Mar 26, 2026
•4 minute read
SAP TechEd
SAPinsider Las Vegas: AI Builds Confidence, but Community Still Defines CredibilityAt SAPinsider Las Vegas, Josh Bentley emphasized that while AI may boost user confidence in enterprise applications, true credibility still relies on human experience, as AI often provides shallow answers that lack depth and context, making community engagement essential for informed decision-making.
TechEd Announcements Focus on AI and SAP BuildInnovation continues at SAP, with TechEd 2024 showcasing SAP’s unrelenting focus on business AI and its seamless integration across SAP systems and applications. Announcements were made on how Joule is enhancing everything from troubleshooting errors in invoices to accelerating ABAP development, how SAP Build now includes ABAP development capabilities, the role of cloud ERP in today’s business environment, and new enhancements in data and analytics and integration.
As has been since the start of 2024, SAP has focused extensively on AI and that was reflected in the keynote as speakers discussed how SAP has added AI to its solutions and positively impacted business processes. This gave the spotlight to generative AI, and SAP’s generative AI copilot Joule, which was at the core of SAP’s many new announcements as the company continues to emphasize Joule as the primary way of interfacing with applications in the near future.
SAP Build was launched in 2022 with a focus on low-code development and extending critical business applications to address the unique needs of SAP customers. SAP Build Code was added in 2023 and enabled low-code developers to work with professional developers and leverage Joule as part of their development process. Now, SAP Build will support ABAP development and will include new generative AI capabilities.
While the focus on using AI in business applications remains unchanged, the emphasis is more on the underlying technologies that enable developers to do more using SAP’s AI foundation. SAP is now focusing on its partner ecosystem to develop new use cases and scenarios, and has over 100 partners building on the SAP AI Foundation in addition to the existing 100 AI use cases that SAP has developed.
While Joule has been available in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition since July, SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition FPS02 will include new use cases for interacting with Joule. Due for release in the fourth quarter of 2024, the goal is to enhance navigation and context for users while improving interactivity by bringing data into Joule and allowing users to remain in the same interface.
One of the biggest challenges that SAP is addressing is ensuring AI is ready for the enterprise. While some organizations have made significant investments in AI, they have shared with SAP that implementing AI in the enterprise has been more challenging than anticipated. And, while AI use cases demonstrate value, proving return on investment (ROI) remains challenging.
Considering this, SAP is looking to provide AI use cases out-of-the-box which will enable customers to realize AI’s value quickly. This is why SAP has embedded generative AI in the most commonly used workflows and tasks across its solutions. By having AI built directly into business functionality, organizations will be able to realize value more quickly. This also extends to Joule in SAP Build, which equips developers with tools that will make them more productive. All this also allows SAP to support “clean core” extensions whether these are on-stack or side-by-side.
However, one of the challenges for SAPinsiders is that a significant portion of these AI capabilities are only available to those with RISE with SAP or GROW with SAP contracts. Joule can be licensed directly for use in some applications, but it is only available in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition to companies with a RISE with SAP Premium Plus contract. Customers running SAP S/4HANA on premise can extend their solutions with AI using intelligent scenario lifecycle management (ISLM) which integrates with SAP BTP to manage integration and model lifecycle. However, this is a custom extension for on-premise customers and requires more work to use than what is available in SAP S/4HANA Cloud.
Oct 9, 2024
•9 minute read
Research
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SAPinsider New Orleans SummitNew Orleans, Louisiana, United States
SAPinsider Copenhagen 2026Copenhagen, Denmark
Mastering SAP Collaborate, an SAP TechEd on Tour eventSydney, New South Wales, Australia
