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SAP Connect 2026: What SAP’s latest AI updates mean for Australian businesses

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SAP’s latest AI updates aim to help your teams complete work across HR, finance and procurement. If you want AI to help with an employee request, it needs the right records and approval rules.

At SAP Connect 2026 in Las Vegas, from Oct 5, 2026 to Oct 7, 2026, SAP showed progress on its Autonomous Enterprise vision. Its goal is to coordinate business work through AI, with people deciding what it can do. SAP introduced that vision at its Sapphire conference in May 2026 and outlined its latest developments on Oct 6, 2026 ⁠.

For Australian SAP customers, the update raises decisions about the work AI handles and the control your people retain. 

Joule Work coordinates requests through AI assistants

Joule Work is SAP’s new interface for working with AI. SAP designed it so people can describe a task in everyday language and coordinate work through AI assistants.

In its Oct 6, 2026 announcement, SAP said Joule Work was beginning its customer rollout. A select group of customers was already using it in their business environments. Before planning adoption, check its availability for your organisation and the processes you want to support.

SAP Autonomous Suite brings AI into business processes

SAP Autonomous Suite brings AI assistants and agents into processes across finance, HR, procurement and supply chain. AI agents are software tools designed to carry out tasks within those processes.

SAP describes customers controlling the level of autonomy, with assistants working within established permissions and records of their actions. Your team still needs to decide which actions require a person’s approval and who reviews the results.

SAP Business AI Platform supports agents and governance

SAP Business AI Platform provides tools to build AI agents, give them business context and govern how they operate. Business context includes what data means and how it relates to a process.

For example, when evaluating AI for an HR request, examine which employee records it needs and who can access them. That gives your business and technology teams a specific task to discuss before choosing how to build it.

chris paine sap mentor
Chris Paine SAP Mentor – Discovery Consulting CTO

Chris Paine on asking useful AI questions

Discovery Consulting’s Chief Technical Officer, Chris Paine, brings a practical perspective to SAP’s official Connect video. Identified as an SAP Mentor, he highlights the role of people who know the business when using AI efficiently.

“If you want to reduce your token spend, then you get the people who know how to ask the question to ask the question.”

Tokens are units of information processed by AI models. Chris’s point is to involve people who know what they need to ask, so that processing serves a useful purpose.

An HR specialist, for example, can help define the question, identify the relevant policy and assess the answer. Bring that expertise into your planning alongside the people responsible for SAP systems and data.

Choose one SAP process to assess first

An employee request is one possible starting point for assessing SAP AI. Use it as an illustration, then choose a process that matters to your organisation.

Before assigning work to AI, ask your HR team to identify the records, policy decisions and approvals involved, so you can define what a useful result looks like.

Work through four questions with the people who handle that process:

  • What should improve? Identify a specific task or delay, such as the time spent checking information before an approval.
  • What information does AI need? Confirm which records and policies apply, whether they are accurate and who can access them.
  • Who remains responsible? Name the person who approves consequential actions and reviews answers that need judgement.
  • How will you judge success? Measure the quality of the result alongside time saved and AI usage costs.

Start with a limited task your team can review. Agree on the checks before giving AI more work to handle.

Plan your SAP AI next step with Discovery Consulting

Discovery Consulting helps Australian organisations assess their readiness for SAP AI and connect adoption plans with business needs. Our SAP AI services cover help getting started with Joule, AI agent implementation and governance.

Bring one process you want to improve to a conversation with Discovery Consulting about SAP AI. We can help you assess the starting point and plan the next step.