SAP recently released its digital assistant, called CoPilot, to SAP S/4HANA Cloud customers with the 1705 release. SAP’s enterprise digital assistant isn’t a chatbot, nor is it conversational. Instead, CoPilot acts as a deep linking assistant that’s aware of the user’s business activities and offers support based on that context.

CoPilot’s strength seems to be its ability to recognize what SAP calls business objects; in other words, the business items an SAP user is working on. For example, as shown in a demo video, CoPilot knows when you’re working on a specific contract and can help you quickly link your notes to that contract. CoPilot can also analyze the words in your notes. If a note contains the name of a supplier, CoPilot offers a link to that supplier’s record. If you’re writing about a specific product, CoPilot can link you to the product record as well.

This quick linking capability may seem trivial, but most organizations using SAP have very data-rich and complex systems. Having a CoPilot that simplifies access to key information can save valuable time and provide insights that may have been overlooked.

CoPilot also facilitates the creation of new business items, such as procurement activities. Once again, CoPilot uses its knowledge of the current business context to offer fields and suggest inputs that make it quick and easy for a user to create a new business record.

This first iteration of SAP’s intelligent enterprise assistant seems to focus on aiding SAP users in seamlessly navigating the data and relationships in their business systems. That seems like a good strategy for a company whose users are focused on completing business transactions, interpreting data to make better business decisions, and generally using information to run their companies effectively. Adding a conversational interface may be something SAP does in the future, but providing users with valuable business insights seems like a great first step.

Categories: Conversational Intelligence, Intelligent Assistants, Articles

Tags: SAP, Big Data, Intelligent Assistance, CoPilot, enterprise