By Felipe Requião
In May 2026, the city of Orlando became the center of attention during SAP Sapphire. At the event, Christian Klein, CEO of SAP, took the stage before more than 18,000 in-person and virtual participants and announced something rarely seen in a company with more than 50 years of history: a complete reinvention of its business model.
The announcement was ambitious, but the question customers and partners need to answer is much more practical: what does this mean for the company right now? What has actually changed, what is still being built, and what needs to be done in the coming months?
In this article, you will understand the main points presented at SAP Sapphire 2026, the role of the new SAP Business AI Platform, and the precautions companies must take before moving forward with artificial intelligence initiatives applied to business processes.
What was announced at SAP Sapphire 2026?
During the event, Christian Klein announced the launch of the new SAP Business AI Platform, the foundation of SAP’s future vision for business: the Autonomous Enterprise.
In this vision, artificial intelligence agents begin to execute processes, while employees can focus on more strategic activities and higher-value decisions.
But what exactly is SAP Business AI Platform?
What is SAP Business AI Platform?
Known by the community as SAP BAIP, the new platform structurally unifies three previously separate pillars:
- SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP)
- SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC)
- AI Foundation with SAP Joule
In practice, SAP BTP has not disappeared. It has been incorporated and expanded into a larger architecture. This means that companies that have already invested in BTP have not lost that path. On the contrary: they are one step ahead in preparing for SAP’s new intelligence layer.
If BTP was the high-performance engine of a car, SAP Business AI Platform is the complete vehicle, with engine, GPS, autopilot and intelligent dashboard integrated in real time.
The three layers of SAP Business AI Platform
The architecture of the new platform is divided into three modular layers that support the operation of AI agents within the corporate environment.
Context Layer
Defined by CTO Philipp Herzig as the heart of the system, the Context Layer is responsible for bringing ERP knowledge into artificial intelligence agents.
Christian Klein emphasized that the error margin of generic AIs is unacceptable for critical processes, especially when these models ignore business rules, permissions and segregation of duties.
This layer brings together elements such as:
- SAP Domain Models
- Knowledge Graphs
- SAP Business Data Cloud
As a result, agents gain a kind of “corporate memory”, capable of understanding rules, structures and internal relationships without relying on manual configuration for each process.
Build Layer
The Build Layer is the environment where developers create agents through Joule Studio 2.0, using a low-code approach.
This layer also powers Joule Work, an interface that introduces the so-called “Appless Experience”, replacing part of the traditional navigation through screens and applications with conversational interactions.
During the event, more than 200 specialized agents and 50 Joule assistants were announced for areas such as:
- Finance
- Human Resources
- Supply Chain
- Procurement
- Customer Experience
To accelerate the ecosystem, SAP also announced a €100 million fund for partners focused on this layer.
Governance Layer
The Governance Layer centralizes compliance through the SAP AI Agent Hub, based on SAP LeanIX.
Expected to be available in the third quarter of 2026 at no additional cost, the hub will allow companies to manage and audit their own or third-party agents, ensuring respect for permissions, segregation of duties and privacy.
SAP Autonomous Suite: the evolution toward autonomous processes
It is on this foundation that SAP Autonomous Suite operates, described by Muhammad Alam as one of the greatest SaaS evolutions in SAP’s history.
The solution covers five major domains, all guided by return-on-investment indicators:
- Autonomous Finance: focused on financial processes and closing activities
- Autonomous Spend Management: focused on procurement and spend management
- Autonomous Supply Chain: focused on predictive logistics
- Autonomous HCM: applied to payroll, recruitment and people management
- Autonomous CX: focused on customer experience
At the event, H&M Group illustrated this application with solutions such as the Store Intelligence Agent, focused on shelf data, and the InStore Concierge, with real-time information on inventory and fashion.
The debate around SAP’s API policy
Alongside the artificial intelligence announcements, the community also discussed SAP’s new API Policy, published in April 2026.
The update restricted the use of standard APIs for direct connections with autonomous third-party AIs and prohibited practices such as massive data scraping outside the certified ecosystem.
According to Christian Klein, the measure aims to protect ERP performance against bottlenecks caused by millions of automated external requests.
This does not mean, however, that the ecosystem is closed. The agent hub and Joule Work continue to support open standards such as MCP and A2A. The rule does not punish intelligent and structured integrations, but rather chaotic access that puts the stability of the environment at risk.
The strategic partnerships behind the new platform
The transformation announced by SAP also relies on important strategic partnerships.
Anthropic will integrate the Claude model as the main advanced reasoning engine in Joule, bringing more security and a lower hallucination rate to critical processes.
NVIDIA will provide hardware infrastructure for high-performance processing, while hyperscalers Microsoft Azure, AWS and Google Cloud expand hosting capabilities to support the RISE and GROW programs.
What changes for RISE, GROW and BTP customers?
For customers, the practical roadmap is already starting to take shape.
Companies on RISE with SAP now have a contractual commitment to activate three Joule Assistants in the first year, with the possibility of expanding the scope through the Max Success plan.
In GROW with SAP, more than 20 assistants are available from the start to accelerate go-lives through the Grow Fast concept.
For companies already using SAP BTP, the investment is protected. The next step is to connect the current structure to the Context Layer and explore the possibilities of Joule Studio 2.0.
Why simply connecting AI agents does not generate value
One of the most important messages from SAP Sapphire 2026 came from Christian Klein himself: simply connecting AI agents to the system does not automatically generate value.
The journey requires change management, process review, data preparation and user enablement. Technology only delivers results when it is connected to a real transformation of the operation.
In other words, artificial intelligence does not replace the need for strategy. It increases the importance of a well-structured architecture, reliable data and well-defined processes.
What should companies do now?
In this new scenario, companies that want to move forward with artificial intelligence in SAP environments need to start with fundamental questions:
- Is the data foundation ready to feed AI agents?
- Are the processes clear and standardized enough?
- Are permissions, rules and segregation of duties well defined?
- Do integrations follow SAP’s new guidelines?
- Is there internal maturity for adoption, governance and change management?
Understanding where to start, preparing the data foundation and integrating external agents within the new API rules requires consulting maturity.
In this sense, it is essential to rely on the support of a consulting firm that closely follows the evolution of SAP Business AI Platform and supports customers in structuring this transition architecture.
The adoption of AI in operations is already inevitable
The scenario is still recent, and the market is learning how to apply artificial intelligence effectively in business processes.
Even so, its adoption in operations is already inevitable.
For users, the invitation is to understand the ideal starting point. For consultants, the message is also clear: if they are not yet creating their RAGs, Skills and agents, they need to move fast.
About the author
Felipe Requião is Managing Partner at Numen Lean Services, the vertical specialized in SAP Cloud ERP offerings at Numen.
About Numen
Numen is a consulting company with strong expertise in SAP projects, ranked as the leading partner in the SAP Cloud ERP offering due to its innovative approach and focus on results.
For more information, visit:
🌐 www.numenit.com
