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SAP puts ABAP at the center of AI agents and says the developer stays in charge

In an interview, the head of ABAP Platform says agents will work on top of ABAP, promises migration tools by year-end and pushes back on the idea of a system that runs itself.

Isaac AndradePublished 2 min read
Developer in front of ABAP code with AI agents carrying out tasks
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Where does ABAP stand in the age of AI agents? SAP gave its answer on November 11.

In an interview published on the company’s news site, Sonja Liénard, senior vice president and head of ABAP Platform, said ABAP is still the foundation on which business processes run. And it is now also the “backbone” on which AI agents operate.

For those outside the field: an AI agent is a program that takes a request in plain language and carries out the steps on its own. Her example helps. Instead of filling out a requisition field by field, a person types “I need 30 laptops for new hires by the end of October.” Agents check the catalog, review the budget and create the requisition.

What is already out, according to the executive: the ABAP MCP server, which lets outside agents talk to the system through well-defined interfaces, was released in the second quarter. And ABAP AI capabilities are now available in earlier versions as well.

What is coming: SAP is building seven agent families to support migration, covering system analysis, testing and custom code migration. By year-end, the company plans to ship more tools for that process.

When the subject is agents that administer the system, the tone changes. Liénard said they will have a supporting role only and will not operate on their own. The reason is technical: in ABAP, a change takes effect immediately and, in general, is corrected with another change, not rolled back.

And the developer? According to her, less time writing code and more time on oversight, architecture and guiding the agents. “The tasks are changing; the accountability isn’t.”

One necessary note: this is an SAP interview published by SAP itself. The dates mentioned are company plans, not confirmed deliveries.

What changes for those running SAP in Brazil

For ABAP teams, the signal is that custom code still has a place and that SAP promises tooling to carry it through migration. For those on older versions, the news is that part of ABAP AI already reaches them. Which versions, the interview does not say.

Sources

Official source: SAP News Center

Isaac Andrade

Isaac Andrade

25 years making SAP work in Brazil. Specialist in MM, SD and Brazil Localization, he founded TargPoint Consulting in 2008 and has worked on projects for major companies such as Shell, Petrobras, Roche and Innospec. Beyond Brazil, he has worked in the United States, Norway, Italy, Mexico and Argentina. His articles and opinions carry the weight of someone who lives SAP every day and knows, up close, what clients need.

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