An SAP AI agent now runs Agilent's live tariff checks, diginomica reported. Only 13% of CIOs report significant AI value, Gartner found.
Agilent told the ASUG Tech Connect 2026 conference that an SAP AI agent now pulls external tariff data in real time, Diginomica reported.
The agent checks those figures against Agilent's internal product catalogue, and business users "can't imagine working without it now."
Gartner figures cited in the review count only 13% of CIOs reporting "significant" AI value. The firm cited 50% of generative AI projects abandoned after a proof of concept, an early and limited test, due to unclear value, weak controls, or bad data.
What the presentation leaves out: the operational math. Agilent names the capability and the user sentiment, but it leaves out the transaction volume, the time saved, or the implementation cost. For practitioners running these systems, user enthusiasm rarely replaces a measured financial return.
Security blocks adoption in older systems, attendees noted. One customer expressed concern about getting security buy-in while limiting exposure in ECC, SAP's previous generation of enterprise software, calling it "not an easy place to be."
SAP cybersecurity and compliance advisor Srinivas Nandiwada told the conference that every data flow in and out of an agent is a privacy surface. He said fully autonomous agents are "only for low risk, bounded tasks only," Diginomica reported.
Sources
Our file on SAP
- 13 Nov
IT leaders are listing SAP's ERP among software they may replace, CIO reported. Gartner says most won't make the switch for years.
- 13 Nov
Trek says SAP online store fixes now take a day, not one to two weeks. Developers still approve every AI change.
- 13 Nov
SAP now shows emissions for selected cloud products, based on its servers. It still calls its spend-based estimate the reporting reference.
- 12 Nov
SAP is building seven AI agent families to help upgrade customer code. Its ABAP chief said ABAP changes are usually not undone.
- 12 Nov
SAP says Joule AI, used by 110,000 staff, brought 20% gains. Bloomberg reported SAP has not shown how it measured them.
For your next steering committee
- 1Ask which AI tools already touch your ERP or finance data, including the ones nobody approved.
- 2Ask what each tool is allowed to change, and who reviews what it changed.
- 3Ask how the result is measured, and who decides to switch a tool off.
Issue 01 of the ERP LEADERS brief puts a timeline, the three-number review and six questions on one page. Read issue 01
Welcome back. · Issue 01
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