SAP Joule gives partners a new edge in AI-powered consulting

ABeam Consulting adopted SAP Joule for Consultants into its systems to build their own consulting capability which they are now using to deliver outcomes for their customers.

More partners are moving into consultancy roles as organizations are looking for more guidance in their AI journeys. According to Deepak Kaushik, Chief Partner Officer for Southeast Asia at SAP, gone are the days where partners can just be a reseller as there is a stronger demand for consultancy services.

“You have to be a consultant as well. Because we see our partner to be end-to-end value provider to our customers. Also, if a partner just sells licenses and all that, I think that does not provide value. And customers are looking for end-to-end value providers,” Kaushik said in an interview with CRN Asia during the SAP NOW AI Tour Southeast Asia 2026

“So, we generally put emphasis on our partners to not only be a reseller, but also provide end-to-end solutions to our customers. So, we really need to put a lot of effort, and we see a lot of partners are also actually looking forward to that,” he added.

This is also where he believes SAP Joule for Consultants is providing an interesting opportunity for SAP partners. SAP Joule for Consultants is a conversational AI solution that accelerates SAP cloud transformations with expert guidance from SAP’s most exclusive and up-to-date knowledge base.

Kaushik explained that SAP Joule for Consultants has seen a strong positive uptake in the SAP partner ecosystem. One partner that benefits from SAP Joule for Consulting is Abeam Consulting. The Japanese-headquartered SAP gold partner recently adopted SAP Joule for Consultants into its own systems to build their own consulting capability which they are now using to deliver outcomes for their customers.

Specifically, ABeam Consulting uses the AI tool to accelerate SAP project delivery, strengthen consultant productivity, and help customers realize value from SAP solutions faster.

For Nishii Arata, Senior Expert at Abeam Consulting, the key point is not to replace consultants with AI, but to use AI to increase their capabilities and maximize the value delivered to clients as well as contribute to business goals.

Arata also shared that ABeam Consulting views AI as not only a tool for improving efficiency, but as a foundation for accelerating corporate transformation. He explained that while AI certainly reduces the burden of information gathering and routine tasks, allowing people to focus on more advanced value creation, it also demonstrates its power in the form of agents that perform tasks and make decisions.

“By incorporating AI agents into the business decision-making process, we can explore a wider range of options and make decisions more quickly. Furthermore, we aim to support our clients in advancing their business process and decision-making with using AI. By actively utilizing our AI experience and knowledge and applying the insights to our customer transformation, we will achieve not only the implementation of a system, but a comprehensive transformation of the entire organization,” he said.

“We believe SAP Joule for Consultants would help improve operational efficiency. We also believe it is the AI assistant that would be most effective in an SAP project. This is a reason why we chose Joule for Consultants as its an LLM that learns over 50 years of SAP expertise and it's based on official SAP knowledge,” he added.

Furthermore, Arata pointed out that SAP projects are no longer limited to ERP implementation alone, as they require integration with non-ERP products as well as non-SAP products, and the methods of doing so are diverse. With SAP projects becoming increasingly complex, it require partners to have the scope of knowledge that is expanding year by year.

“SAP Joule for Consultants quickly fills gaps in these situations as not only our junior consultants but also experienced consultants need assistance. Our work involves not only implementation but also operation and maintenance. While the required knowledge differs for each project, Joule for Consultants can cover all areas and phases in SAP projects. So that is the reason we choose Joule for Consultants,” he concluded.