Why AI Governance Cannot Be an Afterthought (Especially for SAP Users)

AI agents are already influencing businesses through internally developed tools or, increasingly, purchased, ready-to-deploy solutions. From sophisticated chatbots handling customer service to AI optimizing supply chains and personalizing marketing efforts, these autonomous systems are proliferating across enterprise ecosystems, including critical platforms like SAP, Salesforce, and cloud environments.

The core challenge is governing them effectively, as without a robust governance framework, AI’s exciting potential can quickly morph into a dangerous landscape of security vulnerabilities and compliance failures.

The Urgent Need for Governing AI Agents

However, it is necessary to first understand AI agents. Simply put, these software programs use AI models like machine learning and natural language processing to interpret data, understand instructions, and take independent actions to achieve specific goals. They are adaptable and can operate across various business functions like customer service, supply chains, and marketing.

While powerful, AI agents aren’t foolproof. Organizations often lose track of ownership, oversight, data access rights, and the scope of actions these agents can take as they multiply. This lack of visibility is risky.

Ungoverned agents can perpetuate bias, mishandle sensitive customer or company data, breach regulations like the GDPR or the EU AI Act, or make decisions that conflict with strategic objectives.

Their autonomous nature, sometimes operating as “black boxes” with limited insight into their decision-making processes—especially third-party agents, makes control incredibly challenging. Imagine an AI assistant integrated into an organization’s SAP system inadvertently accessing and sharing confidential financial data: the potential for damage is immense. This is why AI governance isn’t a ‘nice-to-have’ but a critical necessity.

Tackling Agentic AI Challenges with Collibra

Effective AI governance requires a structured approach. Key challenges include ensuring agent reliability, combating unsanctioned or unmonitored AI, maintaining oversight, and managing security and compliance risks. This is where platforms like Collibra become invaluable. Collibra’s capabilities help with AI agent governance by:

1. Ensuring Reliability & Trust: Collibra’s centralized AI governance framework allows designated councils to oversee agent development and deployment according to established policies. It facilitates human-in-the-loop processes for monitoring agent performance and outputs and flagging issues like bias or unauthorized data access. Additionally, its built-in data reliability features automatically identify interactions with sensitive data and alert teams to potential risks, enabling proactive mitigation.
2. Ensuring Transparency: Collibra’s end-to-end traceability through data and AI lineage capabilities map data flows and model outputs. This transparency provides visibility into the AI agents your organization uses. It is vital for understanding agent behavior, controlling data access, ensuring accountability, and shedding light on shadow AI initiatives.
3. Managing Security and Compliance: Regulations like the EU AI Act impose strict requirements, especially for high-risk AI, so robust compliance is non-negotiable. Collibra offers built-in data privacy controls like role-based access and specific tools like the EU AI Act Compliance Assessment Tool. This helps organizations classify AI systems by risk level, understand their obligations, and systematize compliance efforts, reducing legal and operational exposure.

AI agents offer transformative potential, but realizing this value safely requires balancing innovation with rigorous risk management. Collibra provides the framework to deploy AI agents securely and efficiently, fostering innovation while maintaining crucial control and compliance.

What This Means for SAPinsiders

Agentic AI is accelerating; prepare now to govern it. A survey of SAP customers found that 96% report having executive mandates to explore or implement AI technologies. However, this push towards integration comes with significant concerns. SAPinsider research shows that 59% of organizations anticipate that advanced AI systems will introduce substantial risks within the next two to three years. SAP users must, therefore, proactively establish AI governance now. Waiting until agents are deeply embedded creates significant risk. Platforms like Collibra offer the necessary tools to manage this wave of agentic AI, ensuring you can leverage its benefits within your SAP landscape safely and strategically.

SAP Joule needs governance, too. SAP Joule, the generative AI copilot for SAP, is a powerful agent designed to streamline tasks and provide insights. With over 1,300 pre-configured skills, Joule can interpret business problems, analyze data, and execute solutions across the enterprise. However, like any AI, its effectiveness and trustworthiness depend on the data it uses and the models it employs. Collibra complements Joule by governing this underlying data and the AI models, ensuring the information Joule accesses and the outputs it generates are accurate, compliant, and aligned with the business rules, adding a crucial layer of trust and control.

Collibra governs AI within the SAP Ecosystem. As organizations integrate AI agents and use cases within their SAP environment, Collibra provides the essential governance layer. It offers visibility into data lineage, risk assessment specific to AI models, and policy enforcement, ensuring AI operates reliably and compliantly within the organization’s core business systems.