From Copilots to Agents in SAP
20 October 2025
If you work with SAP, you’ve already felt the shift in tone: we’ve gone from the “copilot that suggests” to the agent that acts. With Joule Agents, the SuccessFactors 2H 2025 upgrades, and the recruiting push after SmartRecruiters, AI is starting to touch real processes: finance, procurement, and HR. This isn’t sci-fi—it’s day-to-day operations. The question is no longer “Should we try it?” but “How do we industrialize it without losing control?”
Focus sprint: critical use case and data ready (2–4 weeks)
Picking the right entry point is half the battle. Go for a process with obvious impact and a visible metric: financial close, demand forecasting, or candidate screening. Define a baseline (cycle time, accuracy, conversion) and line up the essentials for data and access: clean master data, business events, and APIs in BTP. In HR, align skills and flows with the 2H 2025 release so the agent has context. Sprint output: a trustworthy data story, a success criterion, and an access scheme that supports auditability.
Orchestration sprint: from assistant to an agent that executes (4–6 weeks)
Here we move from the demo to real action. Configure Joule Agents by role with a tight scope (1–2 concrete tasks): “prepare adjusting journal entries” or “pre-qualify candidates using agreed-upon rules.” Build the guardrails:
- Human-in-the-loop at key steps.
- Traceability for every agent decision.
- Bias, privacy, and explainability controls.
If your focus is talent acquisition, plan for SuccessFactors + SmartRecruiters to coexist during the transition: integrate using standard connectors, mind the candidate experience, and avoid brittle automations. Sprint output: an agent executing in a controlled environment with exhaustive logging and a human review playbook.
Productization sprint: KPIs, governance, and scale (4–8 weeks)
Roll out in a scoped domain (country, plant, line) and tie the agent to operational SLAs and business OKRs: faster close, quicker fill rate, fewer procurement errors. Turn on observability (response quality, drift, intervention rate) and a continuous improvement loop. In HR, sync with the 2H 2025 calendar (preview/production windows) to ensure compatibility. Sprint output: an ROI dashboard that speaks the CFO’s language—hours saved, cost avoided, revenue accelerated.
Why this approach works
- It’s about the business, not demos: every sprint demands a metric and a before/after.
- It reduces risk: human control and traceability from day one.
- It scales smart: start small, measure, harden controls, and replicate.
In other words, the journey “from copilots to agents” isn’t a leap into the void. It’s disciplined iteration on processes that already exist, with AI where it adds value and governance where it matters.
AI in SAP is no longer a promise; it’s a process. If you want ROI, you don’t need a mega-project—you need three well-tied sprints. Zero in on a critical use case, orchestrate an agent that executes with guardrails, and productize with KPIs and governance. The rest—tools, releases, integrations—matters, but the value lands when the agent cuts time, errors, or cost and you can show it on a dashboard.
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