SAP predicts that AI agents could support up to 80% of the most-used business tasks in SAP. 1 These agents go beyond automating tasks by solving problems and offering innovative solutions, acting like an extra “brain” for enterprise operations.
Explore what are the SAP AI agents capabilities and use cases:
What are SAP AI agents?
SAP AI agents, integrated into the SAP ecosystem and supported by the Joule framework, enhance business workflows with advanced AI. These multi-agent systems act as specialized experts, autonomously managing multi-step processes and ensuring smooth collaboration across functions. Leveraging rich SAP data, they enable precise and efficient decision-making by drawing on deep business context.
What is the name of the AI agent in SAP?
SAP AI agent refers to SAP AI Copilot, Joule that is designed with autonomous AI agent capabilities that can streamline operations and deliver business insights. In Q4 2024, SAP released Joule Studio in SAP Build, providing a low-code/no-code environment for businesses to create, deploy, monitor, and manage custom Joule skills.
By Q1 2025, Joule will customize development capabilities for developers and expand its NLP inquiry capabilities to leverage real-time data from SAP analytics solutions.
Integration across SAP ecosystem
With SAP integration suite, these agents connect seamlessly across different systems, ensuring efficient workflow automation. Some of the SAP products that Joule, SAP AI agents, is embedded into:
- SAP HANA Cloud, SAP LeanIX, SAP Sales Cloud, SAP Signavio, S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition by the end of 2024.
- SAP Service Cloud and SAP Concur by early 2025.
By utilizing SAP integrated business planning and SAP AI Core, SAP AI agents align operations with strategic objectives, offering unparalleled agility for SAP customers. This approach enhances planning, execution, and monitoring across industries.
Multi-agent collaboration
Without AI agents, Joule could handle isolated tasks, such as retrieving data, extracting insights, and answering employee queries. With the introduction of collaborative AI agents specialized in distinct business functions, Joule can execute end-to-end processes, integrating actions across SAP systems and departments.
SAP AI agents collaborate to analyze, resolve and execute complex workflows across business domains, such as dispute management and financial accounting. For instance, resolving a payment dispute might involve multi-agent teamwork, such as collections, invoicing, and customer support agents working together.
Specialized agents in the business ecosystem
Instead of a single generalist agent, multi-agent networks divide tasks into specialized roles. Each AI agent specializes in a specific business function, enabling expertise-driven automation and collaboration across domains such as finance, supply chain, and service management.
For instance, in procurement, agents can split into purchasing clerk and contract manager roles, ensuring compliance and thorough contract reviews. These systems also draw on tools like SAP product lifecycle management to optimize processes, from concept development to production.
From Q1 2025, developers will gain ability to create and extend their autonomous SAP AI agents in order to address specific business needs, broadening the scope of what Joule can achieve.
Human in the loop
AI agents are designed to work autonomously but operate within a framework where humans remain in control. Joule acts as a “conductor,” orchestrating the collaboration between SAP AI agents, while humans provide guidance as “composers” by defining tasks and objectives.
Despite human intervention is essential at this point, SAP envisions an era of autonomous enterprises where:
- Businesses operate seamlessly with minimal human intervention.
- Streamline supply chains, automate transactions, and proactive error handling.
This shift aims to redifine the role of AI, from task augmentation to business transformation.
SAP knowledge graph
The SAP Knowledge Graph serves as the foundation for Joule’s advanced capabilities, aiming to deliver smarter and more connected enterprise operations, such as:
- Contextualized data: Organizes and connects data from SAP applications to provide meaningful insights.
- Mapped business relationships: Links relationships between business entities (e.g., invoices, orders, and customers) to enhance decision-making and streamline processes.
- Proactive problem-solving: Identifies emerging issues early, enabling timely interventions before they escalate.
- Enabled innovation: Detects trends, uncovers patterns, and suggests innovative operational strategies that may not have been previously explored.
By leveraging interconnected data, the Knowledge Graph empowers Joule SAP AI agents to generate personalized, accurate, and contextually relevant solutions.
Use Cases for SAP Joule and Its AI Agents
SAP AI agents can function both in interactive applications and in the background, handling routine tasks or responding to real-time events. Below are hypothetical use cases demonstrating the potential of Joule and its collaborative AI agents:
1. Dispute management
SAP AI agents can handle incorrect/missing invoices, unapplied credits, duplicate/denied payments, and dispute resolution. For example, Joule can detect a payment dispute, such as a duplicate payment or an invoice mismatch, through automated monitoring of financial data. Then, the agent can automatically:
- Manage the exchange of emails and communications between relevant departments or external stakeholders, ensuring all necessary information is gathered.
- Identify and correct errors in invoices, such as missing details or incorrect amounts.
- Analyzes denied payments to determine the root cause, whether due to insufficient funds, incorrect account details, or mismatched references.
- Provide actionable solutions, such as applying credits, issuing corrections, or escalating unresolved issues to human reviewers.
2. Financial Services
- Administrative automation: Streamline billing processes, prepare ledger reports, and handle compliance documentation with minimal manual intervention.
- Specialized financial recommendations: Offer strategic advice on budget allocation, portfolio management, and credit or insurance approvals.
- Fraud detection: Monitor transactions in real time, flagging potential fraudulent activities and protecting enterprise assets.
3. Human Resources
- Talent acquisition: Automate job postings, generate candidate shortlists, and manage onboarding processes to streamline hiring.
- Employee retention: Monitor employee performance, engagement, and feedback, delivering actionable insights to improve retention and foster team building.
- HR process optimization: Handle administrative tasks, from updating employee records to managing payroll discrepancies, freeing HR professionals to focus on strategic initiatives.
4. Information technologies
- Coding assistance: Provide developers with tools to generate code and app logic using natural language, ensuring alignment with SAP programming models.
- Cloud transformation Support: Offer on-demand guidance for best practices, streamlining cloud migration processes while maintaining consistency with organizational standards.
- Project acceleration: Reduce manual coding efforts, enabling faster project delivery and minimizing timelines.
- Cost efficiency: Lower development costs by automating repetitive tasks and improving accuracy.
- Seamless integration: Ensure smooth integration of SAP solutions into IT ecosystems for enhanced operational efficiency.
5. Marketing and customer support
- Personalized campaigns: Analyze customer data to create tailored marketing strategies, personalized calls-to-action (CTAs), and engagement plans.
- Market trend forecasting: Provide insights and recommendations for identifying growth opportunities and predicting market changes.
- Enhanced customer relationship management (CRM): Leverage large language models (LLMs) to manage customer interactions, resolve disputes, handle transactions, and analyze feedback for improved customer satisfaction.
- Content generation: Use generative AI to produce branded text and imagery, aligning with the company’s voice and values.
6. Supply chain and procurement
Additional AI agent-driven workflows will be introduced to the supply chain portfolio by March 2025, further demonstrating the versatility of these agents.
- Inventory management: Automate inventory tracking and trigger restocking orders to maintain optimal supply levels.
- Delivery optimization: Customize delivery routes to reduce transportation costs and environmental impact while ensuring timely shipments.
- Quality assurance: Simplify inspection processes, detect manufacturing errors, and ensure the integrity of goods during transportation and storage. Discover what is quality assurance (QA) and data QA.
- Predictive maintenance: Monitor equipment performance and predict repairs or replacements before breakdowns occur, reducing downtime and costs. Explore more on predictive maintenance
Other AI agent providers to SAP
There are third party tools that can develop and deliver SAP AI agents, such as:
- Hypatos delivers domain-specific AI agents that can integrate to SAP to automate document processing, handle complex data flows, and reduce manual errors.
- SpendConsole provides a chatbot solution that integrates with SAP systems to digitize and streamline invoice processing to enhance productivity, compliance, and fraud protection.
There are also other tech giants that employ AI agents, like Oracle AI agents.
FAQs
Is there any AI tool for SAP?
Yes, SAP offers multiple AI tools integrated into its ecosystem, such as:
- The Generative AI Hub in SAP AI Core and SAP AI Launchpad that provides scalable management of AI artifacts, enabling custom AI solutions and application extensions.
- Joule that is a generative AI copilot, delivers code generation, data insights, and process automation with natural language interaction.
- SAP AI Services that can enhance business processes with prediction models, document automation, and recommendation systems.
- The SAP Foundation Model which focuses on structured data analysis
- Vector Engine and Knowledge Graph in SAP HANA Cloud that can help empower intelligent data applications and contextual AI insights for business operations.
Discover more on AI applications in SAP solutions via our guide on SAP BTP Generative AI. SAP BTP automation also helps integrating these LLMs into other SAP-certified tools and apps (e.g Redwood and SAP), such as:
- SAP job schedulers
- SAP process orchestration tools
- SAP utility solutions
- SAP meter-to-cash process technologies.
- 6 SAP Datasphere AI
What are agents in SAP?
SAP AI agents are intelligent, autonomous tools designed to perform tasks and make decisions independently, enhancing business processes through automation and adaptability. These agents leverage AI capabilities like natural language processing, machine learning, and multi-agent systems to execute workflows, analyze data, and improve over time.
SAP’s generative AI ecosystem, including tools like Joule, allows users to develop custom AI agents for specific roles. These agents can communicate naturally, design workflows, use software tools, and collaborate with humans or other agents. Their applications in SAP include procurement optimization, process automation, and integration with internal systems for tailored solutions.
What are the 5 types of agent in AI?
There are not only 5 but six common types of AI agents which are reactive, proactive, hybrid, utility-based, learning, and collaborative.
AI agents come in various forms, allowing organizations to combine them into customized multi-agent systems tailored to their needs. Below are six types of AI agents and their ideal applications:
- Reactive agents: These rule-based agents autonomously respond to prompts using preset rules, making them ideal for repetitive tasks like resetting passwords via chatbots. While limited by their lack of memory, they are low-maintenance and efficient.
- Proactive agents: Using predictive algorithms, these agents analyze patterns, forecast outcomes, and take action without prompts. They excel in monitoring complex systems like supply chains, identifying issues, and recommending solutions.
- Hybrid agents: Combining reactive and proactive capabilities, hybrid agents offer flexibility, reacting quickly to predictable tasks while adapting to dynamic conditions.
- Utility-based agents: These agents prioritize actions based on user satisfaction metrics, excelling in navigation, robotics, and financial trading.
- Learning agents: These agents refine performance by learning from experiences and user feedback, powering adaptive virtual assistants.
- Collaborative agents: Operating across systems and departments, they coordinate workflows, delegate tasks, and manage complex operations.
Further reading
Explore more on SAP related technologies, such as:
- Discover 7 SAP BTP Generative AI Tools, 4 Use Cases & Benefits
- Discover Latest 6 SAP Datasphere AI Integrations & 2 Features
- Compare 10 SAP Utility Solutions
External sources
- 1. Artificial intelligence | SAP TechEd News Guide.
- 2. Joule Collaborative AI Agents to Transform How People Work | SAP News Center. SAP
- 3. Joule Collaborative AI Agents to Transform How People Work | SAP News Center. SAP
- 4. The AI Copilot Joule | Artificial Intelligence | SAP.
- 5. The AI Copilot Joule | Artificial Intelligence | SAP.
- 6. The AI Copilot Joule | Artificial Intelligence | SAP.
- 7. The AI Copilot Joule | Artificial Intelligence | SAP.
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