On February 13th, SAP hosted SAP Business Unleashed, where SAP leaders and industry experts shared exciting new breakthroughs coming from SAP. Most notably, SAP announced the launch of SAP Business Data Cloud, “a groundbreaking solution that unifies all SAP and third-party data throughout an organization, providing the trusted data foundation organizations need to make more impactful decisions and foster reliable AI.”
OVERVIEW OF SAP BUSINESS DATA CLOUD
In partnership with Databricks, SAP Business Data Cloud is a fully managed cloud solution under SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) that breaks down data siloes and unifies structured and unstructured data across SAP and non-SAP systems. This gives businesses the opportunity to connect all areas of their business and address all data challenges at once, avoiding the ripple effect.
“I think that most organizations today see the promise that AI brings, especially the agentic workforce. So, using agents that can automate a lot of work that today is manual, that’s the real promise. But that’s not easy to do. And the secret sauce really lies in the data, and the most important data in the world is SAP data – that, most organizations have. So actually, to be able to have these agents to work on behalf of these businesses, while at the same time being able to secure it (they make sure that they can do the governance), that’s the most important thing. So, I’m really excited to really unlock that SAP data value by infusing it into these agentic workflows and really unlocking the true potential of SAP and Databricks together.” – Ali Ghodsi, Databricks co-founder and CEO
With a rapidly expanding data footprint, businesses are spending too much time and effort trying to connect data from platform to platform and from SAP to non-SAP systems. Business Data Cloud connects data across all processes – from S/4HANA to Ariba to SuccessFactors – and combines data without duplication. It is also designed to support an open data ecosystem, seamlessly connecting with SAP partners like AWS and Google Cloud.
A LOOK AT SAP’S NEW AI AGENTS
As an extension of SAP Business Suite, businesses can now address data challenges with ease, leveraging Business AI to unlock new opportunities. From insight apps for reporting and advanced analytics to custom and governed AI/ML capabilities with Joule, business will gain access to a new level of efficiency with Business Data Cloud. Joule will act as a super orchestrator, with new Joule Agents turning insights into action for customers – from supply chain to procurement to finance.
In addition to the announcement of Joule Agents, SAP launched Agent Builder in AI Studio, an agent building capability under Joule Studio, so that businesses can personalize AI agents to their specific needs. These agents can act as highly efficient, virtual coworkers, ensuring businesses have “quality over quantity” when it comes to AI, with agents that have access to the same data and work together to assist in all key business areas.
The suite-first Business AI architecture design also includes more than 1,300 Joule skills. However, AI agents are only as powerful as the data they’re grounded in, and Joule agents are most valuable when they can connect with each other. With Agent Builder, businesses can build and deploy custom agents tailored to their needs, and businesses can also add agents like Microsoft Copilot to their agent teams.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Whether you’re an existing SAP user or interested in getting started, this is an exciting development in the realm of cloud-based platforms and AI capabilities. But, as with any technology, planning and implementation should be approached strategically.
