SAP used its Connect conference in Las Vegas to focus on real-world deployment of AI agents in business operations. While the company's Sapphire conference in Orlando earlier in the year outlined the strategic vision for an "Autonomous Enterprise", Connect gave line-of-business practitioners -- the professionals who run finance, procurement, HR and supply chain day to day -- a hands-on look at what that future means for their daily tasks.
"Connect is all about making it real," said Eric van Rossum, SAP's head of product marketing for applications and suite. "We set the strategy at Sapphire. Now we need to come with the proof points, what that means for our customers, what it means when we have the products in our hands and so on."
The company unveiled new Joule Assistants designed to automate complex, high-stakes back-office processes. A Revenue Recognition Assistant guides finance teams through classifying transactions under revenue accounting standards such as IFRS 15 and US GAAP. A Disclosure Assistant automates the final steps of preparing external financial reports, from gathering and tagging data to drafting narrative and validating the output before publication. The new assistants are being rolled out through early adopter programs and are expected to reach general availability between now and the first quarter of 2027. More than 20 hands-on labs at the conference allow attendees to build their own agents using Joule Studio.
SAP also announced the planned acquisition of TechWolf, a Belgian company whose AI platform maps the work and skills inside an organization. Terms were not disclosed. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026, pending regulatory approval.
Andreas De Neve, TechWolf's CEO and co-founder, said in a statement: "We have spent eight years building the evidence layer to answer those questions. It's always been our mission to connect skills, tasks and work to help employers solve AI transformation, and joining SAP will allow us to extend that mission across a broader set of business context and larger scale."
The focus on finance reflects where customers are experiencing the most significant pain points, according to van Rossum. "We see a lot in the finance area, like financial close, billing reconciliation, and elements like that," he said.