Embedded Intelligence Ushering in a New Era through SAP Business AI?
In a significant shift, SAP, the global leader in enterprise software, is revolutionizing how businesses operate with the introduction of SAP Business AI. At the heart of this evolution is SAP Joule, acting as the new interface between users and enterprise systems.
SAP Business AI leverages advanced capabilities such as Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), dynamic context awareness, and multi-agent orchestration, thanks to the AI Foundation's graph and vector services. This AI-first approach is not exclusive to SAP, with leading vendors like Salesforce, ServiceNow, Oracle, and SAP adopting similar strategies in their products over the past year.
The SAP Business AI ecosystem is built around a multi-layered, context-aware architecture. The SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC) serves as the "mind" of the system, unifying fragmented and siloed data across SAP and non-SAP sources. The SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) acts as the execution engine, offering tools and infrastructure for the deployment, integration, and orchestration of AI services.
At the functional layer, SAP uses Joule AI agents—specialized agent-based workflows embedded within the SAP suite—that interact with business users using conversational AI. The Joule AI Orchestrator coordinates these agents and AI services, facilitating real-time intelligent responses and action across legacy enterprise modules.
SAP Business AI employs a multi-agent system, where domain-specific AI agents utilize specialized Large Language Models (LLMs), memory systems, advanced tool integration, and autonomous decision-making mechanisms. This architecture enables agents to operate independently, collaborate, or escalate tasks while maintaining data security and consistency.
SAP Business AI transforms legacy modules into a context-aware ecosystem through data harmonization, AI-driven orchestration, hybrid architecture with tool integration, and context-aware AI generation. By logically unifying enterprise data, AI-driven orchestration, hybrid architecture, and context-aware AI generation, SAP Business AI turns static information into actionable insights and automates complex workflows.
The shared layer allows Joule agents to maintain context across modules, orchestrate cross-functional processes, and deliver unified experiences without jumping between disconnected systems. SAP Business AI delivers hundreds of embedded AI features across ERP, HR, supply chain, and customer experience products, ready to use out of the box.
In conclusion, SAP Business AI’s architecture fuses a data-centric foundation (BDC), an AI orchestration core (BTP + Joule agents), and a multi-agent AI layer that collectively transforms legacy SAP modules from isolated, static functions into a dynamic, scalable, and intelligent ecosystem that is context-aware and capable of autonomous decision-making and actuation across complex enterprise workflows.
To help organizations prepare for this transformation, SAP offers Inclusion Cloud, a service that assists in preparing SAP data foundations and implementing solutions with senior, certified resources.
- SAP has announced a policy to offer Inclusion Cloud, a service designed to help organizations prepare for the transformation brought about by SAP Business AI, by assisting in the preparation of SAP data foundations and the implementation of solutions with senior, certified resources.
- As part of the SAP Business AI training strategy, the company provides a suite of products, such as those related to finance, business, technology, and customer experience, equipped with hundreds of embedded AI features, ready for immediate use with no additional setup required.
