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SAP Details Seven AI Agent Families for ERP Migration

SAP is developing seven families of AI agents to support ERP migrations, from analyzing an existing SAP system to adapting custom ABAP code, testing business processes, and preparing country-by-country deployments. In a November 11 interview, Sonja Liénard, SAP’s senior vice president and head of ABAP Platform, said the company aims to release additional migration tools by the end of 2026. She also described a use for the agents outside migration projects: reviewing the quality of existing custom code.

SAP introduced the seven workstreams at Sapphire 2026 under the name Migration and Modernization Assistants. SAP’s training materials describe each assistant as a group of specialized agents and AI functions organized around a specific job. SAP Cloud ALM provides the common foundation for coordinating their work. The families cover system analysis, data management, custom code, business configuration, test management, project management, and rollout.

Explore SAP’s seven AI agent families for ERP migration, what each does, which tools are in early use, and what teams should verify before go-live.

Four assistants were already supporting active cloud ERP projects for early adopters as of SAP’s October 28 update, as ERP News previously reported. They cover data management, custom code, business configuration, and test management. SAP listed system analysis, project management, and rollout as planned in that update. Liénard’s November interview gave a year-end target for additional tools but left the release schedule and customer eligibility for individual assistants open.

1. System Analysis Assistant builds a picture of the existing SAP landscape

The planned System Analysis Assistant examines an organization’s existing SAP landscape, including system data, configuration, and custom developments. Its purpose is to give the other assistants a common, customer-specific picture of the source environment. SAP’s technical materials describe a model that reflects dependencies between objects and system layers, so teams can assess related changes together.

What migration teams should verify. Start with an inventory of source systems, company codes, interfaces, batch jobs, and custom applications. Ask application and integration owners to confirm which dependencies are in scope. For example, a custom invoice program may feed an external tax platform and a reporting warehouse. All three need to appear in the migration scope if they remain part of the target process. Record the scope and date of the assessment so teams can see which changes were made after the baseline.

2. Data Management Assistant prioritizes corrections before migration

The Data Management Assistant helps teams decide what to measure, which problems to fix first, and what data to keep, migrate, or exclude. Its agents can assess completeness and consistency, identify anomalies, and rank corrections by business impact, effort, and dependencies. SAP describes separate steps for validating proposed fixes and carrying out approved corrections.

AkzoNobel is using the assistant through SAP’s Early Adopter Care program as it consolidates its ERP landscape under RISE with SAP. Thilak Selvam, the company’s master data program lead, told SAP that the tool reduced analysis effort and sped up planning. SAP’s case example gives no figures for either improvement.

What migration teams should verify. Assign owners to critical data sets such as suppliers, customers, materials, and open transactions. Agree on rules for merging, correcting, or excluding records before bulk changes begin. A duplicate supplier can affect open invoices, payment details, and historical reporting. In a trial load, reconcile both record counts and financial totals against the source system, and document approved exceptions before cutover.

3. Custom Code Assistant evaluates and adapts ABAP extensions

The Custom Code Assistant is designed to support the move from SAP ECC to SAP Cloud ERP Private. It uses ABAP Test Cockpit findings, usage information, and code dependencies to group technical objects into recognizable business extensions. That helps a team review a custom pricing process, for example, as a set of related programs and rules. The assistant can recommend where standard SAP functionality could cover the requirement, identify candidates for retirement, and apply available compatibility fixes or propose changes for developer review.

SAP also describes specialized agents for adapting code to released SAP APIs and modernizing applications built with Dynpro, SAP’s classic screen technology. The modernization agent analyzes an application and can generate artifacts for the ABAP RESTful Application Programming Model. These are capabilities SAP describes for the assistant family. Teams need to confirm access to the individual agents they intend to use.

What migration teams should verify. Give each important extension a business owner and record whether it will be retained, adapted, replaced with standard functionality, or retired. Check infrequently run programs against the business calendar before retiring them. A year-end job can look unused in a short observation window. For any proposed fix, rerun technical checks and compare business outcomes with the source system. A pricing routine can pass a code check while calculating a different discount. Liénard pointed to isolated test environments, quality checks, and clear instructions for agent actions as safeguards SAP is investing in.

4. Business Configuration Assistant proposes settings for the target system

The Business Configuration Assistant analyzes existing settings and uses project requirements, industry, and geography to propose a target configuration. Its specialized agents help define scope, map organizational structures, and flag differences between source settings and target requirements. SAP says it can apply settings where permitted and keep an audit trail of decisions and changes.

Edition matters here. SAP’s product documentation lists SAP Cloud ERP Public as the initial scope for the Business Configuration Assistant, with expansion to SAP Cloud ERP Private and additional scenarios planned for 2027. The Custom Code Assistant’s focus on Private Edition and the Configuration Assistant’s initial focus on Public Edition illustrate why project teams need to check eligibility by workstream.

What migration teams should verify. Review proposed company-code and plant structures, approval settings, and country-specific requirements with process owners. Record which legacy settings are still needed and where the business has approved a change. Link consequential configuration decisions to test cases. A change to purchasing approval thresholds, for example, should be tested with orders below, at, and above the threshold.

5. Test Management Assistant turns project requirements into test cases

SAP’s Test Management Assistant draws on process models, requirements, custom code, configuration, and interfaces to help determine what needs testing. Its agents can identify coverage gaps, prepare test cases, and determine and provision representative test data. SAP’s October update says cases are handed off to SAP Test Automation by Tricentis for automated execution. SAP also describes agents that coordinate test runs, track defects and retests, and archive results.

What migration teams should verify. Give each critical process an expected business result and a named owner for sign-off. For order-to-cash, check what happens from order entry through delivery, billing, and the finance posting. Include exceptions such as partial shipments, rejected interfaces, and credit holds. Compare the results with the agreed business rules and have owners review unresolved defects before approving go-live.

6. ALM Project Management Assistant tracks risks and dependencies

SAP’s product description says the ALM Project Management Assistant can use a project charter and linked system information to establish a project baseline. Its agents are designed to give team members role-specific guidance, surface risks, and coordinate tasks across the migration workstreams. SAP describes a central view for coordinating the assistants, with the project manager retaining responsibility for decisions. The October announcement listed this assistant among the planned additions.

What migration teams should verify. Define what evidence closes each milestone. A completed data-load task, for example, should have reconciliation results and an owner’s sign-off. A code remediation task should link to the change and its retest results. Give each material risk an owner, a decision date, and a clear escalation point so the project team can act on it.

7. Rollout Assistant compares a global template with local requirements

The planned Rollout Assistant is intended for organizations deploying a shared ERP template across countries or business units. SAP says it will compare the global template with local processes and regional requirements, then recommend whether to adapt the common template or handle the difference locally. A June SAP presentation listed rollout for 2027. The November interview did not give a new date for this assistant.

What migration teams should verify. Build an exception register for each deployment wave. For each proposed deviation, record the requirement, the owner, the configuration or integration affected, and the evidence needed for approval. Local finance and operations teams should review items such as statutory reporting, invoice formats, and interfaces to banks or government platforms before the wave is cleared for production.

How to use the seven workstreams in a migration plan

Start by choosing the target edition and migration approach. A system conversion carries an existing SAP ECC system into a supported SAP S/4HANA environment. A new implementation starts with a new system and gives teams more room to adopt standard processes. A selective data transition can carry forward chosen data and configuration. SAP’s implementation guidance specifies that an ECC system conversion is supported for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition and on-premises SAP S/4HANA. A move to Public Edition uses a new implementation approach. That choice determines how much legacy code, configuration, and history the project needs to assess.

Before putting an assistant on the critical path, confirm access for the target edition and project environment. Establish which functions are enabled, what systems and data the agents can access, which changes they can apply, and who approves those changes. A practical pilot can follow one business process through a trial data load, a custom-code fix, and an end-to-end test. Track the time spent, the proportion of suggestions accepted, and the defects found during review. Those measurements give the project team a basis for estimating effort on its own system.

For go-live, set approval criteria in advance. A cutover decision should draw on reconciled data, approved code and configuration changes, test results for critical business processes, and a named owner for each unresolved exception. Liénard said SAP’s approach calls for defined agent permissions and an audit trail showing who initiated an action, what instructions the agent received, and what it changed. That record can help the migration team verify which actions it is signing off on.

ERP News Editorial Team
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The ERPNews Editorial Team covers global developments in ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), enterprise software, cloud platforms, AI, automation, and digital transformation, providing independent news and editorial analysis for senior business and technology leaders. Our reporting focuses on market signals, strategic shifts, and enterprise impact across the ERP and enterprise technology ecosystem.

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