Autonomous Supply Chain Explained by SAP's Tony Harris

Robert Holland

Vice President and Research Director, SAPinsider

Tony Harris

SVP of Product Marketing at SAP

Key Takeaways What you need to know

SAP's autonomous supply chain vision relies on AI assistants and agents working together across product design, planning, procurement, manufacturing, logistics, and asset management to automate processes end-to-end.
SAP's advantage comes from already owning the applications, processes, and a semantic data layer spanning roughly 7.4 million fields, unified with governance controls through its new Business AI Platform (BAIP).
Organizations don't need a big-bang deployment to begin: companies can start with one process and one or two agents, build confidence, and expand from there as part of an ongoing journey rather than a fixed destination.

Tony Harris, SVP of Product Marketing at SAP, breaks down what SAP means by the autonomous supply chain, part of the broader Autonomous Enterprise vision announced at Sapphire. He explains how AI assistants and agents work together across supply chain functions, why SAP’s Business AI Platform and deep process expertise set it apart, and why companies can start small rather than attempting a full-scale rollout.

First Name *

Last Name *

Email *

Phone

Company Name *

Job Title *

City

Country *

Episode 4 Autonomous Supply Chain

Tony Harris, SVP of Product Marketing at SAP, breaks down SAP’s Autonomous Enterprise announcement from Sapphire, explaining how the autonomous supply chain is powered by AI assistants and agents that span product design, planning, procurement, manufacturing, logistics, and asset management. Harris describes how, in an agentic model, tasks that once required manual handoffs between applications and users—often relying on email—can now be completed autonomously, with agents monitoring, deciding, and acting based on defined parameters, while still allowing a human to be brought into the loop for key decisions. He argues SAP is uniquely positioned to deliver on this vision because it already owns the applications, processes, and a semantic data layer spanning roughly 7.4 million fields, layered with the governance controls needed to manage data permissions across a truly integrated landscape.

Harris also introduces the Business AI Platform (BAIP), which unifies SAP’s Business Technology Platform, Business Data Cloud, and the evolving Joule Work experience into a single foundation for deploying AI assistants and agents. He emphasizes that companies don’t need a “big bang” rollout to get started—organizations can pick one process, deploy one or two agents, and expand from there as they build confidence. Harris ties the conversation back to SAP Business Network, noting that its long-standing role in connecting trading partners electronically makes it a natural fit for the new agentic capabilities SAP is building on top of it, and points listeners to SAP Connect in Las Vegas (October 5–7) for deeper, business-focused sessions on the autonomous supply chain journey.

Explore related questions

Featured Content

Topics

Regions

Industries

Hot Topics

Featured Content

Topics

Regions

Industries

Hot Topics

SAP SCM Expert Exchange – Episode 4 Autonomous Supply Chain

Vendors Mentioned

Meet the Experts

Robert Holland

Tony Harris

SAP's autonomous supply chain vision relies on AI assistants and agents working together across product design, planning, procurement, manufacturing, logistics, and asset management to automate processes end-to-end.

SAP's advantage comes from already owning the applications, processes, and a semantic data layer spanning roughly 7.4 million fields, unified with governance controls through its new Business AI Platform (BAIP).

Organizations don't need a big-bang deployment to begin: companies can start with one process and one or two agents, build confidence, and expand from there as part of an ongoing journey rather than a fixed destination.