SAP has announced it will integrate its 'Joule' AI copilot further across its portfolio during the second half of 2024.
Joule, which was unveiled in September 2023, will be embedded into SAP's platforms for procurement and analytics, as well as its various supply chain applications. SAP chief executive Christian Klein claimed the announcements would "redefine the way businesses run".
"Today's AI announcements and partnerships build on our commitment to deliver revolutionary technology that drives real-world results, helping customers unleash the agility and ingenuity they need to succeed in today's fast-moving business landscape," Klein said.
We are deep into the era of the copilot now and there isn't much to Joule that will be considered 'groundbreaking' or even surprising as it does what most other generative AI tools of this kind do. Employees can ask Joule questions, pose problems, find shortcuts, and so on. All very run-of-the-mill generative AI stuff.
Nevertheless, it will change, and improve, the way SAP customers use its services.
When starting an SAP application or service, Joule pops up in a window and provides a tailored suggestion – the key here, like all chatbots, is that it will improve as it is used, learning more about its users as it goes.
Initially, it was integrated into SAP S/4HANA services, such as its public and private clouds, but also into its data platform, code builder, and integration suite.
However, Joule is going further across the SAP portfolio in the second half of 2024, as it will be available in SAP's procurement platform Ariba, SAP Analytics Cloud, and in most of its supply chain management solutions. For the people who deal with logistics and supply chains, Joule can provide a detailed analysis of their customer pathways to find the root causes of delayed orders.
There are also plans to launch Joule into human resources applications, developer tools, enterprise resource planning (ERP), and financial platforms. For example, Joule will be able to generate project profitability summaries, with proposals for areas to improve a user's project.
Another example is SAP Fiori, where Joule-enabled insights will summarize available data and produce visual data narratives.
SAP eyes supercharged productivity with AI tools
When it comes to AI assistants, chatbots, or 'copilots', Microsoft has largely benefited from being the quickest to market on this front.
Microsoft Copilot is the first tool that springs to mind when we talk of generative AI assistants, and other companies have been left scrambling to embed it within their own services.
At Sapphire, SAP has announced a 'bi-directional integration' integration of Joule with Microsoft Copilot.
The aim is to give users a unified experience built right into the flow of their work, enabling seamless access to information from interactions with business applications in SAP and Microsoft 365.
