By Sonja Liénard, Head of ABAP Platform, SAP SE 

At SAP Sapphire 2026, we made a set of announcements that together mark the most significant step forward in ABAP AI since we first introduced SAP Joule for Developers, ABAP AI capabilities. Across tooling, agentic capabilities, platform reach, and commercial model, these announcements reflect a clear direction: making ABAP development smarter and more accessible to every customer — regardless of where they are in their SAP journey. 

Key highlights 

• ABAP enters the era of agentic AI with the general availability of the ABAP MCP Server — open to your choice of agentic assistants, orchestrators, and LLMs  
• ABAP Development Tools for Visual Studio Code will be generally available in Q2 2026, completing our commitment to your choice of IDE for ABAP developers 
• The first ABAP custom code agent for SAP S/4HANA migration releasing in Q2 2026 
• ABAP AI available for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, all releases from 2021, in Q2 2026 
• A new consumption-based commercial model for SAP Joule for Developers, ABAP AI capabilities — transparent, predictable, and well-suited for agentic AI workloads 

ABAP Enters the Era of Agentic AI 

At SAP TechEd 2025, we announced our intention to bring agentic AI to ABAP development. At Sapphire 2026, we shared that this is becoming generally available in Q2 2026. 

The foundation for this is the ABAP Language Server and the ABAP MCP Server built on top of it. The ABAP Language Server provides the abstraction layer that makes ABAP development capabilities available independently of the IDE.  

The ABAP MCP Server builds on this foundation using Model Context Protocol (MCP) — an emerging open standard that allows AI agents to interact with external tools and systems in a structured and reliable way. This opens ABAP development to the full breadth of the agentic AI ecosystem: coding agents such as GitHub Copilot or Amazon Q can now perform complex ABAP coding tasks directly within the developer's IDE. The MCP Server is available in both Eclipse and VS Code. 

The first ABAP agent built on this foundation — supporting custom code migration from ECC to SAP S/4HANA — becomes available in Q2 2026. 

An AI agent actively remediating ABAP findings in ABAP Development Tools for Eclipse in real time 

ABAP Development Tools for VS Code 

ABAP Development Tools (ADT) for Visual Studio Code (VS Code) will be generally available in Q2 2026. 

This is the living proof of our commitment to your IDE choice that we have been building toward for some time. VS Code is one of the world's most widely used IDEs, with a rich ecosystem of AI extensions. Building on the ABAP Language Server and ABAP MCP Server as the technical foundation, ADT for VS Code supports an agentic developer experience and gives ABAP developers direct access to modern coding agents like GitHub Copilot.  

The initial scope focuses on SAP Fiori app development, with additional object types to follow.  

Eclipse remains the IDE for full-fledged ABAP development until we reach feature parity with VS Code. Developers can choose between Eclipse and VS Code depending on their workflow and preference. 

Custom Code Agents for SAP S/4HANA Migration 

SAP S/4HANA migration projects carry significant complexity, and a large part of that complexity lies in custom ABAP code — business logic built up over many years, often undocumented and tightly coupled with SAP standard objects. Understanding it, adapting it, and validating it has historically been time consuming and expensive work.  

The Custom Code Assistant addresses this directly, bringing together a coherent, intelligent toolchain that covers all phases of an SAP S/4HANA custom code migration project. Three agents focusing on developer execution will be delivered by ABAP platform, complemented by additional agents from SAP Cloud ALM handling broader transformation governance. 

Custom Code Assistant with Custom Code Migration Agents 

The first CCM agent becomes available in Q2 2026 — the Mass S/4 Custom Code Conversion Agent, which identifies ATC issues for custom code adaptation and fixes them at scale, using deterministic rules or AI-generated fixes.  

Two further agents are planned for later in 2026: 

• Mass Clean Core Adoption Agent — identifies clean-core ATC issues, fixes them, or provides structured recommendations where manual review is needed. 
• Web Dynpro to SAP Fiori App Modernization Agent — converts legacy code to modern ABAP Cloud code. 

A core design principle across these agents is to first explain and understand the existing code before proposing any changes, to protect the investment customers have made in their custom code. Based on early evaluations, we are targeting 40% efficiency gain in custom code transformation work.  

Meeting You Where You Are 

At Sapphire, we announced that SAP Joule for Developers, ABAP AI capabilities will be available in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition for all releases from 2021 onwards, with general availability planned for Q2 2026. This removes a significant ABAP AI adoption barrier — customers on older releases gain the same AI-powered development experience as those on the latest release.  

This is made possible through a hub service running on SAP BTP, which combines authentication, license management, access to SAP BTP AI Core, and ABAP-specific business logic. The hub plugs directly into the developer's IDE, making it possible to offer ABAP AI capabilities largely independent of the ABAP backend release. 

A New Commercial Model  

ABAP AI capabilities are part of SAP Joule for Developers — SAP's AI offering designed specifically for the developer experience.  

As of Q2 2026, we are introducing a consumption-based pricing model for SAP Joule for Developers, ABAP AI capabilities, built on AI units — transparent, predictable, and well-suited for the dynamic nature of agentic AI workloads. 

Activation is simple via SAP for Me, with users assigned through Cloud Identity Services. 

What This Means for ABAP Developers 

Taken together, these announcements tell a clear story: ABAP development is becoming more intelligent, more open, and more capable of tackling the hardest problems in large enterprise landscapes — at a pace and scale that was not possible before. 

The ABAP MCP Server opens ABAP to the full breadth of the AI agent ecosystem — your choice of orchestrators, LLMs, and IDEs. ADT for VS Code brings ABAP into the environment that developers already use. The Custom Code Migration Agents address the SAP S/4HANA migration challenge with purpose-built AI that understands the business logic and structure of enterprise systems. And the expanded platform support means these capabilities are available also to customers on older releases. 

This is about further development and collaboration — ABAP and developers remain a strong team. AI takes on more of the repetitive, time-consuming tasks, creating space for what creates real value: understanding the business, making good architectural decisions, and delivering solutions that last. 

Sonja Liénard is Head of ABAP Platform at SAP SE. She leads the unit responsible for ABAP platform, ABAP Cloud, ABAP AI, and ABAP IDE strategy.