In the 2406 release of SAP Enable Now (due for release at the end of June 2024), SAP is jumping into the Artificial Intelligence (AI) fray. Initially, this is simply adding the ability to use Generative AI during text editing, but potentially it could be expanded into other areas. For now, let’s look at what is currently being offered, and how to use it.
First off, access to the Generative AI capabilities of SAP Enable Now is being strongly controlled – more so than just about any other feature – and needs to be enabled at three different levels. These are:
- At the implementation level, by activating Server Setting > Features > Enable Generative AI.
- At the Workarea level, under Administration > Workareas and Tags > {workarea} > Edit > Enable Generative AI.
- At the user level, by assigning the Generative AI Support Role to the user. This role contains a single Permission of User: Allow AI Support.
This level of control is most likely because although access to the AI capabilities is currently free (or at least included in your SAP Enable Now licenses), in the future SAP may make this a paid service (note the yellow-boxed Quick Help in Image 2, below, which talks of ‘consuming SAP AI units’). And if that happens, SAP Enable Now customers will probably want to make sure it is not being ‘over-used’. There’s no information on when (or even if) this will happen, or what the pricing model will be, so for now you can enjoy unfettered access.
Note, also, that this feature is currently only available in Manager – not in Producer. Which is unfortunate, as in my experience Authors almost never work in Manager for content creation, which makes the Generative AI capabilities significantly less useful. SAP is likely still ironing out some technicalities on how to make it available in Producer, but they have also signaled their intention to provide all of Producer‘s functionality via a true web interface, with a view to eventually killing Producer, so we’ll see which of those things happens first…
Assuming you, as an SAP Enable Now Author, do have the requisite permissions, you’ll notice a new ‘Generative AI’ icon on the Text Editor dialog box, on the far left of the formatting toolbar. It being baked into the standard text editor means that you can use the Generative AI capabilities anywhere this editor is used – for Bubble Texts, the object metadata Description and Short Description, and text-holding objects on Book Pages including Text objects, Shapes, and Active Areas.
Clicking on the Generative AI icon displays a list of things you can use AI for, as shown in Image 1 below. Note that some of these features require you to select (at least some of) the text in the editor first (it won’t all be selected for you automatically – sensibly) so the function knows what text to act upon.
When you select an option from the drop-down menu, a rather large dialog is shown on the screen. Here’s the dialog box for the Improve Writing option:
The Settings section of the dialog box can vary depending on the option selected, but typically allows you to select the ‘degree of creativity’ AI should use – effectively, how much license you give it to go wild! Select the option(s) you want to use (unfortunately there’s no ‘compare’ option), and then click the Run button located in the middle of the upper panel. After a little churning, the output will be displayed in the upper section of the dialog box, as shown In Image 3, below.
You then have a choice of accepting this text, in which case you have the option to Insert Below the text you initially selected or to Replace the text you initially selected. Alternatively, you can Discard the generated text, or adjust the settings and Run Again to try for a better result.
Does it work? Yes, I think so. Below is my original text (on the left), and the AI version generated using Improve Writing on the Moderate setting (on the right). There’s only a couple of changes (I personally think my writing is pretty good anyway, and doesn’t really need changing), but objectively these are improvements!
| Original | AI Edited |
If you want to create the order with reference to a sales contract, quotation, or other reference document (in which case the initial order details will be taken from the referenced document), then you can do so by carrying out the following steps:
Note: One or more messages may be displayed at this point. If a message contains a red exclamation mark (!), you will need to click on the Enter button to clear the message, and then click on the Cancel button to exit from the Create with Reference dialog box. You can then correct the division or order type information, or select a different reference document. | If you want to create an order using a sales contract, quotation, or other reference document, you can follow these steps:
Note: During this process, you may encounter one or more messages. If a message contains a red exclamation mark (!), you will need to click on the Enter button to clear the message, and then click on the Cancel button to exit from the Create with Reference dialog box. You can then correct the division or order type information, or select a different reference document. |
But ‘rewriting’ existing text is only one of the use cases offered by Generative AI. There’s a couple of other options that also show promise.
The first of these is Generate Text from Notes. Here, instead of selecting existing text to be improved, you can just enter some general notes directly into the AI prompt window, and get AI to make these make sense. By way of example, here’s what I gave it:
And here’s what it generated for me:
And that’s not too bad! I don’t know that I’d use it as-is, but it’s done a lot of the legwork for me. The AI tool has done some extensive extrapolation from my brief prompt, pulling in what it thinks is appropriate information. It is contextually relevant text, so it looks as though the AI engine has been trained on SAP content – which is presumably what SAP will consider its USP (Unique Selling Point) or ‘competitive advantage’ should they start charging for this service.
The last option, Ask Something, is even more impressive. Again, to illustrate by example, here’s the prompt I gave it:
And here’s what it generated:
Clearly there’s some formatting to do, but this is quite creative from such a minimal prompt. (But note the text “Follow the on-screen instructions to complete these steps.” around three quarters of the way down. It’s good to see even AI promoting the use of SAP Companion!)
Overall, I think Generative AI is an interesting addition to SAP Enable Now. Is it ‘essential’ functionality? No. Is it something people were asking for? Also no. Or at least not that I’m aware of – and certainly not by me. But this is what the industry is buzzing about at the moment, so…
Cynicism aside, I can see potential uses for Generative AI in SAP Enable Now. But ultimately, the proof will be in the pricing. If it remains free I can see myself using it on occasion – most likely using the Improve Writing feature on text created by off-shore resources whose written English may not be as perfect as mine. However, if I have to pay for it…probably not. But then, convincing me to pay for a product that will make my job [which I love] obsolete is always going to be a hard sell!
