How SAP and Oracle Can Use Agentic AI

SAP and Oracle, as leading enterprise software providers, are actively integrating Agentic AI capabilities into their platforms to enhance organizational productivity across various business functions. Here’s how they can leverage this transformative technology:

SAP’s Use of Agentic AI:

SAP is embedding “Business AI” across its portfolio, which includes Agentic AI features within its applications and the underlying Business Technology Platform (BTP). Their approach focuses on creating AI that is:

• Embedded: Directly integrated into SAP applications for seamless user experience.
• Relevant: Context-aware and tailored to specific business processes.
• Responsible: Adhering to high standards of data privacy and security.

Here are specific ways SAP can and is using Agentic AI:

1. Intelligent Automation:

• Finance: AI agents in SAP S/4HANA can automate tasks like invoice processing, payment matching, dispute management, and even predict cash flow. For example, Joule, SAP’s AI copilot, can automate journal uploads and service initiations.
• Supply Chain: Agentic AI can optimize inventory management, predict demand, automate goods receipts processing, and even suggest vendor switches or autonomously adjust routing rules.
• HR: SAP SuccessFactors can utilize AI agents for talent acquisition (automating job postings, screening, and initial assessments), employee onboarding, career development guidance, and managing HR administrative tasks like payroll discrepancies.
• Procurement: AI agents can streamline market research, automate informational searches, assist in creating job descriptions, and analyze supplier performance.

2. Enhanced Decision Making:

• Analytics: Joule and embedded AI can provide natural language querying of data, generate summaries and insights from reports, and assist in planning processes within SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP Integrated Business Planning (IBP).
• Sales & Marketing: AI agents in SAP Sales Cloud can personalize campaigns, predict customer needs, automate lead qualification, and provide real-time insights to sales teams.
• Service: AI agents in SAP Service Cloud can automate case categorization, generate case summaries, and provide agents with real-time assistance during customer interactions.

3. Proactive Issue Resolution:

• Asset Management: AI agents in SAP Asset Performance Management can monitor equipment health, predict maintenance needs, and trigger automated workflows for preventative actions.
• Risk Management: SAP Business Integrity Screening uses AI to detect and prevent fraudulent activities in real-time.

4. Personalized Experiences:

• HR: AI agents can provide personalized guidance to employees for career development and benefits decisions.
• Customer Experience: AI-powered recommendations and personalized interactions through SAP Customer Experience solutions.

5. Development and Integration:

• SAP BTP AI Foundation: Provides tools and services for customers and partners to build their own custom AI agents and integrate them with SAP and non-SAP systems. The Generative AI Hub within SAP AI Core and AI Launchpad offers access to various Large Language Models (LLMs).
• Integration with SAP Datasphere: AI-assisted search enables natural language queries directly within SAP Datasphere.

Oracle’s Use of Agentic AI:

Oracle is also heavily investing in Agentic AI, particularly with the recent launch of AI Agent Studio for Fusion Applications. Their focus is on empowering customers and partners to easily create, extend, deploy, and manage AI agents across the enterprise.

Here’s how Oracle can and is using Agentic AI:

1. Process Automation Across Fusion Applications:

• Finance: AI agents can automate invoice processing, reconciliation, and financial reporting within Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP.
• Supply Chain: Agents can optimize procurement processes, manage inventory, and streamline order management in Oracle Fusion Cloud SCM.
• HR: Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM leverages AI agents for automating routine HR tasks, providing self-service tools for employees, and assisting with talent management processes like internal mobility and new hire onboarding.
• Sales & Service: AI agents in Oracle Fusion Cloud CX can automate lead qualification, generate sales call guides, summarize service requests, and provide real-time assistance to agents.

2. Customizable AI Agents:

• AI Agent Studio: Provides a platform for users to build their own AI agents tailored to specific business needs, extending pre-packaged agents or creating new ones from scratch. This includes features for agent team orchestration, extensibility, and integration with third-party systems.

3. Intelligent Assistance and Guidance:

• Digital Assistant: Oracle Digital Assistant can act as an AI agent providing conversational support to employees and customers across various applications.
• Embedded AI: Oracle is embedding AI capabilities directly within Fusion Applications to provide context-aware assistance and automate tasks within user workflows.

4. Data-Driven Insights and Actions:

• Oracle AI Services: Offer pre-built AI models for tasks like language processing, vision, and document understanding, which can be integrated into agentic workflows.
• Machine Learning in Oracle Database: Enables building and deploying ML models within the database, which can power AI agents with predictive capabilities.

5. Focus on Trust and Security:

• Oracle emphasizes built-in security and a trust framework for its AI Agent Studio, ensuring responsible AI deployment.

Overlapping Potential:

Both SAP and Oracle have significant potential in areas like:

• Predictive Maintenance: AI agents monitoring IoT data to predict equipment failures.
• Risk Management: Autonomous agents identifying and mitigating potential business risks.
• Compliance: AI agents ensuring adherence to regulations and internal policies.
• Sustainability: Agents optimizing resource usage and tracking sustainability metrics.

In Conclusion:

Both SAP and Oracle are strategically leveraging Agentic AI to drive significant productivity gains for their customers. SAP’s approach emphasizes embedded AI within its existing applications and a platform for custom development, while Oracle’s AI Agent Studio provides a dedicated environment for building and managing autonomous agents across their Fusion suite. The continued evolution of these platforms will undoubtedly unlock even more innovative ways for organizations to leverage the power of Agentic AI to transform their operations and enhance productivity.