Hello dear Chemical industry community,
I am pretty sure you are already aware about SAP strategy update with the focus on “Suite-First” and “AI-First” which stays on following core components:
In this article I would like to highlight some specific features like Business Suite and Especially Agentic AI may unlock the new scenarios, possibilities and outcomes for Chemical Industry
What is the SAP Business Suite?
SAP Business Suite is the integrated solution SAP 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 thanks to synergy between all of components.
New era of the Enterprise Management with AI Agents
In the contemporary business landscape, the intricate interconnectedness of operations necessitates a profound shift – a revolution in enterprise management that redefines how businesses function. At the core of this transformation lies the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and intelligent systems comprising various agents. These agents surpass mere automation, collaborating across different functions to address real-time challenges and produce meaningful results.
Picture a financial agent working harmoniously with a supply chain agent to instantaneously reroute logistics, while a workforce agent adjusts staffing to align with fluctuating production demands. All these agents operate in sync to ensure the business runs at optimal performance.
However, the potential of AI can only be fully harnessed when it operates on a sturdy foundation. This foundation starts with robust applications that drive mission-critical processes, providing the reliability, scalability, and operational excellence that businesses depend on daily. These applications serve as the backbone for transformative insights, offering data that is unified, trusted, and enriched to give a clear and actionable view of your operations.
It is the seamless integration of these elements—applications, data, and AI—that sets the stage for this new era in enterprise management. While others might focus on just one or two of these components, SAP uniquely combines all three, offering an unparalleled level of integration never seen before.
SAP Cloud Solution Portfolio for Chemicals as the part of SAP Business Suite
The SAP for Chemicals Solution Portfolio is meticulously designed to address key priorities across the industry value map, encompassing several critical areas to drive business excellence:
- Customer Engagement and Co-Innovation: This facet is dedicated to accelerating time to market and reducing development costs. By fostering collaboration and innovation with customers, businesses can swiftly respond to market demands and maintain a competitive edge.
- Planning and Sourcing: In this priority, the focus is on rapidly evaluating various demand and supply scenarios to develop profitable sales and operations plans. This agile approach ensures that businesses can adapt to market fluctuations and maintain optimal inventory levels.
- Integrated Operations Management: This priority focuses on digital connection of the shop floor and assets to enhance utilization and reliability. By leveraging digital technologies, businesses can gain real-time insights into their operations, leading to improved efficiency and reduced downtime.
- Delivery and Service: The aim here is to better serve customers while reducing costs through a seamless execution process. Streamlined delivery and service operations ensure that customer satisfaction is high and operational expenses are kept in check.
- Human Resources: Effective human resource management is crucial for any organization. SAP's solutions in this area help in optimizing workforce management, ensuring that talent is nurtured and utilized to its fullest potential.
- Finance: Robust financial management is essential for the sustainability and growth of any business. SAP's financial solutions provide the tools necessary to manage product costs, margin & finances efficiently, ensuring transparency and compliance.
- Platform & Technology: Lastly, a strong technological foundation is the cornerstone of any successful digital transformation. SAP's platform and technology solutions provide the infrastructure required to support and enhance all the aforementioned areas, driving overall business success.
Together, these components of the SAP for Chemicals Solution Portfolio create a comprehensive framework that empowers chemical industry leaders to navigate the complexities of modern business landscapes with ease and precision.
SAP AI Agents
But have you ever wondered what is the new here, and how AI Agents could revolutionize the nuts and bolts of process industries? So, today we're diving into the fascinating world of AI Agents and how it's transforming everything from manufacturing to logistic and complex back-office processes.
Picture this: AI Agents allow intelligent systems not only to run automated tasks but also make smart decisions on the fly, optimizing processes and boosting efficiency. Intrigued? Let's explore how AI Agents are shaking up the game and what it means for the future of process industries.
So, what is in the Agentic AI for Chemicals?
This is a next-gen approach in automation and optimization of very complex processes where coordination between different departments, solutions and data sources and storages is crucial. In this article I used the “Post Sales Service” process as an illustrative example to explain the features and benefits, but any e2e scenario which consumes significant middle management efforts can be improved with Agentic AI.
Here is the just a list of few examples of industry relevant e2e scenarios where Agentic AI may provide benefits:
- Master Data Management Orchestration across multinational company
- Entity and Group Period Closing Orchestration
- Inventory Cycle Count Management
- Shipment Delivery Scheduling & Orchestration for complex Chemical plant
- Maintenance Planning, Scheduling & Resource Optimisation
- Prices and discounts definition and applying across regions, customers, periods, products
- Quality Management: inspection tasks scheduling, orchestration and execution
… and many other scenarios where manual coordination, data checking and human decisions are required.
AI Agents vs Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
Before jumping to examples, let me explain what the difference between Agentic AI and “traditional” robot process automation (RPA) approach is.
Agentic AI and traditional robot process automation (RPA) might both be about automating tasks, but they operate on vastly different levels.
- “Traditional” RPA focuses on automating repetitive, rule-based tasks—think of it as a digital worker programmed to follow specific instructions without much flexibility.
- Agentic AI, on the other hand, takes automation to a whole new level by incorporating advanced cognitive capabilities.
While RPA handles the “what,” Agentic AI adds the “why” and “how.” It can adapt to changing situations, make decisions based on data analytics, and even learn from its experiences. In essence, RPA is like a well-trained assistant following a script, whereas Agentic AI is more like a smart, strategic advisor that can navigate complexities and optimize processes in real-time.
Let’s see how it works taking the very complex business process “Post Sales Customer Service in Chemical Industry” as an illustration.
What makes the process “Post Sales Customer Service in Chemical Industry” so complex?
Managing post-sales customer complaints is a highly intricate and unstructured process, even when leveraging SAP solutions for sales, delivery, pricing, and invoicing. This process often requires extensive manual efforts and involves multiple complex actions, including:
- Verifying the eligibility of the complaint based on contractual terms, order conditions, and agreed service levels
- Connecting and linking all system objects like client, order number, shipment, invoice, payment, document id, etc to the complaint
- Investigating the root cause of the complaint, which may arise from various sources such as:
- Incorrect product volume or specifications
- Missing or inaccurate product documentation
- Insufficient product quality or damaged packaging
- Incorrect pricing or discounts
- Delivery delays
- A combination of multiple issues in one complaint
- Assessing the validity of the complaint (e.g., verifying if the discount aligns with contract terms or if the customer had previously confirmed receipt of the product).
- Determining the appropriate resolution path, such as reissuing documents, authorizing returns, or adjusting account receivables.
Additional Complexity Factors of the post-sales service
The resolution process is further complicated by factors such as:
- Deliveries managed by third-party transportation providers
- Quality control handled by external laboratories
- Orders shipped in multiple lots over an extended period
- Service level agreements (SLAs) that define resolution timelines and potential penalties for non-compliance
- Potential customer errors or fraudulent claims (e.g., requesting a refund for an undelivered shipment)
Given the scale of chemical industry operations—often involving hundreds or thousands of tons of hazardous goods with significant logistical challenges and financial implications—it is critical that this process operates efficiently and effectively to mitigate risks and losses.
How AI Agents change the game in this example
To enhance the efficiency of post-sales complaint management, a cross-application AI-driven agent can support the Sales and Service departments by:
- Analyzing incoming complaints automatically, using multichannel sources like email, calls, service tickets, etc.
- Validating eligibility of the complaint
- Identifying optimal resolution paths which might be very complex
- Establishing new resolution routes using self-learning abilities
- Minimizing manual intervention by presenting pre-validated resolution options for human confirmation
- Executing necessary transactions in Business Suite applications (both SAP and 3rd parties) across integrated applications after manager's approval when needed
Conclusion: why Agentic AI here?
As I mentioned above, traditional approach when using pre-defined workflow and / or RPA technologies requires pre-scription and continuous maintaining of each of step, workflow fork, decision criteria, threshold level values, etc. Agentic AI can learn from operations history and experience while executing tasks and transactions through the complex solution landscape.
It unlocks impressive potential both in development of new complex scenarios and in running them in daily operations, when these scenarios be continuously evolving using learning technics like reinforcement learning, supervised, unsupervised, deep, and even specific multi-agent learning where multiple agents interacting and learning together in a shared environment. It can be useful for tasks that require coordination and cooperation among agents.
What SAP is doing for make it real
SAP Business Suite Landing Page
Today in 2025 we are already providing the complete platform which includes all the required components and approaches, including unified business data platform (Business Data Cloud, BCD) and Agentic AI. With our customers we are already working on many of e2e scenarios which be provided as part of standard SAP solutions including data models and integration. You can always check them in our development roadmap. And you can try the Agentic AI technologies right now.
It is already available. Contact us if you want to know how to inlock the full potential of Business Suite & Agentic AI for your company.
Best regards, Sergey Nozhenko, SAP IBU Chemicals
