At SAP´s Sapphire 2025 conference, Jared Coyle, Chief AI Officer for Americas at SAP, shared insights on how businesses can harness artificial intelligence to achieve practical, scalable results. Central to SAP´s approach are ´AI agents,´ particularly those unveiled with SAP’s new Joule Studio, which aim to integrate deeply with existing business processes. Unlike generic automation tools, these agents leverage decades of structured data to provide reliable, end-to-end solutions in areas such as finance, supply chain, and HR, with the capacity for human oversight where necessary.
Coyle emphasized that the enthusiasm for artificial intelligence among business leaders—spanning supply chain, HR, finance, and operations—is balanced by concerns about human impact, data privacy, and governance. He explained that rolling out artificial intelligence changes roles within organizations and thus requires careful change management and training to bring employees along. Furthermore, safeguarding proprietary data and ensuring compliance with governance frameworks are critical priorities for SAP and its clients. SAP´s AI knowledge graph, built from a vast array of business objects, is designed to mitigate risks like model hallucinations and deliver trustworthy insights.
Integration challenges were also discussed, with legacy systems being a significant barrier to artificial intelligence adoption. Coyle advised organizations to modernize technology stacks and adopt a strategy-led approach rather than experimenting with isolated use cases. He recommended that leaders identify business problems, work backwards from desired outcomes, and ensure AI initiatives are flexible enough to evolve alongside rapid technological advancements. SAP itself demonstrated this mindset by embedding artificial intelligence within its core workflows, including legal, quoting, and event planning functions.
Looking ahead, Coyle sees orchestration across heterogeneous tech ecosystems as the next frontier, where multiple AI agents—across SAP and other platforms—work together for true end-to-end automation. His pragmatic advice for business leaders is to focus first on ´the boring stuff´—tangible, high-impact tasks that drive value now—rather than overinvesting in experimental pilots. Building a culture of curiosity, continuous learning, and adaptability, coupled with trustworthy data and clear business alignment, forms the foundation for sustainable artificial intelligence transformation at enterprise scale.
