Introduction

“At SAP, the most valuable language is ABAP” – Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO of NVIDIA (Sapphire Key Note 2024).

ABAP is SAP’s proprietary programming language and ABAP technology is the solid foundation for both the classic ERP and SAP’s flagship ERP SAP S/4HANA Cloud. Bundled with our strong ABAP development community, the impact and the value of generative AI support for ABAP is obvious. Consequently, SAP decided to invest heavily in the development of Joule skills as well as training and fine-tuning large language models specifically for ABAP.

Now – more than one year of investment after the initial announcement at SAP TechEd 2023, and the refresher end of 2024, we are super happy and proud to announce the general availability of our Joule copilot for ABAP developers in ABAP Development Tools for Eclipse as well as the ABAP AI SDK powered by the Intelligent Scenario Lifecycle Management!

Overview over ABAP AI use cases

Our use cases can be grouped into three categories.

Accelerate: Comprises all Joule skills which make ABAP developers more efficient. Besides the Joule integration in ABAP Development Tools itself, the first scope of skills comprises Predictive Code Completion, Unit Test generation for ABAP classes and CDS Views as well as ABAP and CDS code explanation.

Example for Joule’s ABAP CDS Explain skill

Empower: We empower ABAP developers to infuse AI capabilities into their solutions and extensions. The ABAP AI SDK powered by the Intelligent Scenario Lifecycle Management (ISLM) is an easy-to-consume ABAP client providing full access to the SAP BTP Generative AI Hub.

Transform: The transformation of customer and partner code from the classic ERP towards SAP S/4HANA and further towards a clean core is one of the major challenges for many of our customers. We will assist with generative AI in this endeavor starting later in 2025.

In this blog post we are now concentrating on the Accelerate and the Empower use case. Further information on the Transform use case will follow later in 2025.

Accelerate your ABAP development

Which products are supported?

Joule’s ABAP skills are available in:

SAP BTP ABAP EnvironmentSAP S/4HANA Cloud Public EditionSAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition as of release 2025.

Supporting lower releases of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition is currently in evaluation.

Get started for free!

License: In order to leverage Joule’s capabilities, you need to purchase an additional license: 8019124 – Joule for developers limited promotion, ABAP. Please check SAP Note 3571857 for details. This license is a limited promotion free of charge until September 15th 2025 and can be purchased until August 15th 2025.

The future commercial model is currently in finalization, updates will follow.

Architecture and Set-Up: The architecture follows the general guiding principles of all Joule capabilities at SAP.

High-level overview over Joule.

All requests to large language models are routed from ABAP to the AI foundation on SAP BTP. The use cases in the Accelerate category are managed by SAP. Once the subscription explained above is in place, the configuration part in your system is done automatically by SAP. Finally, update your ABAP Development Tools for Eclipse to the latest version to get the Joule integration in the IDE. Developers who shall be allowed to use Joule need the respective authorizations as explained in the documentation.

Learn how to use Joule

Explore Joule’s new ABAP skills by working through our tutorial on github. For details on specific features, check out our documentation.

You wonder what could be the technical foundation in ABAP to integrate Joule in ABAP Development Tools and offer all Joule skills for ABAP developers? It is the ABAP AI SDK powered by ISLM, the main deliverable of the Empower use case. And the good news is, we offer the entire ABAP AI SDK functionality to you as well, to realize your own AI use cases! Continue reading the next section for the details.

You are empowered!

With the ABAP AI SDK powered by ISLM we empower you to infuse AI capabilities into your own custom applications and solutions. This way you benefit from the same comfort as SAP for realizing AI use cases in ABAP.

Which products are supported?

The ABAP AI SDK powered by ISLM is available in:

SAP BTP ABAP Environment SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition and OnPrem as of release 2025 via standard delivery. Lower releases of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition and OnPrem are supported via Transport-based Correction Instructions (TCI), see details in SAP Note 3513374 and the SAP Notes and instructions linked therein.

Get started!

License: The AI capabilities of SAP BTP are offered through the SAP AI Core service. Customers need to have their own instance of SAP AI Core to be used from ABAP via the ABAP AI SDK. There is no separate license or pricing from ABAP perspective, the entire licensing and pricing is according to the SAP AI Core service.

Architecture and Set-Up: The architecture follows the general guiding principles of all Joule capabilities at SAP. All requests to large language models are routed from ABAP to the AI foundation on SAP BTP. For Empower use case, an own instance of SAP AI Core needs to be used and the communication between the ABAP system and this instance needs to be configured. Finally the AI scenarios are managed by the ISLM. Find all details for the ABAP AI SDK with step-by-step instructions in the documentation. For details on the ISLM, please see the list of references given below.

Find more information

This is a summary of important sources of further information. More details will follow and will be published and linked here. Please

Keep track of ongoing developments and news by following our SAP community.Make use of our FAQ page for generative AI for ABAP to get many frequent questions answered. The FAQ will be updated regularly.Consult the SAP Help documentation for details regarding all features.Find the region mapping between SAP BTP ABAP Environment and SAP AI Core here.Watch the recordings of Devtoberfest and the SAP BTP ABAP Environment Roundtable #19 for demos of the initial scope.Check out the ISLM documentation (or this version for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition) for more information on the Intelligent Scenario Lifecycle Management.
Visit the ISLM community page for further guidance and watch the corresponding Devtoberfest session.

Roadmap

After the initial delivery, more features and skills will follow in upcoming releases. See our roadmap to know what’s already in the planning.

With that, the only thing left to say is: Have fun talking ABAP with Joule!

Did you ever learn a new language? Then you know how much training and practical experience is required to know the grammar, learn the vocabulary and become fluent. Joule has mastered this journey now and finally is able to speak ABAP! Introduction“At SAP, the most valuable language is ABAP” – Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO of NVIDIA (Sapphire Key Note 2024).ABAP is SAP’s proprietary programming language and ABAP technology is the solid foundation for both the classic ERP and SAP’s flagship ERP SAP S/4HANA Cloud. Bundled with our strong ABAP development community, the impact and the value of generative AI support for ABAP is obvious. Consequently, SAP decided to invest heavily in the development of Joule skills as well as training and fine-tuning large language models specifically for ABAP.Now – more than one year of investment after the initial announcement at SAP TechEd 2023, and the refresher end of 2024, we are super happy and proud to announce the general availability of our Joule copilot for ABAP developers in ABAP Development Tools for Eclipse as well as the ABAP AI SDK powered by the Intelligent Scenario Lifecycle Management! Overview over ABAP AI use casesOur use cases can be grouped into three categories.Accelerate: Comprises all Joule skills which make ABAP developers more efficient. Besides the Joule integration in ABAP Development Tools itself, the first scope of skills comprises Predictive Code Completion, Unit Test generation for ABAP classes and CDS Views as well as ABAP and CDS code explanation.Example for Joule’s ABAP CDS Explain skill Empower: We empower ABAP developers to infuse AI capabilities into their solutions and extensions. The ABAP AI SDK powered by the Intelligent Scenario Lifecycle Management (ISLM) is an easy-to-consume ABAP client providing full access to the SAP BTP Generative AI Hub.Transform: The transformation of customer and partner code from the classic ERP towards SAP S/4HANA and further towards a clean core is one of the major challenges for many of our customers. We will assist with generative AI in this endeavor starting later in 2025.In this blog post we are now concentrating on the Accelerate and the Empower use case. Further information on the Transform use case will follow later in 2025. Accelerate your ABAP developmentWhich products are supported?Joule’s ABAP skills are available in:SAP BTP ABAP EnvironmentSAP S/4HANA Cloud Public EditionSAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition as of release 2025.Supporting lower releases of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition is currently in evaluation.Get started for free!License: In order to leverage Joule’s capabilities, you need to purchase an additional license: 8019124 – Joule for developers limited promotion, ABAP. Please check SAP Note 3571857 for details. This license is a limited promotion free of charge until September 15th 2025 and can be purchased until August 15th 2025.The future commercial model is currently in finalization, updates will follow.Architecture and Set-Up: The architecture follows the general guiding principles of all Joule capabilities at SAP.High-level overview over Joule. All requests to large language models are routed from ABAP to the AI foundation on SAP BTP. The use cases in the Accelerate category are managed by SAP. Once the subscription explained above is in place, the configuration part in your system is done automatically by SAP. Finally, update your ABAP Development Tools for Eclipse to the latest version to get the Joule integration in the IDE. Developers who shall be allowed to use Joule need the respective authorizations as explained in the documentation.Learn how to use JouleExplore Joule’s new ABAP skills by working through our tutorial on github. For details on specific features, check out our documentation.You wonder what could be the technical foundation in ABAP to integrate Joule in ABAP Development Tools and offer all Joule skills for ABAP developers? It is the ABAP AI SDK powered by ISLM, the main deliverable of the Empower use case. And the good news is, we offer the entire ABAP AI SDK functionality to you as well, to realize your own AI use cases! Continue reading the next section for the details. You are empowered!With the ABAP AI SDK powered by ISLM we empower you to infuse AI capabilities into your own custom applications and solutions. This way you benefit from the same comfort as SAP for realizing AI use cases in ABAP.Which products are supported?The ABAP AI SDK powered by ISLM is available in:SAP BTP ABAP Environment SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition and OnPrem as of release 2025 via standard delivery. Lower releases of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition and OnPrem are supported via Transport-based Correction Instructions (TCI), see details in SAP Note 3513374 and the SAP Notes and instructions linked therein.Get started!License: The AI capabilities of SAP BTP are offered through the SAP AI Core service. Customers need to have their own instance of SAP AI Core to be used from ABAP via the ABAP AI SDK. There is no separate license or pricing from ABAP perspective, the entire licensing and pricing is according to the SAP AI Core service.Architecture and Set-Up: The architecture follows the general guiding principles of all Joule capabilities at SAP. All requests to large language models are routed from ABAP to the AI foundation on SAP BTP. For Empower use case, an own instance of SAP AI Core needs to be used and the communication between the ABAP system and this instance needs to be configured. Finally the AI scenarios are managed by the ISLM. Find all details for the ABAP AI SDK with step-by-step instructions in the documentation. For details on the ISLM, please see the list of references given below. Find more informationThis is a summary of important sources of further information. More details will follow and will be published and linked here. Please Keep track of ongoing developments and news by following our SAP community.Make use of our FAQ page for generative AI for ABAP to get many frequent questions answered. The FAQ will be updated regularly.Consult the SAP Help documentation for details regarding all features.Find the region mapping between SAP BTP ABAP Environment and SAP AI Core here.Watch the recordings of Devtoberfest and the SAP BTP ABAP Environment Roundtable #19 for demos of the initial scope.Check out the ISLM documentation (or this version for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition) for more information on the Intelligent Scenario Lifecycle Management.Visit the ISLM community page for further guidance and watch the corresponding Devtoberfest session. RoadmapAfter the initial delivery, more features and skills will follow in upcoming releases. See our roadmap to know what’s already in the planning.With that, the only thing left to say is: Have fun talking ABAP with Joule! 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