Streamlining SAP Processes with Azure OpenAI, Copilot Studio, and Power Platform

In today’s fast-paced business environment, intelligent business processes and efficient collaboration are key to the success of organizations. A recent study by Microsoft  on AI has shown that 71% of organizations are already using AI to add value to and speed up their business processes, the report also states that for every $1 invested organizations are seeing a return of 3.5X their investments. 

SAP systems have data related to business processes while the Microsoft Graph has data related to collaboration such as emails, chats, schedules etc. To use both these forms of data together with AI would transform the business processes of many organizations.

As every organization is different, apart from using out-of-the-box solutions, organizations are looking for the convenience of being able to build their own customs solutions when they need it and as they want it. Microsoft offers powerful AI and low code development tools that are easily connected to SAP systems that enable individuals and organizations to develop their own intelligent copilots and bots to enhance their business processes and workflows. 

From a Microsoft perspective we are working on helping customers and partners leverage SAP with AI in three buckets: 

• Working with SAP to provide a fantastic out of the box experience to customers and partners. The SAP Joule & Microsoft Copilot announcement at Sapphire (Joule to Integrate with Microsoft Copilot | SAP Sapphire | SAP News Center) and also the SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud & Microsoft Copilot integration are the first tangible results of our collaboration. 
• Our functional Copilots (Copilot for Sales, Copilot for Finance, Copilot for Services, …) provide a similar out of the box experience but focusing on M365 applications. Copilot for Finance for example, accelerates time-to-impact for finance professionals by surfacing insights that support strategic decision-making and reduce the time that's spent on manual, repetitive work. It comes with an out of the box integration in Outlook and Excel and allows customers and partners to extend the integration to other systems using a custom connector. 
• Since out of the box solutions from SAP and Microsoft will never address all customer requirements, Copilot Studio offers powerful AI and low code development tools that are easily connected to SAP systems to develop your own intelligent copilots and bots to enhance your business processes and workflows. 

To demonstrate how seamless and easy it is to utilize AI using Microsoft AI tools, we will explore a scenario that demonstrates how SAP data, along with Copilot Studio, Azure OpenAI, Microsoft Teams, and the Microsoft Power Platform can be leveraged to streamline a business process.   

The Scenario description and demonstration:  

1) Customer Inquiry and Complaint.

A customer reaches out to the salesperson with a complaint regarding a delayed order. 

2) Order Investigation,

The salesperson investigates the customer's orders via a chatbot deployed on Teams, delving deep into the delayed order with AI-summarized insights with context from Outlook emails, Teams' messages and data directly from the SAP system. 

3) Generated Report.

The salesperson figures out the issue, has AI generate a report summarizing the conversation and the cause of the delay. The report is then sent via email to the customer through chat with the bot on Teams.

Here is a video demonstration of the scenario: 

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In this way, the salesperson has utilized AI to understand and summarize various order-related data from different sources (SAP and Microsoft Graph), convert data from one format to another, and has progressed from identifying the root cause of a problem to updating the customer via email, all through a Teams chat. 

The scenario as observed above, unfolds in several steps (as shown in the video), each highlighting different Microsoft technologies working in harmony to resolve the issue as shown in the image below: 

Azure OpenAI provides the foundation for developing and training the bot that provides access to the AI models that generate responses. The Power Platform, particularly Power Automate, integrates various services, including SAP systems and the M365 Graph enabling data flow and automation. The SAP ERP connector ensures real-time data retrieval and updates from SAP systems, enhancing the bot’s ability to interact with enterprise data. Finally, Copilot Studio allows for the customization and deployment of AI copilots, making the bot adaptable to specific business needs, in this case, deploying it on Teams.

Explore how to build this scenario on this GitHub link which has detailed step by step instructions on how to build it from scratch. The link also contains the exported Power Platform flows that one can import into their own environment to refer to and use.

Here is a brief description of the different technical components used in the diagram and how to learn more about them and how to set them up:

1.  Set up a bot on Azure AI Studio:   Azure AI Studio allows you to create and test bots using the Chat Playground.  You can get access to Azure AI Studio here. 

2. Set up Microsoft Power Platform: By creating a Microsoft 365 developer account, you gain access to the Power Platform, which includes Power Automate among others. Create a M365 Developer account and get access to the Power Platform here.

3. Set up SAP connection in Power Automate:  To connect Power Automate flows to your SAP system and make use of the SAP ERP connector you must establish a connection between the Power Platform and your SAP system. Read more about the connector here.

4. Set up / Sign up for Copilot Studio:  Copilot Studio enables you to create and customize AI copilots. You can build and deploy copilots that leverage generative AI, enhancing the capabilities of your bot. You can learn more about it and get access to it here.

This scenario is just one example of how these technologies can transform and make business processes more efficient by harnessing the power of AI and Automation. With the Microsoft tools mentioned above and their easy connectivity to SAP systems and the Microsoft Graph, you have all the tools in your arsenal to make a task/business process AI powered. The next blog will explore how to enhance this scenario with components that make the data more visually appealing using Adaptive Cards and also explore how to integrate authorization into the solution.