SAP U-turn brings AI features to ECC and on-prem S/4HANA

"In July 2023, CEO Christian Klein told investors SAP's "newest innovations and capabilities" would only be delivered in the public or private cloud using RISE with SAP, the vendor's lift-shift-and-transform program launched with partners and cloud providers in early 2021. "This is how we will deliver these innovations with speed, agility, quality and efficiency. Our new innovations will not be available for on-premise or hosted on-premise ERP customers on hyperscalers," he said at the time."

"However, during SAP's Sapphire conference in Orlando this week, Klein said there was "no confusion at all." New tech, such as the AI agents built on the SAP Joule platform, would be available to customers on-prem, so long as they had signed up for a cloud "journey," he said. "The majority of our Joule assistants and agents [will be available] also on-prem, on ECC, and S/4HANA for customers that have already committed the majority of the landscape to the journey, as an interim solution so that they can benefit from AI while they are modernizing. That's absolutely the right thing to do, and I'm excited to see customers taking advantage of this.""

"SAP has navigated an apparent U-turn to bring AI to its legacy and on-prem ERP systems, as predicted in The Register earlier this year. The German software giant had been steadfast that it would not introduce "innovation" such as AI for on-prem systems, including its legacy ERP platform ECC, a move that outraged some members of the user community."

SAP has shifted from a cloud-only stance for new AI capabilities to enabling AI on-prem ERP systems. In 2023, SAP CEO Christian Klein said innovations would be delivered only through public or private cloud via RISE with SAP, and would not be available for on-premise or hosted on-premise ERP customers. At SAP Sapphire, Klein stated there is no confusion and said AI agents on the SAP Joule platform would be available on-prem if customers sign up for a cloud journey. SAP said most Joule assistants and agents will run on-prem on ECC and S/4HANA for customers that have committed most of their landscape to the journey as an interim solution during modernization.

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