AI in SAP: AI Agents for S/4HANA and ECC

What the agent reads and writes in SAP

The agent works on the SAP documents your desks already handle. It fills the fields a person fills, and SAP runs its own checks on every one.

Sales ordersCreated in the right sales area and order type, from the sold-to party, ship-to party and materials SAP holds.

Supplier invoicesMatched line by line to the purchase order and the goods receipt. Only the lines that agree are booked.

Customers, suppliers and materialsCompared with every other system that holds a copy. Bank details and credit limits always go to their owner.

Microsoft 365

SharePoint

Outlook

Teams

Gmail

Google Workspace

Google Drive

SAP

Business Central

Dynamics 365 F&O

Infor

Exact

AFAS

Epicor

Ridder iQ

Navision

IBM AS/400

Oracle

NetSuite

The inbox, the chat and the CRM next to SAP

Most SAP work starts outside SAP: a PDF order in a shared mailbox, a sign-off in Teams, a customer record in Salesforce. The agent reads all of it before it touches SAP.

The shared mailboxOrders, invoices and supplier confirmations read where they land in Outlook or Gmail, before anyone opens SAP.

Approvals where people already areA purchase order above your limit goes to the person who signs it, in Teams, Slack or the inbox, with the quote attached.

The CRM and the service deskSalesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk and ServiceNow read and updated in place, so the customer record there agrees with SAP.

OutlookOrders inbox

14 orders read this morning, 3 replies sent

Teams#orders

2 questions answered, 1 approval asked

SharePointContracts

Contract C-2291 opened for the price check

ZendeskService desk

Ticket 4471 updated and escalated in place

One thread. What it read in the inbox it knows in the chat and in the ERP.

SAP ECC, on-prem S/4HANA and the screens with no API

Many SAP estates are older releases or run on their own servers. Our engineers connect those during delivery, instead of asking you to migrate first.

Behind your firewallSAP ECC or S/4HANA on your own servers, reached without opening either one to the internet.

No interface to callWhere there is nothing to call, the agent works the screen. It is given the access a person has, and nothing beyond it.

EDI, IDocs and filesCustomers who send EDI or IDocs keep doing so. The nightly CSV and the supplier portal with a login are read too.

Ways inNo system opened to the internet

IBM AS/400Reads the green screen, keys the fields a person keysScreen

Warehouse databaseOn your own server, behind the firewallSQL · on-prem

Supplier portalA login and no other way inBrowser

Nightly exportCSV on a share at 02:00, the XML your customer insists onFiles · EDI

Given the access a person has, and nothing beyond it

How can AI be used in SAP S/4HANA and ECC?

One AI agent per job, each working on the SAP documents that job touches. Every card opens that job, start to finish.

↗ Quote to orderSales orders into SAPOrders from email, PDF and Excel checked against SAP and created, with the confirmation sent back.

↗ AP & ARSupplier invoices matched in SAPEach line against the purchase order and goods receipt. Releasing a payment stays with a person.

↗ Purchase to payPurchase orders and confirmationsEach PO priced off the contract and sent to the right signature, and every supplier confirmation read against it.

↗ Forecast to produceProduction plans that holdThe plan rebuilt when an order, a machine or a delivery moves. A date a customer already has is only moved by a person.

↗ Master dataSAP master data in stepCustomers, suppliers and materials checked as they change, in SAP and in every system holding a copy.

↗ Order to deliveryWhere is my order, answeredAnswered from the live order and carrier tracking in seconds, with the packing list and CMR drawn from the same order.

SAP Joule or a Lleverage agent: which fits when?

SAP’s own AI is Joule: an assistant inside SAP, a growing set of Joule Agents, and Joule Studio to build more. We read SAP Help Portal and the SAP News Center on 5 October 2026, and every fact in the middle column comes from those pages.

	SAP Joule	Lleverage
What it is	SAP’s AI assistant. A person asks in a conversation, and Joule finds the app, answers from SAP content, shows business data or completes a task. SAP announced more than 50 Joule Assistants that will orchestrate over 200 specialised agents.	One AI agent per job, such as order entry or invoice matching. It does the whole job as the work arrives and hands a person only what falls outside your rules.
Who starts the work	A person, in the Joule conversation. SAP has announced Joule Work, which it says will also run routine tasks behind the scenes.	The work itself: an email lands, a file drops, a record changes. Nobody presses run, and the queue is handled overnight and at weekends.
A supplier invoice, for example	In S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, Joule releases a supplier invoice blocked for payment, cancels one or shows its payment status, once the user gives the invoice number and fiscal year.	The agent reads the invoice from the finance inbox, matches each line to the purchase order and goods receipt, and books the lines that agree. Releasing a payment stays with a person.
SAP versions	Capabilities are documented for S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, and for Private Edition from release 2021. S/4HANA on-premises and ECC customers get select AI scenarios if they commit to moving most of their landscape to SAP Cloud ERP.	SAP S/4HANA and SAP ECC, in the cloud or on your own servers. No commitment to a cloud move.
What it takes to set up	Set up on SAP BTP. For Private Edition, SAP’s steps include SAP Build Work Zone, Identity Authentication and the Joule plug-in in the Fiori launchpad.	Forward deployed engineers connect the agent with your SAP team. SAP on your own servers is reached without opening it to the internet.
Systems outside SAP	Joule can be used from Microsoft 365 Copilot, which needs its own Microsoft licence. SAP says Joule Work will run across SAP and non-SAP systems.	Outlook, Gmail, Teams, Slack, SharePoint, Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk and ServiceNow, plus the portal with a login and the nightly CSV.
Building your own	Joule Studio builds custom agents, no-code or pro-code. SAP Build Process Automation adds no-code workflows and robotic process automation for citizen developers.	Our engineers build the first agent with your team, or your own team builds on the same platform.
Licence	RISE with SAP and SAP GROW include access to the Joule Assistants portfolio. RISE customers get 3 assistants activated in their first year, GROW customers the full portfolio at onboarding.	One monthly price per agent, with integration included.
Fits best when	You are on RISE with SAP or GROW, and your people want answers and quick tasks inside SAP without hunting for the app.	The work starts in an inbox or another system, or your SAP runs as ECC or on your own servers.

We think Joule is the sensible first step if you are on RISE with SAP or GROW: it is already in the contract, it lives inside SAP and nothing has to be connected. We think Lleverage fits when the job starts outside SAP, crosses other systems or runs on ECC. Our longer view is in SAP Joule explained.

Our engineers set it up with you.

Forward deployed engineers connect the agent to SAP with your SAP team and work alongside your people, so work comes off the desk in the first weeks rather than at the end of a project.

The FDE model Forward deployed engineers, with you for the first queue and for every one after.

They work inside your operation. They build the first queue with your team, set the confidence line together, and stay on as your business changes and the next queues come. Not a licence and a manual. A team that knows your floor.

If you preferSame platform Self-served Your own team builds on the same platform.

Triggers, checks and the log are yours to configure. Our documentation and support sit behind your team, and an engineer is a call away whenever you want one.

Talk to us about either ↗

Frequently asked questions

What is the best AI tool for SAP?

It depends on where the work starts. For questions and quick tasks inside SAP, SAP’s own Joule is the natural choice on RISE with SAP. For whole jobs that start in an inbox, such as order entry or invoice matching, we think an AI agent like Lleverage fits better, on SAP ECC as well as S/4HANA.

Does SAP have its own AI agents?

Yes. Joule is SAP’s AI assistant, and in May 2026 SAP announced more than 50 Joule Assistants that will orchestrate over 200 specialised agents. RISE with SAP customers get 3 assistants activated in their first year. Our view of where Joule stops, and where it is enough, is in SAP Joule explained.

Does it work with SAP ECC and on-prem S/4HANA?

Yes. Lleverage connects to SAP ECC and to S/4HANA, in the cloud or on your own servers, without opening them to the internet. SAP says on-premises and ECC customers who commit to moving most of their landscape to SAP Cloud ERP gain access to select AI scenarios (SAP News Center, read 5 October 2026).

Is this RPA for SAP?

No. RPA replays steps a person recorded, so it suits work whose format never changes; SAP’s own RPA tool is SAP Build Process Automation. The agent reads each order or invoice on its meaning, checks it against SAP, and works the screen only where there is no interface to call. More in RPA vs AI.

Who approves what the agent does in SAP?

You do. Every check has a setting: inside your rules the agent finishes the job in SAP, outside them a person decides. Releasing a payment is always a person. Every action is logged against the SAP record it touched, and your data is EU hosted by default. More on control and approvals.