Exploring AI Capabilities in SAP Ariba Contracts

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to examine AI capabilities in SAP Ariba Contracts.

AI Copilot Joule Terminology

SAP Joule is the AI-powered digital assistant embedded within SAP Ariba solutions, designed to revolutionize spend management by delivering intelligent, context-aware assistance across the source-to-pay lifecycle. It leverages natural language processing and machine learning to automate routine tasks, surface actionable insights, and guide users through complex procurement workflows with conversational ease.

Enabling SAP Joule for your existing SAP Ariba environment will empower procurement teams to accelerate decision-making, enhance user productivity, and drive greater compliance—paving the way for a more intuitive, efficient, and intelligent spend management experience.

SAP Business AI is the underlying intelligence engine (encompassing AI Foundation, Knowledge Graph, and secure LLM access on SAP BTP) that powers AI capabilities across the enterprise.

SAP Joule is the conversational copilot interface that puts these capabilities into the hands of users—translating natural language requests into intelligent actions without requiring technical expertise.

Joule uses a conversational interface to help users complete tasks efficiently. It leverages generative and other AI technologies to understand natural language requests, identify intent, perform actions, and provide insights. Using generative AI, it can execute tasks, deliver tailored responses, and summarize information effectively.

Joule can assist you with your product-related questions by finding answers in the product documentation published on the SAP Help Portal. Along with the answers, it provides direct links to the relevant source documents, allowing you to explore the details further. You can also perform tasks such as viewing the details of a document or approving a document from within the Joule interface.

Joule currently supports twelve languages (other than English US). Language support refers to the technical enablement by Joule to support a particular language, allowing users to experience Joule in their desired language through localized messages, product/solution application data, welcome messages, Joule generated content. Languages supported by Joule: English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Greek, Polish, and Arabic.

There are four interaction patterns available to end users.

Informational interactions

With informational interactions, Joule provides knowledge-based results.
Information based on SAP Help Documentation will be available for all SAP cloud applications.
With Document Grounding, you can upload your own content, such as HR & travel policies or FAQs.

Navigational interactions

With Joule, you can easily navigate across SAP products with navigational interactions.
Joule offers a navigational link that opens the relevant application and interface in a new browser tab.
At the destination, you can continue from where you left off, with your previous conversation history and context intact.

Transactional interactions

Allow you to access backend systems and manage business processes through natural language and AI.
This includes tasks like approving purchase orders, creating job positions, or other actions (create, read, update, delete) across SAP business processes.

Analytical interactions

You can ask analytical questions while Joule leverages JustAsk in SAP Analytics Cloud to provide analytical insights.
Joule’s analytical capabilities are enhanced with the power of SAP Business Data Cloud.

Joule Use Cases in SAP Ariba Contracts

SAP Ariba Contracts users can use Joule to assist them for contract creation and management. Below you can find the use cases available in SAP Ariba Contracts and example of prompts you can use when interacting with Joule:

Create contract workspace

Used for contract workspace creation.

Use Case	Prompt Example
Create contract workspace	Create a contract workspace..

Play the video to learn how SAP Joule can assist you with contract workspace creation.

Extend contract expiry date of a contract workspace

Used to extend the expiry date of a contract workspace.

Use Case	Prompt Example
Extend contract workspace expiry date	Extend the expiration date of the contract with ID CW12341001 by 10 days from today's date. Set the expiration date of the contract with ID CW12341001 to '31-12-2025'.

Update the start date of a contract workspace

Updates the start date of a contract workspace.

Use Case	Prompt Example
Update the start date of a contract workspace	Update the start date of a contract with ID CW123411 to 'December 10, 2025’.

Create contract terms

Creates a term in the Contract Line Items Document (CLID) of a contract workspace.

Use Case	Prompt Example
Create contract terms	Create a contract term for the contract with ID CW12341001.

Update the contract owner of a contract workspace

Updates the owner details in a contract workspace.


Update the contract owner of a contract workspace	Update the contract owner of a contract workspace.

Retrieve contract workspaces

Retrieves the contract data based on the following attributes:

Contract ID
Contract Status
Contract Terms
Title
Last Modified Date
Creation Date
Expiration Date
Effective Date

Get me a list of contracts in the draft status.
Show me the details of 'Joule_Document_1’

Use Case	Prompt Example
Retrieve contract workspaces	Get me a list of contracts in the draft status. Show me the details of 'Joule_Document_1’.

Play the video to learn how Joule can assist you with contract workspace information gathering.

SAP AI Core Service in SAP Ariba Contracts

Buyer and supplier users can get an auto-generated summary of a contract when they access a contract workspace in SAP Ariba Contracts. The summary provides key details from the contract’s header information and is generated using the SAP AI Core service.

Users have the option to generate a new version of the contract summary if the contract details change during its lifecycle or if the existing version is unsatisfactory. However, the number of times a response can be regenerated is limited. You can set a user-defined limit by configuring an instance of the SAP Core AI service.

Lesson Summary

SAP Joule is an AI-powered assistant that automates tasks and provides intelligent guidance throughout the spend management lifecycle.
Joule supports four interaction patterns: informational, navigational, transactional, and analytical to help users complete work efficiently.
Joule understands natural language requests and can perform actions like approving documents, retrieving data, and updating contract details.
Joule is available in thirteen languages and provides answers sourced from SAP Help Portal documentation with direct links.
Enabling Joule enhances procurement team productivity, accelerates decision-making, and improves compliance across your SAP Ariba environment.

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