Using Joule in SAP DM

SAP Joule is an AI-powered copilot built into SAP cloud applications that enables natural-language interaction, generates content, and delivers context-aware recommendations. Ask Joule questions about SAP DM apps and processes, and Joule will give you an answer based on the SAP DM documentation from the SAP Help Portal.

Certain conditions must be met for the use of Joule:

• Entitlements: You must have a Joule entitlement in the same global account on SAP BTP as your SAP Digital Manufacturing entitlement.
• Subscriptions: Subscribe to both SAP Digital Manufacturing and Joule in the SAP BTP Cockpit.
• Identity provider: Your identity provider must support the OpenID Connect (OIDC) protocol.
• Instance mapping: A Joule instance can be connected to only one SAP Digital Manufacturing tenant. Each SAP DM tenant requires its own dedicated Joule instance.

Once you finish onboarding Joule, you can easily access information from the product documentation on the SAP Help Portal from within the SAP Fiori apps provided for SAP Digital Manufacturing. To access Joule, simply choose the diamond-shaped icon located in the upper right corner of the SAP DM launchpad. From there, you can enter your queries or questions using natural language and receive answers along with links to the SAP Help Portal.

Business User Story:

Imagine you need to design a production process but can’t remember which app in SAP DM to use or the exact steps to create and verify a successful production process. Waiting for colleagues to ask questions (assuming they have the knowledge) or searching through help pages is time-consuming and increases the risk of errors. Joule solves this issue: Ask targeted questions and instantly receive clear, step‑by‑step instructions with all necessary details and requirements.

The demo video shows an example of using Joule in SAP DM for this business case.

Joule capabilities can be extended with SAP Build and the integrated Joule Studio. Joule Studio lets you enhance Joule with both skills and agents.

Joule skills are modular, task-specific components that enable conversational automation by using the context of a dialogue to execute predefined operations. Designed for repetitive, rule-based work, each skill performs a single, deterministic action such as retrieving data, triggering a transaction, or updating records. For example, in SAP DM you could use the Joule interface to change a resource status or retrieve information about production orders simply by asking in natural language.

Joule agents are AI-driven systems that extend the common capabilities of large language models with the ability to take actions and interact with external tools. Agents are particularly useful in scenarios where tasks require more than just natural language understanding and generation, enabling tasks automation and complex problem-solving by combining step-by-step reasoning with calling tools. Tools are external assistants for performing advanced specific functions such as calculations. Agents can also delegate parts of a task to subagents, which are specialized agents with more specific knowledge or capabilities. For example, Joule agents can perform calculations or run scripts, interface with other systems, ingest external documents as grounding sources, and search the web for up-to-date information.

Business User Story:

Imagine enhancing the knowledge of Joule so that production operators can interact with Joule as a partner in their daily work. By creating a Joule Agent in Joule Studio and enriching it with internal knowledge, provided as documents, you enable the agent to access and apply detailed, company-specific information. This knowledge can include instructions for specific operations, such as welding processes, machine setup and cleaning procedures, or troubleshooting guidance for common issues.

Production operators can then simply describe a problem or ask questions in natural language. Joule responds with precise, context-aware answers based on this enhanced knowledge, helping production operators resolve issues quickly and execute operations efficiently.