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The Next Level in the Evolution of Businesses
Autonomous Enterprise – AI Agents Act, Humans Steer
AI agents execute processes independently, while companies set the framework – that’s how SAP’s Autonomous Enterprise works. The goal: organizations that remain capable of acting, no matter how fast their environment changes. valantic supports customers with end-to-end expertise – from architecture and agent development to the data foundation and governance.
Key Takeaways
Autonomous Enterprise at a glance
The Autonomous Enterprise defines a new target vision for businesses: artificial intelligence evolves from a mere assistant into an independently acting agent.
- Autonomy: AI acts independently and executes business processes based on data, process knowledge, and industry context.
- Division of Roles: People set goals, priorities, and guidelines—AI analyzes, coordinates, and acts within these parameters.
- Control: Governance, security, and human oversight remain integral to the Autonomous Enterprise.
- Operating Model: Fragmented processes and manual hand‑offs are replaced by connected workflows that continuously adapt to new situations.
- Operating Model: Because agents take over routine tasks and complex process steps, people can focus more on decision-making, innovation, and high-value tasks.
What you'll find on this page
- 01 How companies benefit: 6 key advantages
- 02 What the Autonomous Enterprise is about
- 03 The core elements of the Autonomous Enterprise
- 04 Roadmap: Key steps & milestones
- 05 How we support you
- 06 Why valantic: What sets us apart
- 07 Our insights on Autonomous Enterprise, AI & more
- 08 Frequently asked questions
- 09 Your Contact at valantic
6 key advantages
How companies benefit
Automated business processes
AI agents independently manage, monitor and correct business processes across departments. Manual handoffs and system breaks are eliminated.
Real-time decisions
Thanks to deep agent integration and harmonized data sources, the system analyzes live data during operation, detects deviations immediately, and instantly suggests the best courses of action.
More time for strategic tasks
AI assistants and specialized agents handle routine tasks, allowing employees to focus on strategic and value-adding activities.
Resilient supply chains
By integrating with SAP Business Network, the system can anticipate supply bottlenecks or market changes and autonomously suggest alternative suppliers and processes.
Faster value creation in Transformations
An integrated, AI-enabled toolchain and standardized, autonomous roadmaps help accelerate transformation projects, reduce costs and deliver value faster.
Continuous optimization
By constantly comparing actual data with best practices, the system landscape continuously learns and optimizes itself autonomously within defined rules to ensure operational excellence.
The Autonomous Enterprise: What it’s all about
In the Autonomous Enterprise, AI agents independently take over tasks that are still largely handled manually today. They
- retrieve and interpret data from different systems
- identify patterns and deviations
- make decisions and execute complex processes across systems and functions based on predefined rules
The prerequisites for this are
- a reliable data foundation
- transparent, standardized processes
- a governance model that gives every agent a defined identity, access rights and traceability of its decisions
Only when these three elements work together can agents collaborate in a controlled and coordinated way as an integrated system.
Building the Autonomous Enterprise with Joule, SAP Autonomous Suite, and SAP Business AI Platform (Image source: SAP)
For businesses, this means more seamless processes, real-time decision-making and immediate detection of deviations rather than discovering them weeks later through analysis. Employees gain more capacity for strategic work.
The division of roles remains clear: people define the goals, rules and parameters. Agents act autonomously within them.
The core elements
Joule Work
The interaction layer
From request to result
Joule Work is the central entry point into the Autonomous Enterprise and the interface for collaboration between people, businesses, and AI.
- People state their intent
- Joule brings together the relevant data, workflows, and AI agents and coordinates their interaction
Work is completed across SAP and third-party systems, directly within the context.
SAP Autonomous Suite
The core of operations
The business in action
The SAP Autonomous Suite makes core processes—finance, supply chain, human resources, spend, and customer experience—intelligent and autonomous.
- It connects applications, data, workflows, assistants, and agents to form the operational core
- Agents and assistants perform tasks based on embedded process logic, business data, and governance
- People set the direction, monitor, and control
Industry AI
Industry-specific intelligence
Agents as industry experts
Industry AI combines AI with industry-specific knowledge.
- Industry-specific process knowledge, data models, and regulatory requirements are embedded in the AI functions
- Agents not only perform general tasks but also understand processes within the respective industry context and act accordingly
SAP Knowledge Graph
The brain & central nervous system
Connecting data, delivering meaning
The SAP Knowledge Graph links data, processes, and relationships within the enterprise, enabling agents to draw conclusions and act.
- Provides contextual understanding
- Stores and links structured knowledge and serves as a memory
SAP Business AI Platform
The foundation
Development, context, control
The SAP Business AI Platform is the technical and business foundation of the Autonomous Enterprise. It connects business context, data, AI models, and governance.
- Platform for developing, integrating, and controlling AI agents
- Equips agents with knowledge and context so they can act securely across SAP and third-party systems
Agent-led business transformation The path to the target vision
The Autonomous Enterprise doesn’t happen overnight. With its agent-based transformation approach, SAP supports companies in modernizing their processes and systems step by step to enable autonomous operations.
- The transformation focuses on AI agents that pursue a defined business goal autonomously, collaboratively, and under human oversight.
- Their targeted use accelerates modernization and process optimization.
- Business processes are no longer merely digitized; to a large extent, they now control and optimize themselves.
- The transformation offerings RISE with SAP and SAP GROW (formerly: GROW with SAP) play a key role in this journey, as they combine cloud transformation, process optimization, and AI.
- The foundation for autonomous business processes is being built continuously, without losing sight of day-to-day operations.
The Roadmap
The most important steps & milestones
SAP Cloud ERP: Access to AI and autonomy
Most new AI features are “cloud-first.” SAP Cloud ERP is therefore the gateway to autonomy and, as such, a key component of the Autonomous Enterprise. This changes the business case for cloud transformation.
- Important to note: Don’t migrate via “lift and shift”; instead, modernize with a Clean Core so that extensions coexist seamlessly with the standard software and don’t block upgrades.
- SAP Cloud ERP Private, delivered through RISE with SAP, helpa existing on-premises ERP customers modernize their environments and realize the full potential of the Autonomous Enterprise.
- For new customers, GROW with SAP supports the transformation journey to the cloud.
Architecture, transparency, governance
As the shift toward the Autonomous Enterprise accelerates, the number of agents—developed using various technologies and often deployed in parallel across different departments—is growing. Without governance and clear rules, there is a risk of uncontrolled proliferation. For companies, this means:
- Create transparency: Document the architecture and agent inventory, also as a basis for integration
- Adapt approval processes: Review existing approval workflows and align them with the increasing volume of agent requests
- Use a governance tool: The SAP AI Agent Hub, based on LeanIX, inventories agents across vendors and assigns identities and access rights
- Comply with regulations: The EU AI Act, which took effect in August 2026, is particularly relevant for finance, HR, and procurement processes
Building the data foundation
No agent can compensate for inaccurate or scattered data: The quality of the data foundation determines the quality of every agent’s decision. A solid data foundation is therefore a prerequisite, not an option. Here’s what that means in practice:
- Unify the data layer: The SAP Business Data Cloud creates a semantic layer spanning data from SAP and third-party systems
- Control access: Before acting on any request, an agent verifies identity and access rights
- Provide context: The SAP Knowledge Graph manages ontologies that enable agents to understand processes, relationships, and connections
- Align the data strategy: Ensure data quality, clarify data ownership, and reliably connect data products
Understanding & standardizing processes
Before a process is automated, it must be clear how it actually unfolds—including the deviations that are often overlooked in day-to-day operations. Proper prioritization is also crucial: it’s not the most exciting use case that counts, but the greatest need. This means:
- Make processes visible: Process mining reveals the actual flow of processes, not the documented theory
- Prioritize needs: Focus on areas where error rates are highest, staffing shortages limit scalability, or long lead times cost revenue
- Monitor agents: Agent mining reveals the behavior, compliance, and business value of active agents
- Governance from the start: Each agent is assigned its own identity, clear access rights, and measurable metrics
Toward the Autonomous Enterprise with valantic
How we support you
Strategic consulting & use case identification
We identify where AI can unlock the greatest potential across your business—from optimizing processes to deploying AI agents. Together, we prioritize high-value use cases and turn them into actionable and scalable solutions.
Integration & orchestration
We seamlessly integrate AI agents into your existing IT landscape using the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) and orchestrate their interaction across systems and processes. Our deep process and integration expertise ensures that your AI agents work together effectively and reliably.
AI agent development & operations
We build custom AI agents and workflows tailored to your unique processes, business requirements, and proprietary systems. With our Outcome as a Service offering, we manage and continuously optimize your AI solutions beyond go-live—helping ensure they deliver measurable business value over time.
Compliance & governance
We design and implement secure architectures that ensure AI agents operate within your corporate policies and regulatory requirements, including the EU AI Act. This provides the governance, security, and transparency needed to deploy AI agents responsibly and at scale.
Why valantic
valantic as your partner: What sets us apart
valantic is a leading consulting firm in Data & AI and a pioneer in developing custom AI solutions tailored to our clients’ business needs.
We are one of SAP’s three leading partners in this field.
We put our expertise into practice and share it with clients, students, and young professionals through initiatives such as AI hackathons.
With its unique combination of end-to-end digitalization expertise, deep technology capabilities, comprehensive SAP services, and the personalized approach of a boutique consultancy, valantic supports clients throughout their transformation journey.
With more than 30 years of experience, industry-specific expertise, and over 4300 experts across 60 locations worldwide, we bring the experience, technology, and industry knowledge needed to address each client’s unique challenges.
As one of a select group of SAP partners, valantic combines deep expertise across the SAP portfolio—from analytics to warehousing—with broad experience in technologies from leading providers across the market.
As one of the first European implementation partners of Anthropic, valantic is a Select Partner in the Claude Partner Network (Services Track).
Our growing partner ecosystem enables us to provide technology-agnostic consulting and deliver tailored solutions across business models, industries, and use cases.
Autonomous Enterprise, AI & more
valantic insights and expertise
Blog
SAP Sapphire 2026 – the way into the Autonomous Enterprise
Blog
Homework for the Autonomous Enterprise: Architecture, Data, and Processes
Blog
Joule Studio 2.0: Shaping the Autonomous Enterprise with SAP AI Agents
SAP Business AI valantic
Take advantage of our expertise
Webinar Recording
SAP & AI – from transformation to business innovation (in German)
Frequently asked questions
An Autonomous Enterprise is a company in which AI agents execute business processes independently, rather than merely providing recommendations. Humans set goals, rules, and boundaries; agents analyze data, make decisions within this framework, and carry out multi-step tasks across system boundaries.
Traditional automation follows fixed rules for individual, clearly defined tasks. In the Autonomous Enterprise, agents respond independently to new situations, draw context from multiple data sources, and act across departmental boundaries without every step being preprogrammed.
Three key elements are crucial: a reliable, cross-system database; clearly documented processes; and a governance model that provides each agent with an identity, defined access rights, and traceability.
Yes. People continue to set goals, priorities, and guidelines. Agents act exclusively within this prescribed framework, and their decisions remain traceable through governance mechanisms.
SAP coined the term at SAP Sapphire 2026 and is driving the vision of the autonomous enterprise primarily through SAP Business AI, the SAP AI Agent Hub, the SAP Business Data Cloud, and SAP Signavio. The SAP AI Agent Hub plays a central role in this: It enables vendor-agnostic orchestration and management of AI agents, allowing not only SAP’s own agents but also third-party solutions to be seamlessly integrated.
The EU AI Act will be fully effective as of August 2026 and specifically affects the use of AI agents in financial, HR, and procurement processes. Companies should establish appropriate governance structures.
These include end-to-end, agent-driven processes that span departmental boundaries; real-time decisions rather than those based on delayed reports; greater capacity for strategic tasks; more resilient supply chains; faster value creation in transformation projects; and continuous process optimization within defined rules.
valantic combines many years of experience with SAP with vendor-agnostic AI expertise and supports companies from architecture and agent development through the data foundation to governance.
AI Summary – Autonomous Enterprise
The Autonomous Enterprise at a Glance
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In the Autonomous Enterprise, AI agents execute processes autonomously. People set the direction, establish guardrails, and maintain control.
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Companies remain agile and in control at all times through connected processes, real-time decision-making, and continuous optimization.
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valantic helps clients bring this vision to life with proven SAP and AI expertise—from architecture to governance.
Questions about the Autonomous Enterprise? Let's talk!
We’ll help you identify where AI can optimize your processes, where AI agents can deliver the most value, and how to build the foundation for the Autonomous Enterprise.
