The pressure to innovate in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) is driving rapid change in the SAP world: At the Sapphire customer conference, SAP announced that it would replace the “Business Suite”—which was unveiled just a year ago—as its North Star architecture with the “Autonomous Enterprise”.
In a recent analysis (presented by Thomas Henzler, Executive Director of Sales, Production & Logistics), the German-Speaking SAP User Group (DSAG) has provided a very insightful overview of these developments. We have reviewed the details and would like to share our assessment of what these changes specifically mean for your day-to-day work with SAP.
The new architectural layers in detail
From a technological perspective, SAP will structure its cloud ERP on three key levels in the future:
- Business AI Platform:
- In the future, this foundation will integrate process context, business data, and AI models. It brings together the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), the SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC), and SAP Business AI. Interestingly, the term “BTP” is taking a back seat, but the technologies remain an integral part of the platform. By integrating Signavio and LeanIX (“Govern”) as well as the Joule Studio development environment (“Build”), SAP is pursuing an “intent-based development” approach. Processes are identified in Signavio, adapted in Joule Studio using “Vibe Coding,” and orchestrated throughout their entire lifecycle in LeanIX. In addition, a partnership with the workflow provider n8n has been announced, whose solution is expected to integrate with Joule Studio.
- SAP Knowledge Graph:
- This layer acts as an intermediary between the AI platform and the actual applications. It makes complex SAP data accessible to AI agents in a structured format. As DSAG aptly notes, the Copilot Joule has at times struggled to provide accurate answers to questions based on complex SAP databases—the Knowledge Graph is now intended to ensure better data translation.
- SAP Autonomous Suite:
- This is where automation becomes a reality. More than 50 domain-specific “Joule Assistants” are designed to coordinate a subset of over 200 specialized AI agents to execute processes autonomously.
Proactive AI, new names, and the path forward
Traditional business units are being renamed, such as “Autonomous Finance” or “Autonomous Supply Chain”. For each process step, there are corresponding assistants (e.g., the “Planning Assistant” or “Procurement Assistant”), which in turn delegate sub-tasks to specialized agents—such as the “Recipe Formulation Agent” or the “Product Change Management Agent”. For industry-specific AI agents, SAP will use the term “Industry AI” in the future.
Users interact with the platform via “Joule Work.” This will enable Joule to proactively highlight insights and automate routine tasks in the background in the future. To make getting started easier, RISE customers are provided with three Joule assistants in the first year, while GROW customers have immediate access to the full portfolio during onboarding.
Our assessment: All clear for your ongoing projects
The most important question: Do I need to stop my current S/4HANA migration now?
DSAG has given a clear all-clear on this matter, and we at INFORMATICS fully agree with this assessment: The change in strategy has no impact on your current system landscapes, so there is no need to rethink your projects. The familiar Software-as-a-Service solutions remain the foundation. Thus, procurement processes in “Autonomous Procurement” will continue to be managed via Ariba, and in the “Autonomous Supply Chain” area, the Business Network remains the foundation. Nothing about the solutions themselves is changing; they are merely being expanded to include AI agents.
We would like to emphasize one key point from the DSAG in particular: Amid all the focus on AI, fundamental ERP functions—such as end-to-end document management, centralized user administration, and user-friendly interfaces—must not be overlooked.
As your trusted partner, we’re happy to help you determine which AI agents will truly add value to your business in the future.
well advised. in the world of SAP.
