When Joseph Weizenbaum created the world’s first chatbot in 1966, user reactions alarmed the MIT professor.
People were confiding their deepest thoughts to the chatbot and experts predicted that within a few years, conversations with chatbots would be indistinguishable from those with humans. It certainly took more than just a few years, but here we are at the edge of another stage of AI evolution.
Evolution of AI agents
Artificial intelligence has evolved significantly since 1966, advancing from basic rule-based systems to highly autonomous decision-making systems.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, rule-based chatbots relied on predefined keyword responses but lacked the ability to adapt to complex queries. By the 2010s, intelligent virtual assistants such as Alexa and Siri enhanced user interactions and introduced AI into everyday life through smart home integrations. In the 2020s, task-specific AI agents began to emerge, each tailored to perform specialized tasks. For instance, AI-driven personal finance assistants can analyze spending patterns and suggest savings plans, while AI-powered content moderation tools scan social media platforms to identify harmful content.
Looking ahead, autonomous AI systems are rapidly advancing. Multi-agent systems, composed of multiple independent agents, can collaborate to achieve a complex workflow beyond the ability of an individual agent. Tasks are coordinated between agents, as opposed to individual agents that often require human coordination and intervention between tasks. For example, in manufacturing, AI agents can independently optimize production lines, while in healthcare, AI systems are assisting in surgery by making real-time adjustments during procedures. Autonomous systems are also being deployed in logistics to manage inventory and optimize warehouse operations without human intervention.
Expanding capabilities of agents
Today, AI agents are like super-efficient digital teammates — smart systems equipped to perform tasks autonomously, learning from experience and adapting along the way.
Today’s agents have core capabilities like these:
- Planning: Agents go beyond executing single actions; they orchestrate processes, breaking down complex problems and mapping out efficient, step-by-step approaches.
- Reflection: Unlike traditional software, agents reflect their actions in real time and learn from mistakes. They self-correct and iteratively reason through the problem until they find the best solution. This capability allows them to handle more irregular, complex challenges, makes them more effective over time.
- Tool Usage: AI agents can use external tools — like calculators, APIs, databases, and even other AI models — to expand their capabilities, broadening the scope of tasks they can accomplish.
- Collaboration and Multi-Agent Interactions: Agents aren’t limited to working solo. They thrive in cooperative ecosystems, coordinating with other specialized agents and humans, leveraging their unique expertise to achieve a shared goal.
Why is AI agent innovation accelerating at this moment?
The answer lies in the remarkable advancements in foundation models. These models allow AI to handle complex data and produce outputs like code, text, or media that are tailored to specific tasks. They enable systems to think through problems deeply and autonomously, mirroring human cognitive processes.
For instance, the latest reasoning models like OpenAI’s o1 and o3 are game changers. They do not just perform tasks; they use real-time computing power to “think” and generate human-like outcomes. And the progress is mind-blowing: o3 scored over 80 percent on a human-like reasoning test while its predecessor, GPT-4o, scored only two percent on the same test just one year earlier.
With such rapid advances, AI agents are getting better at automating and enhancing business decisions, truly pushing the limits of what autonomous systems can achieve.
What makes SAP unique in this space?
SAP Business Suite offers a unique advantage in the era of agentic AI. It is not just a collection of solutions; it’s a powerhouse for transformation that boosts continuous innovation. Here’s the simple breakdown:
- Applications: With SAP Business Suite, cloud ERP applications, SAP Business AI, and SAP Business Data Cloud come together to deliver exceptional business value — all powered by SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP). In this way, SAP’s business applications and technology platform aren’t siloed tools; they integrate processes end-to-end. This integration ensures that every action taken within these applications is based on trusted, business-critical data at its source.
- Data: All the data, whether from SAP or other systems, is collected and unified in SAP Business Data Cloud. This makes it a single, trustworthy source that breaks down data-silos and fuels advanced AI-driven insights. Because AI is only as good as the data you feed into it.
- AI: Joule helps employees coordinate intelligent agents to work together, breaking down barriers between functions and enabling real-time, company-wide improvements. Unlike others who might use AI in limited areas, SAP integrates AI throughout your entire organization, enhancing efficiency and resilience on a large scale.
SAP is in a unique position to turn AI agent technology into business value given the breadth of applications and data we offer, allowing automation of tasks along all key business processes. Our domain knowledge is grounded in real-world business data and our process know-how is maintained in SAP Signavio and SAP Knowledge Graph. Bringing it all together, our unified entry point with our AI co-pilot Joule enables us to use AI agents to automate processes and augment decision-making.
Joule agents are collaboration experts
Thanks to our fully integrated approach, we are designing a system of collaborative Joule agents that work within and across the suite to support every business function, solving complex challenges and driving cross-enterprise productivity. Businesses don’t need hundreds of AI agents, just the right ones with the right skills, grounded in the right data, with the right guidance from SAP’s end-to-end business processes.
Joule agents are available in all parts of the business, delivered out of the box with Joule and SAP’s suite of applications. This enables the transformation of entire business processes — end to end.
Agentic AI represents a transformative leap in business technology. By bringing together structured data management, seamless system integration, and advanced task automation, AI agents empower teams to operate with efficiency, accuracy, and agility.
SAP is taking the necessary steps for the next era of enterprise management by embedding systems of AI agents into SAP applications, fueled by context-rich business data, helping customers to realize the full potential of SAP Business AI.
Watch the video: How Joule Agents Work
