Detailing Business AI in Sourcing and Procurement

You can elevate your procurement processes with integrated generative AI capabilities from SAP. In this lesson, you will learn about some of the AI capabilities for procurement; however, there are several other AI capabilities that can help meet your spend management needs.

Joule is an AI-powered technology that delivers a copilot experience using natural language processing. Joule offers transactional pattern to assist you with various tasks across SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. Based on your requests, it provides real-time information in response to your queries or automates tasks so that you can complete them directly on the conversational user interface.

To set up SAP Joule to use with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, you can use the Activate Joule with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition mission on SAP Discovery Center, which includes best practices and step-by-step guidance for use case implementation, supported by mission experts and the SAP Community.

You can use Joule to express your business requirements in natural language. You can find and navigate to the most widely used applications for your next task, allowing you to execute your business processes seamlessly. You can gain insights into business data, such as purchase orders and outbound deliveries, without the need to search and open the corresponding applications. You can ask questions in natural language and receive help from Joule, based on the available documentation in the SAP Help Portal for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition.

You can add insights cards to My Home with AI-assisted smart personalization of My Home, which enables you to access required data without entering any application.

Purchasers can predict delivery dates for purchase order items based on historical data, using Intelligent Scenario Lifecycle Management. Based on multiple parameters, the system can predict a date by which the supplier can deliver the material.

Situation Handling in SAP S/4HANA Cloud automatically alerts the responsible users about critical business issues, such as upcoming deadlines, pending confirmations, and expiring contracts. When an issue is detected by Situation Handling, SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, AI-assisted situation handling provides business users with targeted advice. Situation data and its related data context are captured for each business issue and can be used to design prompts. If business users choose AI-generated proposals, they will receive context-specific, actionable solution recommendations tailored to their responsibilities. You can customize prompts to add missing facts and provide meaningful guidance. Integrating data from SAP, third-party, and external sources for comprehensive recommendations is also possible.

Using the AI-assisted smart summarization feature you summarize UI content of a Fiori Elements Object Page. You can summarize business objects in multiple languages. You can modify the generated text proposals to individual needs.

You can generate AI-created resolution recommendations for errors in your S/4HANA cloud system. The generated messages are written in natural language to help users of all experience levels rectify the issue and move on with the business process. ​

Using Joule, you can update delivery dates for purchase orders.

You can update the delivery date for one or multiple purchase orders. For single purchase orders, Joule can display item-level and schedule line details to help you confirm the update. For mass updates, Joule schedules background jobs using the provided parameters. Each scheduled job includes a button that opens the Monitor Mass Changes to Purchase Orders app. The app is launched with the pre-filled parameters used during the update.

To use this capability, you must have the business role SAP_BR_PURCHASER assigned to your user or the SAP_MM_BC_PO_MPROCESS_PC (Materials Management - Mass Processing of Purchase Orders) business catalog assigned to the business role of your user.

For updating a single purchase order, you can use, for instance

• Update delivery date of purchase order
• Update delivery date of purchase order with item
• Update delivery date of purchase order, item, schedule line delivery date
• Update delivery date of purchase order, item, schedule line delivery date to new date

For updating multiple purchase orders, you can use filter parameters Company Code, Supplier, Purchasing Group, and Purchasing Organization, for instance:

Using Joule, you can release and cancel supplier invoices.

You can ask Joule to release a supplier invoice that is blocked for payment. You need to provide the invoice number and the fiscal year of the supplier invoice. Optionally, you can decide to shift the discount days. By default, the discount days will not be changed. You can also ask Joule to cancel supplier invoices.

To use this capability, you must have the business role SAP_BR_AP_ACCOUNTANT (Accounts Payable Accountant) assigned to your user or the SAP_MM_BC_INV_PROCESS_PC (Accounts Payable - Supplier Invoices) business catalog assigned to the business role of your user.

To release a supplier invoice that is blocked for payment, you can use, for instance:

• Release the payment block of the supplier invoice 1234567890 with fiscal year 2026.
• Release supplier invoice 1234567890/2026.
• Release the invoice 1234567890 with fiscal year 2026 and shift the discount days.

To cancel a posted supplier invoice, the document number and fiscal year are required. The posting date and reversal reason that the system should use should also be included. The reversal reason can be selected within the conversation unless it is provided in the initial prompt.

For this task, you can use, for instance:

• Cancel supplier invoice 1234567890 with fiscal year 2026.
• Cancel supplier invoice 1234567890/2025 with posting date 2026-02-20.
• Cancel supplier invoice 1234567890/2025 with date 2026-02-20 and reason ID 05.

Using Joule, you can create supplier confirmations for purchase orders.

You can ask Joule to create a supplier confirmation for a single purchase order or up to 10 purchase orders together by quoting the purchase order numbers.

Upon successful creation of a supplier confirmation, a message indicating success will be displayed, along with the option to view it by selecting the Open button. This will open the Manage Supplier Confirmations app. If an error occurs when creating a supplier confirmation for a purchase order, it will be displayed in Joule with the relevant details.

To use this capability, you must have the business role SAP_BR_PURCHASER assigned to your user or the SAP_MM_BC_CONF_PROCESS_PC (Materials Management - Supplier Confirmations) business catalog assigned to the business role of your user.

To create a supplier confirmation, the corresponding purchase order was processed, and at least one item is awaiting supplier confirmation. A confirmation was received from the supplier, and the details are supposed to be maintained with the Manage Supplier Confirmations app.

For creating a supplier confirmation for a single purchase order, you can use, for instance:

For creating supplier confirmation for multiple purchase orders, you can list the purchase order numbers, for instance:

Using Joule, you can identify purchase orders awaiting approval and expedite their approval, and create a draft reminder email.

You can use Joule to draft a reminder email for purchase orders awaiting approval by selecting the startup prompt "Show the draft reminder" and entering the purchase order number.

You can also start by asking to show specific purchase orders, for instance, for a particular supplier or purchasing organization. In the displayed purchase order details, select the Show Approvers button. This will show pending approvals, including approver names and contact details. You can create a draft reminder email using the Draft Reminder button in the approval details, which can then be opened directly in MS Outlook, prefilled with all required details.