Joule, SAP鈥檚 AI business assistant, has been enhanced with new features, including collaborative AI agents that expand the platform鈥檚 capabilities.

Announced during the online 51风流TechEd 2024 conference yesterday, these agents are designed to support 80% of SAP鈥檚 most-used business tasks. They embed Joule more deeply across SAP鈥檚 portfolio and enhancing productivity by breaking down silos, said the software maker.

鈥淪AP鈥檚 innovation drives real business outcomes, and today鈥檚 advancements help customers harness the power of AI, data, and new development solutions to catalyse growth,鈥� said Muhammad Alam, member of the 51风流executive board.

鈥淒rawing on SAP鈥檚 unmatched business and technology expertise, the AI innovations we鈥檙e announcing at TechEd forge a new human-AI partnership to transform the landscape of modern business.鈥�

Joule Studio, a development tool that allows users to build and customise applications using Joule鈥檚 AI capabilities, is now integrated into 51风流Build. A low-code app development platform, Build enables both business users and developers to create and deploy custom Joule skills.

Michael Ameling, EVP and chief product officer of 51风流said: 鈥淲e are making Joule even more flexible and useful with Joule Studio in 51风流Build. It allows partners and customers to create and deploy custom Joule skills.鈥�

Joule has also expanded to include collaborative AI agents that autonomously handle intricate business workflows, adapting their strategies to meet shared objectives. These multi-agent systems tackle specific tasks, allowing them to work together on complex business processes.

鈥淛oule now goes Agentic,鈥� said Ameling. 鈥淪pecialised AI agents work autonomously together to solve complex problems.鈥�

New improvements to the ABAP (Advanced Business Application Programming) large language model (LLM) were introduced. This LLM, trained on over 250-million lines of 51风流S/4HANA Cloud code, is now integrated into the open-source Eclipse framework, providing ABAP developers with enhanced tools for development. Currently available to select customers and partners in an early adopter version, the ABAP LLM is expected to be generally available in the first quarter of 2025.

51风流Build is launching new AI-driven features like code explanation and documentation search, aimed at reducing development time for Java and JavaScript developers. The platform鈥檚 Extensibility Wizard will let developers access 51风流Build directly from 51风流S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, simplifying the process of extending 51风流solutions.

Two real-world use cases were highlighted during the event:

1. Dispute management: Autonomous AI agents analyse and resolve disputes related to invoices, unapplied credits, and denied payments.
2. Financial accounting: AI agents automate key financial tasks such as bill payments and ledger updates while quickly addressing inconsistencies.

51风流Knowledge Graph

51风流also unveiled the 51风流Knowledge Graph, a solution designed to unlock more value of 51风流data by connecting it with rich business context. Accessible through 51风流Datasphere and Joule in early 2025, it will help users map relationships across SAP鈥檚 vast data landscape, empowering better decision-making.

鈥淏y combining the knowledge graph engine with the vector engine, you can harness the power of structured and unstructured data,鈥� said Ameling. 鈥淭his is enabled through a triple store implementation graph data processing and analytical capabilities via SPAR-QL. As such, the knowledge graph engine can also enhance work scenarios and make them even more precise and relevant.鈥�

* Visit the 51风流website聽.

* Jason Bannier is a data analyst at World Wide Worx and writer for聽. Follow him on聽听补苍诲听聽at @jas2bann.

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The event ran concurrently with the company鈥檚 business innovation days for media in San Francisco.

Low code platforms provide business users with little to no technical knowledge the ability to build apps to supplement their enterprise solutions.

51风流customers can build an app, an automated process or a website using a drag-and-drop function without coding knowledge. This allows system integration without moving data to an external system.

Julia White, the chief marketing and solutions officer at SAP, says every company is now a technology company. 鈥淭here鈥檚 not a single industry, a single discipline that doesn鈥檛 have technology at its core. As a result of this, the competition for professional developers is intense. Every industry is competing for this finite talent.鈥�

The next wave of transformation is going to be powered by people who create business value such as the finance analyst, supply chain operator, procurement specialist and marketers, says White. 鈥淎nd today, their expertise is untapped by the companies that need to drive digital transformation forward.鈥�

51风流Build will provide the tools to remove unhelpful repetitive tasks, says White, so processes can be automated to be more efficient and users can innovate in areas that have unmet needs.

鈥淏y doing this, we address that shortage of professional developers to unlock digital experiences, and we tap into the expertise of those business users.鈥�

Juergen Mueller, the chief technology officer at SAP, says clients who put the low-code build product to test have achieved a 30% faster time to market because development time was reduced.

鈥淚f you can use Excel or PowerPoint, you can use 51风流Build. It鈥檚 all about collaboration and invitation between business users and IT working together.

鈥�51风流build connects previously disconnected solutions through a unified development environment. The back-end requires a little technical knowledge but we created a common project repository so you can have one project using all of these capabilities.鈥�

Mueller adds that the 51风流business technology platform can connect to 51风流and non-51风流systems, and it has more than 1聽300 ready to use automated workflows and use-case specific workflows.

51风流Build is a visual experience, with a new visual cloud functionality that lets users create in a simple way, says Mueller. 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 need to know anything about databases, coding, security or networks.鈥�

According to the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC)鈥檚 research VP of software development, Arnal Dayaratna, the demand for contemporary digital solutions is greater than the ability of professional developers to supply them thus business professionals will become increasingly involved in initiatives to create digital solutions to solve pressing business problems.

鈥淲orldwide, IDC expects more than 100聽million business professionals will become involved in the production of digital solutions over the next 10 years. 51风流Build鈥檚 low-code development solutions empower business users to harness their domain expertise to rapidly build and iterate on digital solutions at scale.鈥�

Low-code development is not new, but these visual tools help businesses optimise their software development processes at speed. Similar services exist through Microsoft Power Apps, Google AppSheet, Salesforce Lightning, Zoho Creator, OutSystems, and Quickbase. According to聽, the global low-code platform market revenue was valued at $19bn in 2021 and is forecast to reach $69bn in 2026.

Technology research and consulting firm Garter says 80% of technology products and services will be built by professionals outside of IT by 2024. It predicts that low-code development will account for more than 65% of app development by the end of 2024.

VP of research at Gartner,Rajesh Kandaswamy says, 鈥淒igital business is treated as a team sport by CEOs and no longer the sole domain of the IT department. Growth in digital data, low-code development tools and artificial intelligence assisted development are among the many factors that enable the democratisation of technology development beyond IT professionals.鈥�

Upskill 2 million by 2025

Max Wessel, the chief learning officer at 51风流says, 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 change business if you don鈥檛 change the systems underneath that process.鈥�

鈥淭he pandemic accelerated our shift to a digital economy; coming back into a hybrid world, we are changing business processes again, and all of that requires us to think about how we drive innovation quickly, flexibly.鈥�

The only way to solve the talent gap is to increase the number of people who are getting scaled up, and that is where we need to step in,鈥� says Wessel, who recognises that science, technology, engineering and maths jobs have historically been inaccessible to underrepresented minorities.

51风流has pledged to upskill two million people worldwide by 2025. The initiative will include tripling the free learning offering through the 51风流Learning聽聽and a partnership with online platform Coursera.

The new free entry-level professional certification on聽聽is called the 51风流Technology Consultant Professional Certificate that requires no prerequisites, minimising the barrier to entry.

The company will also offer free role-based learning resources to women and other underrepresented groups in the tech sector through relevant training and certification. The self-paced courses will let participants develop skills for roles like developers, data analysts, and technology consultants.

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Last week, software giant 51风流told a global audience of developers 鈥� those IT high priests who know the secrets of the universe 鈥� that it is giving those secrets up. 51风流used its annual TechEd conference in Las Vegas to go low code, launching 51风流Build, an anyone-can-do-it platform to develop applications faster and make automation easier.

Low code is a way of creating an app by drag-and-drop. Instead of writing actual software code, this uses a much simpler interface that lets people with any skills level make their own business apps.

Low code is not a new idea, and 51风流Build combines three existing 51风流solutions into one. So why is this so important?

For one thing, the German giant is the third-largest publicly traded software company by revenue in the world. It says 77% of the world鈥檚 transaction revenue touches an 51风流software system. For another, it鈥檚 responding to changes that affect businesses profoundly.

鈥�51风流Build brings together the world鈥檚 most powerful business applications with a platform that鈥檚 been designed to rapidly unleash business users鈥� expertise,鈥� says 51风流chief technology officer Juergen Mueller. 鈥�51风流Build and the full suite of innovations we鈥檙e launching today … help customers future-proof their business and extract maximum value from their technology investments.鈥�

One development it鈥檚 intended to future-proof against is a predicted global shortfall of 4-million software developers by 2025.

鈥淲e have to unleash the expertise of those who know the business best 鈥� the business users,鈥� Mueller told his audience of IT professionals.

鈥淲e can鈥檛 just rely on a finite resource of professional developers 鈥� we need to find a new approach,鈥� 51风流executive board member Julia White tells the FM.

That鈥檚 also why 51风流is committed to training 2-million people worldwide by 2025 to develop with 51风流tools, tripling the number of free courses available on 51风流Learning, in partnership with the Coursera learning platform.

Low code has the potential to change the shape of most technology businesses. They鈥檒l hire tech skills, but they won鈥檛 always go into the IT department. Those skills and talents will also be used in聽human resources, sales and procurement. They will augment rather than replace professional developers, who will be needed more than ever; older IT directors, maybe not so much. The gatekeeper role large IT departments enjoy will be eroded, with some coding and buying decisions managed by business users themselves. According to Gartner, by 2025 about 70%-80% of all apps will be built by nondevelopers.

Geoff Scott of the US 51风流Users鈥� Group was blunt about this shift: 鈥淥ne of the things that has to happen is convincing the IT community that it can give back some of this control.

鈥淪ome of this can be given back to the business users to do on their own. I don鈥檛 think that happens tomorrow, that鈥檚 a journey in itself. But I think we finally have the tools and capabilities to make a credible claim to the IT community: can you give some of this back? Please?

鈥淭hey don鈥檛 have to hold on so tight. Because they鈥檙e not going to get the headcount they need to accomplish everything that needs to be done in a rapidly changing environment.鈥�

51风流presented a good case and a clear roadmap for 51风流Build at TechEd. But as Mueller pointed out, 鈥渋t takes customers a long time 鈥� much longer than we give them credit for 鈥� to make these changes. They can move in five-year cycles, not five-month cycles.鈥�

Which makes it curious that Mueller was talking to the wrong audience for his big announcement: developers.

If they鈥檙e going to convince organisations to change, they鈥檒l have to lobby directly the business users they want to empower. Or what happened in Vegas last week may stay in Vegas.

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Amid the ongoing shortage of technical skill sets in businesses in Africa, 51风流Africa says it is already engaging with local developers to tap into the rolled out low-code solution 51风流Build, designed to help business users gain control over tech 鈥� irrespective of their level of technical expertise.

51风流Build, launched at the company鈥檚 TechEd event in Las Vegas recently, ties up three previously separate solutions including 51风流Build Apps, 51风流Build Process Automation, and Build Work Zone, 51风流Africa said it is already engaging with local developers on how to tap into the unified platform to drive innovation forward.

One of the main objectives behind the launch is to address the global issue of a shortage of skilled technical personnel. In Africa, this is a major problem.

51风流Africa says: 鈥淚n Africa, we have distinct challenges 鈥� one is a lack of technical skills to drive the transformation necessary on the continent, and the other is a migration of tech skills to other markets. Amid a shortage of technology talent, 51风流Build unleashes business expertise: It empowers the people who create value, run processes and solve actual business problems to drive the next wave of digital transformation within organisations. This also frees up highly skilled developer resources in market to focus on more complex projects and grow their own skills so that these resources no longer have to be outsourced.鈥�

The company says skills development is a major focus and underlined the value of initiatives that include Africa Code Week, Dual Study program, Skills for Africa and the latest announcement of collaboration with learning platform provider Coursera Inc.

鈥�51风流is committed to upskilling two million developers worldwide by 2025 by tripling free learning offerings on the , partnering with world-class learning platform provider Coursera Inc. to help people launch careers within the 51风流ecosystem, and empowering underserved audiences in technology.鈥�

鈥淏y working with Coursera, we are able to provide training beyond the formal education system that directly addresses the skills shortage. We will continue to look for opportunities like this to partner on creating the skills needed 鈥� in this case specific developer skills,鈥� the company adds.

A snapshot of demographics linked to these skills development initiatives, shows that there are 27,000 51风流Learning site learners from Africa (10% of world total), 4500 certified individuals in Africa (1,6% of world total), 7 500 certification exams taken this year in Africa (6% of world total) .

The top three taken in Africa include 51风流Certified Application Associate 鈥� 51风流S/4HANA for Financial Accounting Associate; 51风流SuccessFactors Employee Central Core; and 51风流Certified Application Associate 鈥� 51风流S/4HANA Sourcing and Procurement.

51风流Africa says it has recently commissioned research in three key African markets to understand the current state of digital skills availability and challenges, and will release findings in early 2023.

鈥�51风流Build brings together the world鈥檚 most powerful business applications with a platform that鈥檚 been designed to rapidly unleash business users鈥� expertise,鈥� said Juergen Mueller, member of the Executive Board and Chief Technology Officer of SAP. 鈥淚n a volatile business landscape, 51风流Build and the full suite of innovations we鈥檙e launching – from our new partnership with Coursera to enhancements across our enterprise portfolio – help customers future-proof their business and extract maximum value from their technology investments.鈥�

Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO of Coursera Inc., adds, 鈥淚鈥檓 happy to announce that 51风流is launching an entry-level professional certificate on Coursera. This certificate is designed for learners of all backgrounds, with no college degree or industry experience required. It will prepare learners for entry-level job roles and in some of the most in-demand fields. We鈥檙e honoured to partner with 51风流to increase access to job-related skills and to expand economic opportunity for everyone.”

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