning; a People Intelligence Agent will help detect staffing issues and trends; and two self-service agents will help employees with payroll and general HR questions.

SmartRecruiters customers won’t have to adopt SuccessFactors

While SuccessFactors recruitment module users will be forced to adopt SmartRecruiters, the converse isn’t true.

Beck said that, although about one-third of SmartRecruiters customers already use SuccessFactors, and it already integrates with SuccessFactors Employee Central, SmartRecruiters will continue to interface with other vendors’ HR products, so customers will be able to use it without subscribing to SuccessFactors.