Describing Joule Agents

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to describe positioning, components, and architecture of Joule Agents

Introduction

We saw how AI agents are now driving business transformation and innovation. SAP is the only company that helps organizations realize real value of AI agents through Joule – orchestrator of AI agents across your organization with the right context and single source of truth through a data backbone. In this unit, we will take a deep dive into the positioning, working, capabilities, and applications of Joule's system of agents.

In this lesson, we will see how Joule powers AI-driven transformation. We will also go through the components that power Joule Agents.

Joule Agents

Joule is the AI orchestrator infused with a system of collaborative agents for every core business function – including supply chain, procurement, finance, and more – as well as agents for cross-enterprise activities such as enterprise service management or onboarding.

This is possible because Joule Agents uniquely understand your data and processes to act reliably through business applications. Joule Agents are grounded by SAP Knowledge Graph and SAP Business Data Cloud in the right context and right data across your entire enterprise powered by SAP Business Suite.

Business Process Grounding

Joule Agents operate within the context of your business processes, which enables them to tackle more substantial challenges. They benefit from SAP's 50 years of business process expertise, gaining valuable insights. SAP Knowledge Graph encodes this expertise and effectively connects Joule Agents with the necessary business processes. This connection allows Joule Agents to extend their reach across your company and accomplish more tasks.

All the Right Data

Joule Agents access crucial data to grasp the big picture, enabling them to draw accurate conclusions and act insightfully. SAP Business Data Cloud offers a reliable data layer, ensuring that Joule Agents can access all your business data. SAP Knowledge Graph uncovers the links between data and processes, helping Joule Agents make informed decisions in a business context. This thorough understanding allows them to comprehend problems fully, make precise judgments, and tackle larger challenges.

The Power to Act

Joule Agents integrate prebuilt skills to execute multi-step workflows in both your SAP and third-party applications. Joule offers a library of over 1,300 skills designed to automate tasks across the SAP Business Suite and other applications. Joule Agents leverage their understanding of business context to select and order the appropriate skills, achieving higher-impact multi-step business objectives.

The Power of Collaboration

Joule Agents collaborate by combining expertise from various functions to address larger issues and increase productivity. They approach tasks boldly by working together instead of in isolation. Joule's library of ready-to-use agents acts as a team of skilled virtual workers that self-organize to tackle your most difficult challenges. By partnering with each other and your team, Joule Agents expand their scope and enhance their impact in your business.

The image summarizes that Joule Agents are the most capable AI agents for your business.

Joule Components and Functionality

Components of Joule Agents cohesively integrate AI capabilities to streamline business processes and enhance decision-making efficiency:

Joule:
Definition: Joule is the user interface for AI at SAP, visible across all SAP suite applications. It is the main interface for interacting with AI capabilities and serves as the operating system for Joule Agents.
Functionality: Joule acts as the AI orchestrator infused with a system of collaborative agents, orchestrating the activities of agents across the enterprise and providing users with control and visibility.
Joule Skills:
Definition: Joule skills are designed for executing single, predefined tasks independently.
Functionality: These skills enhance SAP's default capabilities by using unstructured inputs to perform specific, context-aware actions, such as data retrieval or system transactions, in a deterministic and predictable manner. Joule Skills integrate with both SAP and third-party APIs to automate and streamline operations like ticket creation or workflow execution, all initiated through conversational interactions.
Joule Agents:
Definition: Joule Agents are AI applications that assist business users with decision support and task automation. They use LLMs and reasoning models to determine actions and their sequence, addressing various situations autonomously.
Functionality: Joule Agents can autonomously execute complex multi-step business processes. They engage users to review and approve significant actions impacting the business, like extending discounts to dissatisfied customers.
Trigger Mechanisms: Joule Agents can be triggered by user requests or specific business events, such as the creation of a new sales order or customer service ticket.
Joule Studio:
Definition: A low-code extensibility environment within SAP Build where users can build, customize, or extend Joule for specific business needs.
Functionality: Users can add Joule Skills or custom Joule Agents via the Agent Builder. Joule Studio also allows agents or skills to use other SAP Build artifacts like workflows, business rules, RPA bots, or actions.

Architecture of Joule Agents

The image illustrates the interplay between AI agents, Joule, and applications. The details are described in the text that follows.

The architecture of Joule Agents is designed to create a seamless interaction between users, applications, and various agents. At its core, Joule serves as the central hub, facilitating communication and functionality across different components. Users interact directly with Joule, which then connects to Joule Functions/Connectivity, enabling the exchange of information and capabilities.

Joule integrates with two types of agents: content-based agents and code-based agents. Content-based agents primarily handle data from applications, using the agent runtime to efficiently process and manage tasks. These agents interact with Joule to ensure that user requests are fulfilled, and that necessary content is delivered.

On the other hand, we will soon have code-based agents, which will be supported by frameworks like Autogen and Langagraph. These agents will focus on specific functions within LoB applications. In coming updates, an Agent SDK will provide the necessary support for these agents, facilitating their development, integration, and specialized operations within the broader system.

The architecture also includes Agent services that ensure the robustness and reliability of the Joule system. These services encompass testing and benchmarking to assess performance, guardrails, and policies to maintain security and compliance, as well as metering and explainability to provide insights into agent activity and performance. Additionally, monitoring and lifecycle management services ensure ongoing oversight and maintenance of the system, allowing for adjustments and improvements as needed.

Key features of the architecture include:

Managed Agent Runtime: Providing a standardized environment for AI agents.
Bi-directional Connectivity: Ensuring seamless user experience and interaction between Joule and Agent Runtime.
Joule Functions as a Tools Library: Offering a growing collection of business functions for agents.
Shared Agent Services: Addressing common operational requirements for both managed and custom AI agents.

Overall, this architecture provides a comprehensive framework that supports efficient user interaction, application integration, and the effective deployment of agents, ensuring a cohesive and streamlined operational experience.

Conclusion

Joule Agents are the only agentic AI solution that is grounded in your business data and process. Joule Agents integrate AI to streamline business processes and improve decision-making efficiency. Joule architecture offers a unified framework that promotes efficient user interaction, application integration, and effective agent deployment for a seamless operational experience.

In next few lessons, we will deep dive into the capabilities and types of Joule Agents with concrete examples.

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