German technology major SAP launches new generative AI assistant Joule

German technology major SAP has launched Joule, a natural-language, generative AI (GenAI) assistant or co-pilot that aims to transform the way business runs.

SAP said Joule will be embedded throughout its enterprise cloud portfolio, delivering proactive and contextualised insights from across SAP solutions and third-party sources.

“By quickly sorting through and contextualizing data from multiple systems to surface smarter insights, Joule helps people get work done faster and drive better business outcomes in a secure, compliant way. Joule delivers on SAP’s proven track record of revolutionary technology that drives real results,” SAP said in a statement.

“With almost 300 million enterprise users around the world working regularly with cloud solutions from SAP, Joule has the power to redefine the way businesses – and the people who power them – work,” said Christian Klein, CEO and member of the Executive Board of SAP. “Joule will know what you mean, not just what you say.”

Joule will be embedded into SAP applications from HR to finance, supply chain, procurement, and customer experience, as well as into the SAP Business Technology Platform.

“As generative AI moves on from the initial hype, the work to ensure a measurable return on investment begins,” said Phil Carter, group vice president of Worldwide Thought Leadership Research, IDC. “SAP understands that GenAI will eventually become part of the fabric of everyday life and work and is taking the time to build a business co-pilot that focuses on generating responses based on real-world scenarios – and to put in place the necessary guardrails to ensure it’s also responsible.”

Joule will be available with SAP SuccessFactors solutions and the SAP Start site later this year, and with SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition early next year. SAP Customer Experience and SAP Ariba solutions along with SAP Business Technology Platform will follow, with many other updates across the SAP portfolio to be announced later this year.

SAP has been betting on investing in AI startups through Sapphire Ventures, a venture capital firm backed by SAP, which has dedicated over $1 billion to fund AI-driven enterprise technology startups.