Hello, SAP Community members!

Joule is the AI solution embedded in SAP Profitability and Performance Management (SAP PaPM) Cloud Standard Model, designed to help you interact with your reports. Instead of manually searching for data or navigating across report pages, you ask Joule – and it answers based on the full context of your report. 

This blog post is a comprehensive guide to all Joule features and capabilities available to end users. If you are looking for the technical integration and setup steps (SAP AI Core, SAP Launchpad, BTP Destination), please refer to our previous blog post: SAP PaPM Cloud SM: Enhancing Report Management with the Power of Generative AI Copilot – Joule 

In this post, we will walk through every feature available once Joule is set up: configuration settings, panel controls, conversation history, AI capabilities, file analysis, web search, inline editing, and using Joule without SAP AI Core. 

Without further ado, let's walk through each feature in detail.

Joule AI Settings (Administration) 

Before users can take full advantage of Joule, an administrator needs to configure the AI connection. Navigate to Administration → Settings, scroll to the Joule AI Settings section, and configure the following: 

• Default SAP AI Core Destination Name – Select the SAP AI Core destination created in BTP. The dropdown lists all available BTP destinations in your subaccount. Choose the one configured for Joule with deployed AI models. 
• Default AI Model – The model used for lightweight tasks: auto-generating conversation titles and producing follow-up question suggestions (quick replies). If no Reasoning AI Model is configured, this model also handles all user questions. 
• Reasoning AI Model – When configured, this model takes over answering user questions, freeing the Default AI Model for title generation and quick reply suggestions only. Use a more capable model here for deeper analytical responses. 
• Web Search – Toggle to activate internet search capabilities. When active, an additional AI model dropdown appears for selecting the model used for web search queries. This allows Joule to answer general questions beyond the report content. 

For detailed setup instructions and the list of supported AI models, see Joule AI Settings on the SAP Help Portal. 

Opening Joule in Reports 

Once Joule is configured, it becomes available on the Report Management screen. Look for the Joule icon in the header toolbar – click it to open the Joule conversation panel on the right side of the screen. 

You can start a conversation immediately – no need to save the report first. Joule understands the content of all pages in your current report, so you can ask questions about data from any page, regardless of which one you are viewing. 

The Joule Panel 

Conversation Controls 

Joule conversation panel offers several controls for managing your conversation: 

• Stop Streaming – If Joule is generating a long response, click the Stop button located in the Joule message input area to interrupt it. Useful when you want to rephrase your question or take a different direction. 
• View Conversation Options – Opens a menu with three actions: rename the current conversation, delete it, or start a new conversation. 
• Close – Closes the Joule side panel and returns to the report view. 

Fullscreen Mode 

For a more spacious conversation experience, expand Joule to full screen using the Fullscreen icon in the Joule panel header. In full-screen mode, Joule takes over the entire screen – ideal for long conversations, reviewing file analysis results, or working with web search results. All panel features remain available in full-screen mode. Choose Exit Fullscreen to return to the side panel view. 

Follow-Up Questions 

After each response, Joule suggests three follow-up questions as clickable tiles. These quick replies allow you to continue the conversation without typing your next question. Choose a tile to send it instantly. 

Conversation History Sidebar 

Every conversation you start in Joule is automatically saved and accessible from the history sidebar. Choose the Menu icon (☰) in the Joule panel header to open it. 

Navigating Your Conversations 

The sidebar lists all your past conversations in chronological order, with the most recent at the top. The currently active conversation is highlighted. Conversations are personal – they are visible only to you, regardless of which environment or report you are in. The sidebar initially shows your 25 most recent conversations and loads earlier ones automatically as you scroll down. 

• Select any conversation to open it and continue where you left off. 
• The + New Conversation button at the top starts a fresh chat. 
• Titles are generated automatically from your first message, making it easy to identify past topics. 

Rename and Delete Conversations 

To manage a conversation, hover over it in the sidebar (or use the three-dot menu in the active conversation header) to access the context menu: 

• Rename – The conversation title becomes an inline editable text field (100-character limit). Type the new name and press Enter or click outside to save. Press Escape to cancel. A toast notification confirms the change. 
• Delete – A confirmation dialog appears before the conversation is removed, preventing accidental deletions. 

Sidebar Settings and AI Notice 

At the bottom of the history sidebar, you will find two additional items: 

• Settings – Opens a dialog with a single option: Turn off animations. Joule includes transition animations in several places – for example, on the welcome screen when opening Joule and in the history sidebar when displaying conversation titles. Toggle this if you prefer a static interface without transition animations. 
• AI Notice – Opens the AI disclosure page, reminding users that Joule is powered by generative AI. All output should be reviewed before use, and sensitive personal data should not be entered. 

 

Joule Capabilities: What Can You Do? 

In Report Management, Joule offers more than conversational Q&A — it is a context-aware AI tool with several distinct capabilities: 

Analyzing Your Report 

The most fundamental capability: ask Joule any question about your report data, and it will analyze the content across all report pages to answer it. 

Example questions: 

• “What is the total revenue for the top 10 customers? “ 
• “Summarize the key findings of this report.” 

Asking About Charts 

Joule can interpret chart visualizations embedded in your report. Ask about trends, comparisons, top/bottom values, or calculations shown in the charts. 

Example questions: 

• “Which customer has the highest revenue in this chart?” 
• “What is the carbon footprint trend from Company-Vendor A?” 

Uploading Files for Analysis 

You can upload external files directly into the Joule conversation. Joule will read the file content and use it as additional context when answering your questions, in addition to the report data it already has. 

How to upload: 

• Choose Upload File in the Joule message input area, or 
• Drag and drop a file directly into the conversation input. 

File upload limits: 

Note: 

• Only the first non-empty sheet of an uploaded XLSX file is processed. If your data spans multiple sheets, consolidate it into a single sheet before uploading. 
• Uploaded files are scanned for malware before being processed. 

Web Search 

When your administrator activates Web Search, Joule can search the internet to answer general questions that go beyond your report data. This is especially useful for benchmarking, industry context, or any question that requires up-to-date external information. 

Joule cites its sources inline within the response text. At the bottom of each web search response, a Sources chip displays the total number of citations – choose it to open the Sources panel, where each citation is listed as a clickable link that opens the source in a new browser tab. 

Example questions that trigger web search: 

• “What is the current population of Japan, and how has it changed?” 
• “What are the latest SFDR regulations in Europe?” 

Inline Report Editor 

Joule is not just for answering questions – it can also help you improve the textual content of your report. The inline report editor becomes available when you are in edit mode on a report. 

How to use it: 

• Switch the report to edit mode. 
• Select any text paragraph (or multiple paragraphs) in the report. 
• The Joule inline report editor appears.
• Enter your editing prompt: 
  • “Rewrite this in a more formal tone.” 
  • “Shorten this paragraph.” 
  • “Translate this to German.” 
• Joule rewrites the selected text based on your prompt. 
• To stop generation while Joule is writing, click the Stop button in the inline editor window. 
• To revert the change, use Undo in the report header toolbar. Redo is also available to reapply it. 

Note: 

• The inline report editor works solely with the selected text – it is not context-aware of the surrounding report content. Non-textual elements (images, charts) within multi-paragraph selections are preserved. 
• When selecting multiple paragraphs with different fonts, the rewritten text adopts the font of the first selected paragraph. 

Joule Without SAP AI Core Service 

Joule is available in Report Management even if your tenant has not configured an SAP AI Core destination. A built-in Joule capability is included with the SAP PaPM Cloud Standard Model subscription – no SAP BTP setup required. 

If you open Administration → Settings and the Joule AI Settings section shows empty dropdowns with no destination selected (as shown below), your users are currently using Joule in the built-in mode. 

What It Offers 

• Access to Joule conversation features (report analysis, charts, history, rename/delete, etc.) 
• Works out of the box – no SAP AI Core or BTP destination configuration needed 
• Ideal for occasional questions and simple ad hoc analysis 

Usage Limits (Fair Use Policy) 

A Fair Use Policy applies, with a predefined daily usage limit per user. The system will inform you when you are approaching these limits or when they have been reached. After the daily limit is reached, Joule remains available, but responses may be slower due to automatic throttling. 

Web search is currently the only feature not available in the built-in Joule mode — all other features listed above are fully supported 

Note: 

• If you use the default (Application) subscription with the embedded SAP HANA Cloud database, no additional configuration is required. 
• If you use a standalone SAP HANA Cloud database (BYOD Application subscription), you need to activate Natural Language Processing (NLP) in your SAP HANA Cloud instance to enable this feature. 

For setup instructions, see Use Joule Without AI Core Service in Standard Model Reporting on the SAP Help Portal. 

For teams that use Joule frequently, require higher throughput, or need web search capabilities, integrating SAP AI Core via SAP BTP is recommended. This provides access to Joule with no daily limits and extended model options – see the integration blog post and the SAP Help Portal links in the Useful Links sections. 

 Key Takeaways 

Joule in SAP PaPM Cloud Standard Model is more than a Q&A tool – it brings together report analysis, chart insights, file analysis, web search, and inline editing into a single integrated AI assistant. Whether you are analyzing complex profitability reports, uploading external files for cross-referencing, searching the web for benchmarks, or rewriting report text, Joule is there to help you work smarter and faster. 

For organizations ready for higher throughput and web search capabilities, SAP AI Core integration remains the recommended path. 

Useful Links 

Thank you for reading!  Stay tuned, we'll be sharing more on Joule AI across other applications – keep an eye out!