SAP expanded six Joule supply chain assistants with specialised agents at SAP Connect on 6 October, building on assistants introduced earlier at SAP Sapphire, the company said on 8 October.
Key points
- The six assistants cover product design, planning, manufacturing, logistics, asset operations and business networks.
- Moody’s supplier risk data is set to appear alongside supplier records in SAP Ariba.
- SAP plans general availability of the new supply chain capabilities in Q4 2026.
- Doehler says a logistics agent has recovered roughly a third of its team’s troubleshooting time.
Six Joule assistants take on supply chain tasks
SAP is adding agents to its Product Design, Supply Chain Planning, Manufacturing, Logistics, Asset Operations and Business Network Assistants. The company says the agents can use the processes and data in its supply chain software to act across connected tasks when authorised. It describes the expansion as a way to automate routine work while leaving people involved in decisions.
The Product Design Assistant is intended to interpret designs, recipes and specifications and coordinate product changes. In planning, SAP says an assistant will let users detect, simulate and resolve exceptions from one workspace. Its Manufacturing Assistant is aimed at plant-floor disruptions, while the Logistics Assistant is gaining capabilities for warehousing, fulfilment and transport dispatching.
SAP says the Asset Operations Assistant will support the initiation, screening and simulation of maintenance requests using equipment signals. The Business Network Assistant is intended to help suppliers and logistics partners collaborate on sourcing, contracts and exceptions. Those functions put different decisions in the agents’ path: a maintenance request can be screened, while a change to a production plan can affect work elsewhere in the supply chain.
Takeda plans use while Doehler reports time saved
Takeda Pharmaceuticals will use the Supply Chain Planning Assistant to identify likely causes of planning problems and propose corrective steps, according to SAP. Rebecca Kaufmann, Takeda’s senior vice president and head of Enterprise Platforms, said the company expects AI-suggested remedies and automated performance tracking from the assistant.
Doehler is further along with a logistics application. Stephan Schissler, its CIO, said the Logistics Issue Resolution Agent identifies a problem’s cause and recommends a response. Its logistics team has recovered roughly a third of the time it previously spent troubleshooting, he said. Schissler described the resulting response as a one-click decision for staff, rather than a decision handed wholly to the agent.
The distinction also appears in procurement. Agents using supplier-risk information can flag changes and present alternatives, but a buyer makes the subsequent decision, ERP Today reported. The publication said SAP describes agents in manufacturing and logistics as able to make autonomous corrections. The degree of automation therefore varies with the task SAP has assigned them.
SAP puts Joule Work across 110,000 employees
Joule Work is already in use among 110,000 SAP employees, and SAP reports productivity gains of 20% in finance, HR and procurement, Portal ERP reported. The reported gain concerns SAP’s internal work in those functions, rather than the supply chain agents announced at SAP Connect.
The SAP Knowledge Graph, which provides business context for Joule, maps more than 7 million data fields, according to Futurum Group. The research firm assigns SAP a 15.83% share of the ERP market and an 18.01% share of the supply chain market. SAP launched the broader Autonomous Enterprise initiative on its Business AI Platform at the Las Vegas event, the firm reported.
Moody’s data moves into SAP Ariba
SAP will place Moody’s data on suppliers’ financial health, operational risk and regulatory status in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance, ERP Today reported. Procurement teams will see that information alongside supplier master data and performance measures. A Joule Agent can flag a change in a supplier’s position and bring alternatives to a buyer’s attention.
SAP also expanded its partnership with ORO Labs to connect procurement workflows across mixed enterprise systems, according to ERP Today. That arrangement addresses the movement of work between systems, while the Moody’s integration brings external risk information into the supplier profile buyers use.
SAP plans to make both the new supply chain capabilities and the Moody’s integration generally available in Q4 2026.
