Enhancing SAP Automation and Data Sovereignty With On-Premise Agentic AI

Enterprises that rely on SAP systems face the critical challenge of leveraging advanced AI capabilities without compromising the security of sensitive, on-premise data. Core business information, from financial records in SAP Finance to employee data in SAP Human Capital Management (HCM), resides within secure corporate networks. However, sending this information to external, cloud-based AI models creates significant governance, compliance, and data sovereignty hurdles.

Advancements in automation technology announced at the recently concluded UiPath Fusion conference directly address this issue. During the event, UiPath introduced on-premise agentic AI that allows for the deployment of sophisticated AI models within an enterprise’s own data center. The solution also keeps all data processing behind the corporate firewall.

Evolution of Automation With AI

Agentic AI involves deploying autonomous software agents capable of performing complex, multi-step cognitive tasks. These agents are designed to reason, analyze unstructured data, and orchestrate workflows across various applications, effectively emulating human problem-solving and decision-making processes.

This capability is enriched by a strategic collaboration between UiPath and a developer of accelerated computing platforms. The partnership combines UiPath’s support for on-premises workflows in addition to its collaboration with the computing platform. Under the partnership, UiPath provides a first party integration that allows customers of the computation platform to seamlessly incorporate their own models or leverage the partner’s models natively.

Consequently, sensitive SAP data can be analyzed and acted upon by intelligent agents without ever leaving the secure network environment. The model enables enterprises to maintain strict security protocols while still benefiting from cutting-edge AI.

Some Practical Use Cases

The applications of UiPath’s agentic AI for SAP environments can be utilized in financial operations and supply chain management:

• An AI agent can autonomously investigate reconciliation discrepancies during the month-end close. It can cross-reference data between the Materials Management (MM) and Financial Accounting (FI) modules to validate figures and generate detailed variance reports for management review.
• An agent can continuously monitor Sales and Distribution (SD) and Production Planning (PP) modules for potential disruptions. Upon detecting an issue, it can analyze the impact, simulate resolution scenarios, and execute the necessary procurement or production adjustments within SAP.

Thus, bringing advanced AI capabilities on-premise resolves the conflict between innovation and data security for SAP users. With UiPath, organizations can now deploy powerful agentic automation to optimize their most critical business processes, enhancing operational efficiency and strategic insight without exposing sensitive corporate data to external risks.

What This Means for SAPinsiders

On-premise AI unlocks your most sensitive SAP processes. Data security and governance concerns have kept SAP processes such as financial close, payroll processing, and strategic sourcing largely off-limits to advanced cloud-based AI. However, UiPath’s on-premise agentic AI capability deploys powerful AI models within an organization’s own data center, enabling businesses to apply intelligent automation to these processes within the firewall. This allows companies to move beyond automating simple, low-risk tasks and start optimizing the high-stakes operations at the core of their business.

Agentic AI shifts processes towards cognitive orchestration. Traditional robotic process automation (RPA) excels at automating linear, rules-based tasks, such as creating a sales order from a spreadsheet. However, Agentic AI is a cognitive partner that helps a user to think and decide. This technology enables a shift from automating isolated tasks to orchestrating complex, end-to-end business processes. For example, instead of an RPA bot that checks inventory levels (MMBE), an AI agent can monitor for a low-stock alert, analyze historical sales data from SAP BW/4HANA to predict demand, check production schedules in SAP PP, evaluate lead times from different vendors in SAP MM, and then initiate the optimal purchase requisition.

The most powerful application of agentic AI is amplifying the expertise of functional analysts. These agents act as tireless junior partners, handling the burdensome data gathering and preliminary analysis that consumes much of an expert’s time. Organizations must deploy AI agents to augment human talent, allowing them to operate at a more strategic level. For instance, an AI agent can analyze a profitability report overnight, flagging underperforming products and identifying the root causes by correlating sales, material cost, and logistics data. Thus, instead of a mountain of data, financial controllers get a concise summary with actionable insights.